April saw the “2nd ARGOS Challenge Competition” held in Lacq, France. This is the second competition for the five teams involved in the Argos international challenge, a competition sponsored and managed by the petrol and gas company TOTAL, with the support of the French National Research Agency (ANR), whose purpose is to encourage the development of advanced robotic capacities in petrol and gas environments.

GMV and its partners (the Portuguese company IdMind as robot manufacturer and the Automatic and Robotic Centre of CAR –CSIC-UPM- as academic partner) presented the new prototype FOXIRIS with the specifications, functionalities and characteristics necessary for this second competition.

The competition was a challenge for all of the participants. Among the new functionalities and specifications required for the robots in the competition conditions was the ability to go up and down stairs independently, new capacities of perception and manipulation, as well as improvements in robot security with respect to both positive and negative obstacles and increased capacities of the Control Centre (more appropriate for use by an industrial operator).

This second competition has meant a new round of training that has shown the maturity of the FOXIRIS robot and will allow it to compile, analyse and apply over the next few months the lessons learned there to tackle with confidence and optimism the third and final competition, which will take place in March 2017.