Field Trials - A Resounding Success
Fred and Laurence will set off tomorrow (20th) to drive the van with Idris back to Aberystwyth.
The field trials in Tenerife have exceeded expectations and the real stars have been the AU Idris rover, and the AU tethered aerobot (which has a robotic gondola complete with aerial camera) - see attached photos. Idris has worked superbly, and excellent data have been captured by the aerobot camera which has been processed to generate digital elevation models (DEMs) of the terrain. This was used by the PRoViScout software to generate waypoints used by the autonomous navigation software.
Overall the field trial has been an outstanding success, and Fred, Mark, Steve and Laurence have all made a massive contribution and put in some seriously long hours each day. The van with Idris was out at the field trial site at approximately 7:15 am each day, and 12 hours later it would be back at the hotel for battery charging.
On Saturday (15th) the PRoViScout team held a press day which had some great coverage, and many, many passing tourists wanted to know more about Idris and the Aberystwyth involvement. Our EU funders have mentioned the field trial (see link below) and given Aberystwyth good coverage (with some text taken from the AU press release):
Fred and Laurence are expected back in Aberystwyth on Monday 24th (fingers crossed!). The satellite SPOT tracker in the van is still working, so colleagues will be able to see their progress.
Steve and I fly back tomorrow, but we won't be back in Aberystwyth until 4:00 am on Friday 21st due to a late flight.
Best wishes.
Dave
(PS I hope it's not too cold in Aberystwyth when we arrive home!).