Barcelona Moon Team’s technical leader for the mission analysis and GNC systems, the Spanish company GMV, organized the “2nd Robotics Day” on November 29th to promote and stimulate robotics at Europe-wide level. This event was designed and developed as part of European Robotics Week (26 November– 2 December, 2012) with over 200 robotics-related events planned throughout Europe.

During the day it was showcased the latest research being carried out with mobile robots and the many applications of this technology.

The exhibition was divided into two parts. The first part involved robot demonstrations from the academic and industrial worlds on GMV’s Martian Terrarium; the second involved exhibitions of robots built by students aged 7 to 18, closely supported by GMV.

The first robot to be put through its paces was the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid’s system of land-air robotic explorers. Next up was AVATAR ONE EODTM, a mobile robot designed by Robomotion. Next came the turn of Robotnik’s GWAM. The last up was the LRM rover, a rugged platform used for research into remote, unmanned operation in space (specifically designed for the moon’s polar caps).

Robotics is highly appealing to the up-and-coming generation, which includes the budding scientists and leaders of tomorrow’s society. GMV sponsors many educational and/or training initiatives to inspire this budding talent, and this 2nd GMV Robotics Day highlighted two of them: First Lego League and COMPLUBOT.

The day ended with demonstrations of other low-cost robotic platforms designed with fun-based education in mind: the Lego MOCUP platform (GMV); the NAO humanoid, the robot football team SPiteam (URJC) and the commercial platform Qbo Pro Evo (PersonalRobotics).