Tag Archives: FROG on TV

Press event for FROG – 24 September 2014

Today FROG is the centre of attention at the Royal Alcázar in Seville!

FROG enjoying the limelight at the Royal Alcázar in Seville
FROG enjoying the limelight at the Royal Alcázar in Seville

All camera’s and microphones were turned on FROG…

photo 2-1
in the Vault Room … from behind FROG …

 

… and in the Tapestry Room.
… from behind the cameras.

The event was started with short presentations by Vicente C. Guzmán Fluja the Rector of Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville,  and FROG’s own Luis Merino Cabañas also from UPO, and Vanessa Evers, coordinator of this EU project representing the University of Amsterdam.

Rector of UPO opens the event
Rector of UPO opens the event

FROG then took everyone on a short tour of the Alcázar and demonstrated his capabilities. Journalists from all media were in the party, both local and national!

Back in the on-site lab, Luis Merino and Fernando Caballero were interviewed for TV and radio.

 

Interview in the lab
Luis and FROG were interviewed in the lab

 

This afternoon there will be a workshop for a small group of official tour guides from the Royal Alcázar and one from the Lisbon Zoo.

Coverage here 

The UPO team

You will find some of UPO’s output for FROG and other research projects here: Luis, datasets and publications.

Luis Merino
Luis Merino hosting the consortium during an integration meeting

 

Luis with a film crew in February 2014
Luis with a film crew in February 2014
Fernando Caballero
Fernando Caballero and FROG

 

Luis and Fernando lead and supervise UPO’s team of  young researchers………..

 

Ignacio … without beard
Ignacio Pérez Hurtado de Mendoza … without beard

Ignacio Pérez Hurtado de Mendoza is a computer science postdoc interested in the application of machine learning techniques to social robotics. In the FROG project supports the development of software modules related to the navigation of the robot and assists with the deployment of experiments.

 

Noé Pérez Higueras
Noé Pérez Higueras

Noé Pérez Higueras is in charge of the safe and robust navigation of the FROG robot in (indoor and outdoor) environments with people. Noé is trying to add social capabilities to navigation algorithms so that the robot respects human social conventions and guarantees the comfort of surrounding persons.

His PhD Thesis is on: “Robot autonomous navigation and interaction in pedestrian environments“.

Noé’s PhD is directly related to his work in the FROG project. Mainly, he is studying the different robot navigation algorithms and trying to extend them by adding social skills. To do that he employs machine learning techniques in order to learn from real people how they navigate between each other in crowded scenarios.

Noé and the UPO person detection tool
Noé and the UPO person detection tool

In 2014 Noé spent 3 weeks in the Netherlands, mapping the Gallery at the University of Twente for the opening ceremony with the Dutch king.

Noé preparing to map the Gallery at the UT in February 2014
Noé preparing to map the Gallery at the UT in February 2014

Noé fitted in well with the UT PhDs and will continue to work with some of them in the TERESA project. When he makes a website we will link to it here.

Noé and some UT PhDs
Noé and some UT PhDs

 

 

Javier Pérez-Lara
Javier Pérez-Lara

In the FROG project, Javier Pérez-Lara is working on improving localisation algorithms, based not only in laser readings but also on appearance matching, to recover from erroneous convergences to wrong localisation or even recovering from complete lost situations.

Javier’s thesis topic is related to robust localisation for mobile robot navigation and mobile robot interaction in crowded environments. Where we try to take into account the variability of crowded environments when localising and relocalising mobile robots.
Javier’s website can be found here: http://grvc.us.es/staff(http://grvc.us.es/staff/jperezlara/) but as he himself says:  “it’s not updated!”

 

Javier in Lisbon, November 2013
Javier in Lisbon, November 2013

 

Javier in Seville, 2014
Javier, Carlos (IDM) and FROG in Seville, 2014

 

Rafael and FROG - both in white - Seville February 2014
Rafael and FROG – both in white – Seville February 2014

Rafael Ramón Vigo’s knowledge of transversal competences like electronics, software and hardware are all put to good use in the FROG project. Rafael provides help with the general set up of the robotic platform and assists with the deployment of experiments.

Rafael’s PhD thesis work is on how to infer from data and its statistics the insights of human motion navigation, with the idea of transferring it to the robot’s navigation stack. The basis of this approach is to use machine learning algorithms.

Rafael and FROG, Seville 2014
Rafael and FROG, Seville 2014

Rafael also grows delicious mangoes. Recently his family planted nearly 2000 young trees that will come into production in 4 or 5 years time.

Beautiful fruit...
Beautiful fruit…
…from sun drenched fields
…from sun drenched fields
… in a stunning landscape.
… in a stunning landscape.

 

In 2013, Noé, Javier and Rafael had to spend weeks at a time in Lisbon. Though often cold or very tired, they did discover some good places to eat and were given Wi-Fi access at most of them.
Noé, Javier and Rafael nearly took up residence in Lisbon and it wasn't always this sunny!
Noé, Javier and Rafael nearly took up residence in Lisbon and it wasn’t always this sunny!
 

FROG en français

FROG has appeared on what is considered to be the most viewed television channel in Europe – TF1! A French film crew came to talk to the researchers during an integration and experimentation week at the Royal Alcázar in Seville:

http://videos.tf1.fr/jt-20h/2014/les-touristes-de-seville-guides-par-un-droide-8453447.html

Luis Merino (UPO) and the French TV crew
Luis Merino (UPO) and the French TV crew

 

FROG before going to make-up ready for the cameras
FROG before going to make-up