Marysol is an assistant robot designed, manufactured and programmed entirely at the Tenerife ITER, an entity of the Cabildo, which for a few months has begun to provide support in the guided tours carried out at the Granadilla facilities. It moves autonomously on two wheels to focus the interest and curiosity, especially of the little ones. Marysol is already a true media star.
Since its birth last April, an assistant robot has been answering the questions of more than 200 visitors to the facilities of the Technological and Renewable Energy Institute (ITER) located in the Industrial Estate of Granadilla de Abona. With the ability to move on two wheels and move autonomously around the enclosure, Sea and sun It is in charge of giving support to the guided routes and responds to the questions that may arise, in addition to reproducing audiovisual content. It also shows real-time data on both the generation of renewable energy in the center and of general interest on the Island of Tenerife, in the case of the demand for electricity generation.
Designed and built by the Institute’s Robotics Unit, it is capable of avoiding obstacles while moving; thus it continuously learns to recognize the environment. At the same time, and Thanks to artificial intelligence, it interacts with people through voice commands and a touch screen interface. Marysol is the first self-developed assistant robot, manufactured and programmed entirely in Tenerife that currently provides service.
This project is part of the collaboration agreement that ITER signed in 2018 with the Autonomous Organism of Museums and Centers of the Cabildo de Tenerife and the public company Grantecan SA to design and build a robot that would assist visits in each of these centers , under the respective names of Marysol, Gara and Cosme. The objective was to contribute to disseminating science and strengthening communication channels with citizens.
The robot has been very well received by visitors to ITER, especially among the youngest, and has become a fundamental tool for bringing the technological developments carried out by the Robotics Unit closer together in an entertaining, attractive and visual way.
Throughout the execution of the Marysol project, a modular development methodology has been chosen. For this, open source development tools and libraries were used. In this way, it not only covers the needs of ITER in terms of dissemination, but also serves as a platform for future developments by other users or external entities, since all the resources and results generated are publicly available. More information can be found on the website marysol.iter.es. She is there to receive the visitor with the education that she has been taught: “I am Marysol, how can I help you”.
