SUCCESS STORY

Improve autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance
The amazing VIKINGS team’s robot has been the winner of the first two steps of the challenge ARGOS. Its autonomousnavigation relies on several sensors: odometry prediction, fused with Ellipse-A inertial sensor information, then correctedby two LiDAR. With this winning combination, VIKINGS team reaches a centimeter-level absolute precision (< 3 cm).

Land Robot AutonomousNavigation

Launched in December 2013, theARGOS (Autonomous Robot for Gasand Oil Sites) Challenge is organizedby the oil and gas company TOTAL
with the French National Research
Agency (ANR). It aims to bringout in less than three years a newgeneration of autonomous robots
able to perform inspection tasks,
detect anomalies and respondto emergencies. The objective of
this competition is to build anautonomous robot capable ofmoving on oil and gas sites in orderto enhance the security of TOTAL
operators.

PRODUCT

Five teams from Austria, Spain,

CLIENT

ESIGELECAPPLICATION

Ellipse-A Miniature Attitude andHeading Reference SystemPROJECT

Improve autonomous navigationand obstacle avoidanceFrance, Japan and Switzerland havealready challenged themselves in
the first two competitions of three.
The French team named «VIKINGS»
composed of the IRSEEM / ESIGLEC
laboratory and the company
SOMINEX, won these two firststeps. The competition remains
tight, the winner of the Challenge
will be appointed in spring 2017 after
the last competition.

AUTONOMOUS NAVIGATION, AT
THE CORE OF THE CHALLENGE
Robots are tested at Lacq, a cityin the South West of France, ona site reproducing oil and gas«The Ellipse-A provides very good pitch and roll performance
thanks to low drift gyros»Pierre Merriaux
Embedded Electronic Systems Manager IRSEEM/ESIGELEC

SUCCESS STORY - LAND ROBOTICS
it rotates. This type of vehicle makes
the odometry accuracy especiallybad. The inertial system is therefore
essential to calculate the heading.
Roll and pitch are obtained from theEllipse-A and fully entrusted.
Already satisfied with SBG SYSTEMS’
products, the choice was naturally
the ellipse-A attitude and headingreference system. «It provides very
good pitch and roll performance
thanks to low drift gyros» says Mr.
Merriaux. The Ellipse-A is the second
generation of miniature inertial
sensors of SBG Systems. It integrates
low drift gyroscopes and benefits fromthe experience gained in algorithms
design. Industrial-grade, the Ellipse-A
is factory calibrated in temperatureand dynamics, ensuring data integrity
from -40 to 75 ° C.

ODOMETRY – INERTIAL SENSOR–LIDAR,THE
WINNINGCOMBINATIONVIKINGS’s robot computes its position
thanks to the fusion of odometry
prediction and inertial sensor data.
This information is then corrected withdata from the two LiDAR (the first oneis positioned in the front and the otherone in the back, for a field-of-view of360 °). The robot is equipped withcaterpillars, so the robot slides when

The next and final step will take placein March 2017. The teams will haveto expect even more complex tasks
and will have to demonstrate that
their robot meets the ATEX / IECEx
standard, which means being readyto operate in potentially explosive
environments. We wish the best tothe team VIKINGS!
Hélène Leplomb
May 2016

With this winning combination,
VIKINGS team reaches a centimeterlevel absolute precision (< 3 cm), atechnical achievement, which has
greatly contributed to their twovictories.

KEY FEATURESABOUT THE VIKINGS TEAM

» Up to 0.2° Roll & Pitch Accuracy

VIKINGS consists of two perfectly complementary entities. IRSEEM is a
research institute specialized in electronic embedded systems. It is part of
the ESIGELEC engineering school, which lead for more than ten years appliedresearch to support innovation in areas such as automotive, aerospace, andenergy. SOMINEX is an SME company specialized in complex mechanicalsystems engineering and prototyping.

» Low noise and Low drift Gyroscopes» Factory Calibrated in Temperature
and Dynamics» Light-weight, Low-power

Contacts:
Pierre Merriaux
IRSEEM/ESIGELEC
Embedded Electronic Systems
Manager
Pierre.Merriaux@esigelec.fr

Xavier Savatier
IRSEEM/ESIGELEC
Head of the Instrumentation IT andSystems division
Xavier.Savatier@esigelec.fr

More information:
http://www.argos-challenge.com/en/team-vikings

www.sbg-systems.com

SBG Systems EMEA (Headquarters)
Phone: +33 1 80 88 45 00
E-mail: sales@sbg-systems.com

SBG Systems North America
Phone: +1 (657) 845-1771
E-mail: sales.usa@sbg-systems.com

V1.0 – May 2016 – All rights reserved © 2015 SBG Systems - crédit photo : Laurent Pascal

platform main elements. The robots
must operate autonomously on theplatform. The Challenge requests
the robots to perform inspection
tasks such as gas measurement,pressure gauge reading, valve position
determination, etc. The robots mustalso detect obstacles and then returnto their first location. The ability toautonomously detect alarms and theability to autonomously move on thesite are among the criteria on which
the VIKINGS team has distinguishedthemselves.