Experiences of interns, internship experiences
The internship assignement
I have been doing an internship at RobotXperience during the summer of 2018, from 1st of July to 31st of August. The purpose of the internship was to integrate a smart vocal assistant within a Pepper/NAO robot. Thus, the company wanted to have a robot able to interact with people without the help of human being. I successfully integrated Google Cloud for the speech recognition, IBM Watson Assistant for the interaction with the user and Wolfram|Alpha to give the robot general knowledge. It resulted in a robot that is speaking to the user in front of it in a very customizable way.
About the organization
Since RobotXperience is a small company of less than 20 people, you get to know everyone. The atmosphere is very relaxed but also very stimulating. Indeed, whenever you got questions you can ask it to someone of the company that will give you its opinion based on its huge experience on working with robots.
Support
I mainly worked in autonomy due to some highly technical aspects of my internship assignment, but whenever I had questions about robotics in general, on what people think of robotics, on the way people interact with the robots when they are given the chance or even on how to improve social skills like how to do a presentation.
Main lessons
I learned a lot through this internship. From a technical point of view, I learned how to handle the Robotics operating system, how to integrate third party software to a NAO/Pepper robot, how to make full use of existing Python libraries to enhance and to produce the best behaviour for the robot. From another point of view, I had the opportunity to see how a company gather ideas, share those ideas with partners and finally puts those ideas into motion by creating unique experiences for their customers.
The internship assignment
From 13 November 2018 up to and including 2 February 2018, I was allowed to do an internship at RobotXperience. I have been able to program the Pepper robot. What I missed in my studies in Mechanical Engineering was the combination of mechanical engineering and care. I did find that at RobotXperience, through good supervision and a broad field of work I have very much enjoyed it. After studying mechanical engineering for two years with little to do with care, it was very interesting to do this for 3 months now at RobotXperience.
About the organization
RobotXperience is a company that works in a very flexible way. The atmosphere at the office is very cozy, everyone interacts with each other and it feels like you are entering a family business. In addition, we also work hard and everyone is willing to help each other in order to achieve a better end result.
Support
During my internship I had very good guidance from everyone at RobotXperience, from Elbert in particular. He showed me very well how I can program the robot most easily and how I can get it to do what I want it to do. In addition, I also worked on projects to give Pepper more opportunities, before the events. During my internship I worked on several projects, after a few weeks I became ultimately responsible for my own programming work. Throughout my internship I received good guidance, even if I was ultimately responsible myself, I could still contact the employees of RobotXperience if I had any questions.
Main lessons
What I will keep up with after the internship is that technology is much more advanced than we think and that much more can be achieved with technology later. during my internship at RobotXperience I gained skills to be ultimately responsible for my work, I learned to work with the Choregraphe program and to take more credit for what I designed/made myself.
The internship assignment
In the period from 6 February 2017 to 16 June 2017, I was allowed to do an internship at RobotZorg, part of RobotXperience. I have carried out a study on where technology can make a positive contribution to the quality of life in the home care sector. During the internship I gained information about technology and its added value, the home care sector and the problems within this sector. In addition, I have performed side activities such as writing an article and supporting a demonstration.
About the organization
RobotXperience involves flexible working, which I personally like very much. The atmosphere in the office was always relaxed. They worked hard but also paid attention to each other. The enthusiasm for the profession was shared here.
Support
Sufficient space was given for my own development, which taught me to write an independent advisory report. Every week I had a progress meeting with my supervisor Tom Ederveen. Tom was able to ask me the right questions, which made me extra motivated in the subject. With the right feedback, I was able to bring the result to a good conclusion. The support I experienced as very pleasant.
Main lessons
Determining the ‘why’ question is something that I took into account in my further education. Why you do something is the most important question you need to answer prior to a research or assignment. From there you can continue working. I also take the way I ask questions with me during my training. Getting the answer to your question in a playful and stimulating way is very fun and effective. Finally, I still benefit from the way I have learned to produce a document. I see my internship at RobotZorg as instructive and inspiring.