After a spectacular success in the first round, the VIKINGS team from ESIGELEC-IRSEEM and Sominex has been working round the clock. They have been preparing for several months for the second stage of the international robotics competition, ARGOS, organised by Total, in partnership with ANR. This is the home stretch for the French team and its four international opponents, as the second round will take place in March.

Teams from across the globe, Japan, Austria, Spain Switzerland and France are competing against eachother in the ARGOS Challenge, which aims to create the robot of the future, capable of providing surveillance and technical maintenance of an oil rig in extreme conditions autonomously.

In this second round, new competences will be required, especially the capacity to identify abnormal noises (ex. gas leaks, cavitation in pipelines), to climb up and going down staircaes, to negotiate random obstacles in its path, to take cover if an alarm goes off and to connect to a recharging terminal automatically.

To fulfill these new requirements, the VIKINGS robot has undergone several technical modifications : change in measuring tower and obstacle sensor in order to gain weight, integration of wide-angle cameras to give the user a panoramic birdview, installation of a turret with visible thermal imaging cameras in keeping with ATEX norms.

VIKINGS has already been awarded by Normandie Aérospace by being selected for the 12 Pépites RTI (Research, Technology, Innovation). An award ceremony was organised by Pépite on November the 24th at INSA, Rouen, as part of the Tech Day of NAE.

Contact : Xavier Savatier, Instrumentation head, Informatics & Systems, xavier.savatier@esigelec.fr