ARGOS Challenge
The ARGOS Challenge was a robotic competition sponsored by Total between 2013 and 2017 and co-organized with Agence nationale de la recherche. The acronym ARGOS stands for Autonomous Robot for Gas and Oil Sites.{{cite web|title=Argos Challenge|url=http://www.argos-challenge.com/en|website=Argos Challenge Homepage|accessdate=13 May 2017|archive-date=16 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516191522/http://www.argos-challenge.com/en|url-status=dead}}
After a gas leak occurred at the Elgin-Franklin fields and resulted in a months long shut down of production and evacuation of personnel, Total decided to apply an open-innovation approach to develop robots for increasing the safety of oil and gas production sites.{{cite web|title=Enhanced Safety Thanks to the ARGOS Challenge|url=http://www.total.com/en/media/news/news/enhanced-safety-thanks-argos-challenge?folder=7692|website=Total Homepage|accessdate=13 May 2017}}
The competition was won by an Austrian-German team called "Argonauts", consisting of members from Austrian robot maker Taurob GmbH and TU Darmstadt with a variant of the taurob tracker robot.{{cite news|title=Roboter der TU Darmstadt gewinnt internationalen Wettbewerb|url=http://www.echo-online.de/lokales/darmstadt/roboter-der-tu-darmstadt-gewinnt-internationalen-wettbewerb_17884408.htm|accessdate=13 May 2017|publisher=Echo Zeitungen GmbH|date=12 May 2017}}{{cite web|title=THE ARGONAUTS ROBOT WINS THE ARGOS CHALLENGE!|url=http://www.total.com/en/news/argonauts-robot-wins-argos-challenge|website=Total Group Homepage|accessdate=13 May 2017}}
References
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