One country, one passion
Samba, Caipirinha and football: most people associate these words with Brazil. So far, our colleagues are not dancing samba and drinking Caipirinha for the whole day. It’s world cup and everyone in Brazil from young to old and men to women, everyone is crazy about it (but lets remember the World cup in Germany. Everyone, even those not interested in football at all, were suddenly watching it).
A unique world cup feeling could be felt by all, the Brazilian football obsession, at public viewing in Sao Paulo.
The cheerful atmosphere turned tense when Chile caught up and forced Brazil into penalty shootout.
In the end everyone was relieved and in the “party-mood”, when Brazil finally made it.
I don´t want to put my focus on the world cup today as we will deal with it regularly on the immediate tour. I want to present you another cup. Hidden and pushed into the background is the RoboCup world cup that will take place in Brazil (Joao Pessoa) from the 19th to 25th of July. igus® is taking part putting forward a robot, that will have to compete against the best robots of the world in several disciplines. One of these disciplines is robot football.
The University of Bonn, in cooperation with igus®, constructed a Humanoid robot that makes use of several iglidur® bearings and plastic components that were made by igus® using the laser sintering process.
In the next step the robot will be equipped with igus® chainflex too.
While iglidur® bearings ensure smooth, noise-free motion and help to reduce the weight of the robot, igus® chainflex cables will be a space saving solution that ensures the energy supply. The plastic parts, for instance the body, that were made by igus® in the laser sintering process, make the robot extremely light in weight and robust. This gives him a big advantage over competitors.
I´m referring to it as “the robot” as he still lacks a name. On http://goo.gl/mkYJ54 you can help him to get one. In the course of the following weeks, we will tell you more and more details so that you can get to know him a bit better. Then put a name on our Facebook page. You can win a prize if both igus® and the University of Bonn agree on your name.
As I already mentioned, I´m in Sao Paulo right now. Sao Paulo is the economic stronghold of Brazil and with 20 million inhabitants the largest metropolitan area in the southern hemisphere.
Unfortunately, the car is 700 kilometer north of here in the vibrant city of Rio de Janeiro. The customs in Rio is specialized on such imports and therefore much faster than the one in Sao Paulo.
The car at customs in Rio
In the course of this week, we are taking a plane to Rio de Janeiro, from where we start the tour. We will take drive south until we reach the border with Argentina.
I will keep you guys up to date,
yours Sascha
