The ARGOS Training Week was held from 13 to 18 April, a week of on-site training at Lacq, France, for the five teams taking part in the Argos Challenge, a competition sponsored and brokered by the oil and gas company TOTAL with the support of the French National Research Agency (ANR).

GMV and its partners (the Portuguese company IdMind as robot manufacturer, the Automatisms and Robotics Center of the Higher Council for Scientific Research [Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas: CSIC] and the Robotics Center of the Polytechnic University of Madrid [Universidad Politécnica de Madrid: UPM-CAR] as academic partner) presented the new FOXIRIS prototype.

The FOXIRIS robot is an incremental evolution of the IDMind Raposa platform keeping the concept of the main body tracks while reducing the width to 35 cm and transforming its front tracks into front flippers and adding rear flippers for climbing and descending stairs.

The prototype was successfully put through its paces during the five days of tests.

On the first day FOXIRIS successfully passed the type approval tests referring to the robot’s width, weight (maximum allowed weight of 100 kg) and safety system (robot emergency stop by wireless radio link).

The next days involved intensive testing of the 3D laser, exhaustively mapping the UMAD industrial facilities (oil test plant) and photographing from diverse angles the various manometers and valves. Remote joystick-based movement control and the navigation software were tested at various speeds. Turning circles were also tested in situ and also the climbing of stairs up to the first floor (45º) slope.

This week of tests has proven the maturity of the FOXIRIS platform, boding well for the next few months until the next tests to be held on UMAD’s Lacq site from 22 to 26 June, when the first competition will be run of the three scheduled for the next two years.