What? Is it true that summer has already started? Upps… where is everyone? On the beach? We will be closed from the 6th to the 27th of August. Have a nice holiday! Un moment, un moment….Què? Que ja ha arribat l’estiu? Epsss… cap a la platja hi falta gent… nosaltres marxem el 6 i tornem el 27 d’agost. Bon estiu!! #CirsInSummer
Patryk Cieślak, a postdoc who was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie -Curie Individual Fellowship to join the University of Girona is working at the CIRS laboratory, under the supervision of Pere Ridao, to enable underwater intervention with a sense of touch. He is using our flagship vehicle Girona500 equipped with an electric manipulator and a force/torque sensor to demonstrate missions requiring control of interaction forces between the robot and the environment. One of the scenarious that he tackles is the inspection of underwater pipes, which is highly relevant to the industry. The expected experimental results will move foreward the state of the art of autonomous underwater intervention. The researcher is now visiting the Ocean Systems Laboratory at the Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, where he works under the supervision of our friend Yvan Petillot. He is using the advanced underwater manipulator which is available at the lab to test his control…
EU workshop on EU-funded Marine Robotics and Applications (EMRA) has taken place in Limerick (Ireland). Organized on the framework of EXCELLABUST and EUMR H2020 projects, the event is a perfect occasion to put together researchers and industry and establish and enhance relations between them. EMRA has been organized by the University of Limerick Center of Robotics and Intelligent Systems. The two-day single-track conference program included more than twenty speakers with plenty of time for discussions and networking. Presentations from ongoing EU-funded research projects mixed with presentations from industry, policy makers and end-users. A dedicated space was provided for exhibits and demonstrations. Patryk Cieslak presented his results on the 3D-AUV project for the first year. And Josep Quintana, former ViCOROB member, presented ROBUST project, where his current company Coronis Computing is participating. Next year, EMRA is going to take place in Toulon (France) hosted by one of the…
The IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) took place in Brisbane, Australia, from 21 to 25 of May. Established in 1984 and held annually, the conference joins experts in the field of robotics and automation for technical communications through presentations and discussions. ViCOROB participated in the conference, once again. Narcís Palomeras presented the work “Autonomous Mapping of Underwater 3D Structures: From View Planning to Execution”, and Eduard Vidal presented “Optimized Environment Exploration for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles”. Eduard was also awarded with a Student Travel Grant from the Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) to participate in the event. Both works are related to underwater robotic exploration and view planning. We took that opportunity for visited the center of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) located in Brisbane. This organization is an independent agency of the Australian federal government in charge of scientific research. A…
The Oceans Conference joints maritime professionals and researches to learn, innovate and lead in the protection and utilization of ocean resources. It is co-sponsored by the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (IEEE OES) and the Marine Technology Society (MTS). The conference is held twice a year. For 2018, it first took place in Kobe, Japan, from May 28th to 31st. This time, Eduard Vidal from ViCOROB was one of the 15 international students selected to participate in the Student Poster Competition, presenting the work “Online Robotic Exploration for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in Unstructured Environments”. The final result: 2nd place! It was also a great opportunity to meet other students and researchers from all around the world.
We set sail for Ny-Aalesund, an island situated on Spitsbergen, north-west of Longyearbyen, in Oscar II land. One of the northernmost city in the world. Now deemed, as an international research center in the Arctic. Ny-Aalesund, counting 11 institutions from 10 countries. As we had an opportunity to be part of training program organized by the Italian station support the CNR‘s studies on climatic changes. where the aim of their research focuses on environmental and climatic studies of ice and marine sediments, that plays a mandatory role to avoid the disappearance of the glaciers covering some areas of the Arctic Ocean. When we arrived there, a thin layer of white snow was covering almost everything; we didn’t have the impression that this is summer and this is how nature is supposed to express its color, during this period of the year. It was beautiful of course, we couldn’t…
The Laser 3D scanner technology developed and patented by the University of Girona is one step beyond the state of the art of underwater 3D perception. It is the result of a PhD thesis in Underwater Robotics and 3D Perception done by Albert Palomer and tutored by Pere Ridao, Josep Forest and David Ribas that will be soon defended. L3S, as an easy to integrate system, will allow the end user to gather online 3D information of a target scene from a moving vehicle at a resolution where the objects can clearly be identified. Moreover, it will also allow the user to have a more accurate idea of the inspected area at a very high resolution,at the cost of a longer scanning time, being able to detect cracks from 1mm, find targets, support on the assisted operation of autonomous intervention tasks, quantify volumes,… covering real market needs. This…
At ViCOROB, we do research on Underwater Vision and Robotics. One of the developed technologies in the last years, currently being valorized in the context of SOUNDTILES project (Ref.: 2016 PROD 00130) consists on the development of a tool for automatic processing of sonar mosaics, a breakthrough in the current technologies available commercially. Natàlia Hurtós presented this technology in front of a commercial audience in the most important fair of underwater technologies, Oceanology International, that took place in London (UK). In the same event, ViCOROB team had the chance to meet with industry key actors, like the American company SoundMetrics. These activities have been carried out on the effort that the lab is doing towards bringing this technology to the market in the near future in the framework of SOUNDTILES project.
The EUMR Kick Off Meeting was successfully completed in Porto, Portugal on the 1st and 2nd of March, 2018. The meeting facilitated partner introductions and allowed a detailed examination of all project future activities and goals. During the two day meeting, partners had the opportunity to discuss various topics, including project objectives, the governance structure, milestones, management processes and tools, project roadmap and partners responsibilities. This meeting was a great chance to consolidate the consortium, project management key points and to map the road ahead! Text: EU Marine Robots More about the project
Res no s’acaba i tot comença. Vénen mecànics de remença Amb olis nous de llibertat; Una Veu canta en recompensa: Que a cal fuster hi ha novetat. Des d’Alacant a la Provença Qui mor no mor, si el son és clar Quan neix la llum en el quintà. Fragment del poema “Ho sap tothom, i és profecía” de J. V. Foix, Que tingueu unes festes plenes de llum, colors , regals i torrons!! Wishing you the best for 2018! Us recordem que del 25 desembre a 8 de gener restarem tancats. We will be closed from December the 25th to January the 8th 2017.