The current demonstration trial of the TOURBOT project was made possible by the contributions of all TOURBOT consortium members. In particular we wish to acknowledge the help of the following:

Panos Trahanias Wolfram Burgard George Giannoulis - Giannoulopoulos Dirk Schulz
Antonis Argyros Dirk Haehnel George S. Kamarinos Mark Moors
Pantelis Georgiadis   Maira Papaspyrou  
Dimos Panagopoulos   Maria Roussou  




The TOURBOT consortium comprises an ideal blend of technical partners (FORTH, UNIBONN, THEON, UNIFR), brokers of technology to museums (FHW), and end users (FHW, MUSBON, BYZMUS). Technical developers, brokers and end-users interact in the course of this project on the basis of a strong mutual interest, a viable solution of the problem being extremely important for all of them.

More specifically, FORTH and UNIBONN have already developed advanced navigation techniques using either vision (FORTH) or range sensors (UNIBONN). Related RTD efforts have mostly taken place within the VIRGO TMR project in which both partners participate (FORTH is also the co-ordinator of VIRGO). This complementary expertise in navigation is brought together in the current proposal in order to develop a fully operational navigation module.

FORTH and UNIBONN have also employed similar robotic platforms as testbeds in their research, which facilitates effective exchange of software and hardware; these platforms are manufactured by RWI, a major robotics vendor in North-America. FORTH and UNIBONN have a long history of co-operation with RWI, which has already developed customized parts based on their requirements. The participation of THEON -a representative of RWI- in the consortium guarantees that hardware developments will be in pace with software developments and will facilitate the appropriate transfer and exploitation of mechatronics technology developed in North-America.

FHW acts as broker of technology to museums and complements the consortium's competence in the field of study. The participation of the two museums in the project (MUSBON, BYZMUS) is a clear indication of the potential of TOURBOT and verifies that the project will be directed towards the real application needs.

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