On 25 November, GMV organized the "4th GMV Robotics Day", showcased the latest research being carried out with mobile robots and the many applications of this technology.

The Day was divided into several parts, kicking off with a demo of GMV’s platform-art^©, Europe’s most advanced robotics testbed for pre-launch ground testing of space missions and systems. An exhibition was given of the type of validation tests that can be performed by this advanced testbed, including simulation of the real dynamic of a space mission.

After platform-art^© came a demonstration of GMVs’ robotics laboratory, displaying some of GMV’s activities and projects, such as PATENDER, a space-debris collection project; SPARTAN, for developing and testing a new hybrid engine for precision planetary landing and the Itokawa asteroid exploration mission.

The next event was the 2nd GMV Grand Prix “Sands of Mars”, a speed competition for robots created by independent developers and forming part of the National Robotics League (Liga Nacional de Robótica: LNRC) 2014-2015.

This was followed by demonstrations on GMV’s Terrarium of robots designed by industry and universities. This included exhibitions of bomb disposal robots (Proytecsa), military robots (Robomotion), surveillance robots (Robotnik), person-detection and -tracking robots (CAR-UPM-CSIC) and oil-and-gas pipeline inspection robots (IdMind/GMV).

The event wound up with an exhibition of other robotics platforms. These were divided into three blocks: universities (UPM, UC3M, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares), manufacturers (Simbionix, Aisoy Robotics, Microlog and SESA Sistemas Electrónicos) and educational robots (ARGANBOT, CREA-Robótica Educativa and bq). This part of the exhibition also included a demonstration of the TeknoChisp (aged 11-14) and TeknoChispis (aged 6-9) teams taking part in the international robot-building competition for schoolchildren, First Lego League (FLL).

For the fourth year running GMV is putting on this exhibition to promote and drive robotics at European level and encourage across-the-board participation in today’s technological revolution. This event was carried out as part of European Robotics Week (25-30 November, 2014) with over 300 robotics-related events planned throughout the whole of Europe.