The bare LEAP-One chassis on its wheels during the rebuild at ERC 2026 — the baseline Leap-2 starts from

HSM ARIES // LEAP ROVERS // PROJECT 02

Leap-2.
Built on what we learned.

PROJECT 02 // DESIGN BRIEF

Three numbers
set the brief.

Traverse

43 / 340Autonomous navigation comes first

Maintenance

66 / 340Manipulation that can be serviced

Mass

−22 ptsUnder the allowance from day one

PROJECT 02 // STATUS

In development.

Leap-2 is the successor to LEAP-One, the rover that took HSM Aries to the European Rover Challenge 2026 finals in Kraków. It is in the design phase, and its requirements are set by the scoreboard rather than by a wish list: the tasks where LEAP-One lost points define what the next platform has to do better.

This page is the brief the team is working to. Subsystems and specifications follow here as they are frozen.

Follow the build

01 // brief

What changes

The three lines above, plus probing: the scoreboard entries that define the redesign. Each row pairs the result in Kraków with what Leap-2 has to do about it.

01 // Traverse
LEAP-One in Kraków43 / 340
The suspension carried LEAP-One over the rocky slope of the Mars yard. The traverse task, which rewards autonomous navigation across it, closed at 43 points.
Leap-2 has to
Navigate the yard autonomously — designed in from the first frame, not added to a finished platform.
02 // Maintenance
LEAP-One in Kraków66 / 340
On the rain day the arm ran wrapped in protective plastic under an umbrella. The maintenance task scored 66 of 340.
Leap-2 has to
Carry a manipulator that can be serviced in the pit and operated on the panel, rain included.
03 // Mass
LEAP-One in Kraków−22 pts
The chassis was rebuilt on the pavement before the first run. LEAP-One was over the mass allowance — 22 points that no other team in the field lost.
Leap-2 has to
Sit under the ERC allowance at the first design review, not after the build.
04 // Probing
LEAP-One in Kraków12 / 240
The gripper worked the switches on the maintenance panel, but the probing task closed at 12 of 240 — the lowest line on the sheet.
Leap-2 has to
Run a probing workflow that is rehearsed before the field, not improvised in it.

02 // brief

What carries forward

The strengths LEAP-One proved in Kraków, carried straight into Project 02.

Documentation: 364.25 / 400 · 4th of 25
Navigation droning: 265 / 300 · 6th of 25
Operations software: Mission Control station, telemetry and control workflow, run at the finals

03 // brief