Yesterday, 14 September 2016, Daphne Karreman from the UT successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Beyond R2D2: The design of nonverbal interaction behavior optimised for robot-specific morphologies“.
One of the members of the PhD graduation committee was unable to attend in person but participated via Skype.
During the party that evening – with a little help from her colleagues – Daphne took us on a guided tour down memory lane. Video-messages of congratulations went sent by the FROG partners.
FROG has been invited to the off-site exhibition of ICT 2015. This is in the beautiful Praça do Comércio, Lisbon and is fully open to the general public until 22 October 2015.
FROG is going to make an appearance at the EAZA European Zoo Educators (EZE) Conference next week. Paulo is due to give a presentation on Wednesday, 11 March 2015, followed by a tour of the zoo guided by FROG.
Although the FROG project has officially ended the team members are still very much in touch via other projects and new proposals.
Noé is in Amsterdam working on the TERESA project – but before going to France for a TERESA integration meeting he found time to prepare the location and navigation map of the Lisbon Zoo for the simulator.
Randy – who defended his thesis on Behavior Change systems last week – and Jan – who has started to tackle his Master’s project – have been running the simulated tour on the red FROG here in Twente. On Sunday, Randy will travel to Lisbon to join up with the IDMind team and Luis and Fernando from UPO who travelled on Friday.
Back from Seville…
Green FROG is back in Lisbon after a stay in Seville. Carlos and his team have given the robot a full check-up so that he is ready for the conference.
Now let’s hope the weather will be as good as the forecast so that FROG can show off to the crowds – I think I am right in saying this is the first time FROG has been to the zoo with an outer shell!
On the 20 November 2014, the FROG project held its Final Review. FROG is leaving the Royal Alcázar for now but hopes to be invited back. The robot will stay in Seville till the end of 2014.
UPO has been invited to present FROG at FITUR, the International Tourism Trade Fair, at the end of January 2015.
After that the robot will go to Lisbon to prepare for a presentation and demonstration tour during the European Zoo Educators (EZE) Conference from the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), hosted by the Lisbon Zoo in March 2015.
After finalising the reports, next week, the FROG Consortium as such will end its being. We will continue to post news, about the green FROG and the red FROG, here.
The researchers will continue their work in other projects, for instance, FROG partners are already involved in TERESA, SQUIRREL, EASEL, MOnarCH and others.
But for now: So long, everyone! And special thanks to Luis, Rafael and Paulo for introducing us to some of the best little restaurants in Seville and Lisbon – the fish was especially good!
At five in the afternoon the Royal Alcázar closes its gates for new visitors for the day. The shop closes and the FROG makes its last tour of the day. This is a quiet time to test the latest updates and enhancements.
The security guards make their way from the entrance through the Alcázar making sure that everyone can find the exit. And sometimes, as on this day, they stop to watch the FROG for a moment.
Vanessa Evers is coordinator of the FROG project on behalf of UvA. She is chair of the Human Media Interaction (HMI) group at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
Vanessa and Ioannis with a very young FROG – May 2013
Betsy van Dijk
Betsy van Dijk was with the project until she became ill in 2013. Betsy is recovering: the FROG team misses her.
Betsy, Vanessa and Daphne – daily supervisor, promotor and PhD candidate – in Seville, May 2012
Daphne Karreman – Seville, February 2014
Daphne Karreman is working on the development of personality and behavior of a Fun Robotic Outdoor Guide. In her free time she plays the cello and is learning to build violins.
Randy Klaassen – November 2014
Randy Klaassen is finishing his thesis on Health Behaviour Change Support Systems which he will be defending on 27 February 2015.
Randy and Jan joined the project with just five months to come up with a working solution for the FROG state machine, augmented reality and personality.
Preparations in simulation on the red FROG in Twente – November 2014.Testing the projectorThe real thingSlowly! November 2014
The other side of the camera for once
Lynn Packwood – day-to-day project manager for FROG – usually only to be seen as a shadow or in a Tilley hat – and author of this blog.
UPO and UT have been working till dark this weekend, preparing for the coming EU review.
They went to collect FROG from the shop at the end of the day but FROG wouldn’t move. The lady was ready to close the shop, the lights had been turned off and Randy took an excellent photo that I have gratefully ‘borrowed’ *.
Is FROG afraid of the dark? We shone flashlights onto the docking poster – and, sure enough, FROG started to move. Not exactly afraid of the dark … but it sounds better than ‘FROG couldn’t see his ArUco poster’.
*Thanks, Randy!
A collaborative project under the FP7-ICT-2011.2.1 Cognitive Systems and Robotics (a), (d) area of activity.
