What is it about FROG that makes people so protective?
The UT Campus robot is having some problems at the Hannover Messe. On the first day it drove around until lunchtime but now protoFROG is at a standstill. This is an outdoor robot with a lot of traction power and the loose-laid carpet is causing the motors to overheat during rotation. Although, by the look of it there is not always that much room to manoeuvre, anyway.
The FROG robot was defined to run outdoors, specifically for the EU project in the Lisbon Zoo and in the Royal Alcázar in Sevilla. As the robot must not only navigate the various terrains at these sites but also be able to turn on the spot the project has been having some difficulties with their choice of tires. What would you choose for a 100 kilo robot that has to handle clean-swept tarmac and paving, either of which may later be strewn with olive stones from the trees. This is the terrain in the Lisbon zoo – and the robots mission also includes some inclines and ramps. Then move the same robot to Sevilla where it has to go from neat paved courtyards onto tiled or marble floors.
And in the past two weeks, protoFROG has had to cope with gravel strewn tarmac, TV studios, and now, loose-laid carpet. That’s a lot to deal with for a prototype.
Yesterday, FROG co-ordinator Vanessa Evers took protoFROG the UT’s Campus robot and a group of young researchers to Amsterdam to appear in the Pauw & Witteman late-night talk show. You can find the interview here – in Dutch. And here is some behind-the-scenes footage – also in Dutch.
Willem-Alexander, King of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with the protoFROG UT Campus robot on 2 April 2014.
Thanks to Pollus Fornerod for the photos.
All this week João Freire from IDMind has been working on the protoFROG Campus robot here at the University of Twente. His colleagues, Carlos Marques and André Almeida can be seen in the laptop screen. They were working from Lisbon via Skype to get the content that was prepared by the Marketing & Communications department of the university for the Royal opening of the Gallery.
We have just heard from IDMind that the Campus robot (aka protoFROG) is all ready to be shipped to the Netherlands where it will take part in a very special ceremony. A few days later it will travel on to the Hannover Messe.
Here we can see Paulo Alvito, an important member of the FROG consortium, reflected in the touchscreen of the proto-FROG. This was taken in March 2014 – IDMind had just completed the configuration of the UT Campus robot ready for the Hannover Messe.
protoFROG is actually the UT Campus robot. It is a prototype of the FROG robot with demos of some of the functionalities that are being developed in the FROG project.
The protoFROG will be at the Hannover Messe on the stand from Monday 7 April to Wednesday 9 April.
FROG and baby-FROG (a customized MAGABOT platform) during a film session for Spanish television on 26 February 2014.
The report was aired for the first time on 4 March 2014 on Andalusía regional TV, Canal Sur and later shown on other channels. You can find it here: FROG on TV.
Working late has its advantages when this is the view from your temporary lab in the Royal Alcázar in Seville!