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Cliquez sur le drapeau français ci-dessus si vous préférez grenouilles et les escargots à Roast Beef :-)
Snoopy a été lancé 18 Mars sur la côte sud du Royaume-Uni, dans une tentative d'atteindre les États-Unis. Le "Microtransat Challenge" est une idée française. Ce est "Snoopy's Froggy Page", écrit par Robin, qui ne parle pas français, et n'a pas un téléphone intelligent. Robin peut utiliser Google Translate, et il ne avoir de l'aide de ses amis francophones. Les mots à la très bas de cette page sont rédigés en anglais, donc Robin pourrait rendre cette page plus rapidement.
Message pour les marins en Manche:
se il vous plaît contacter Robin sur +44 7736 353 404 ou
robin@gpss.co.uk.
Quelle heure avez-vous vu Snoopy?
Les deux voiles? Toujours voile? Heading West, ou tourner en rond? Plus utiliser pour nous si dans l'eau jeu ou lorsque la marée montante ouest.
Ne prenez pas de risques !
RESCUE SNOOPY Se IL VOUS PLAÎT !
Si sécuritaire de le faire. Parce que aucun rapport SPOT reçues depuis 1600 vendredi (ce est à dire depuis plus de trois heures).
Se il vous plaît faites attention aux "rencontres rapprochées" par d'autres bateaux. Se il vous plaît prendre des photos ou de la vidéo que nous pouvons tous partager.
Ces mots ci-dessous étaient sur la page "Snoopy" et ont été fournis par Yves, qui a d'abord pensé à la «Microtransat Challenge".
Robin a fait de cette "Froggy page" de sorte que la page "Snoopy" peut être plus petit. Ce est aussi l'occasion pour Robin
de partager quelques réflexions avec ses amis de langue française. Robin recueille actuellement des escargots et des grenouilles, de son jardin,
à partager avec Chris, au Canada, qui est aussi un constructeur de bateaux de robot. Chris visiter l'Angleterre cette année.
Merci Yves et Chris, de Robin et Snoopy:-)
Si vous rencontrez un voilier-miniature de 1m de long il s'agit probablement de Snoopy : un voilier robot qui entame une traversée a destination de l’Amérique. Il a été lancé le 18 mars 2015 à 11h00 depuis Bornemouth (uk). Malgré sa petite taille (et donc sa lenteur) il progresse sans discontinuer vers son objectif : traverser l'Atlantique et remporter le Challenge Microtransat. Il est totalement autonome : son énergie est seulement produite par ses panneaux solaires et il est entièrement programmé pour réaliser sa mission sans aucune assistance. Il communique sa position par satellite une fois par heure. Ne prenez aucun risque en vous approchant, même si le robot se rapproche de la côte. S'il vous plait contactez Robin Lovelock par téléphone au +44 7736 353 404* ou par mail robin@gpss.co.uk et communiquez les informations suivantes : - à quelle heure avez-vous rencontré Snoopy - à quelle position (GPS) - portait t'il toujours ses deux voiles - avait t'il l'air de progresser - si oui dans quelle directions - vous pouvez aussi communiquer des photographies et/ou des vidéos.
* Robin does not speak French, but he can use Google Translate on emails. Thanks Chris for the new
message to see a rescue of Snoopy is OK =
Robin ne parle pas français, mais il peut utiliser Google Translate sur les emails. Merci Chris pour le nouveau
message pour voir un sauvetage de Snoopy est OK
Yves Briere (professeur à l'ISAE, Toulouse, France) a proposé le concept de "Microtransat Challenge" en 2004 lors d'une conférence dédiée à l'enseignement du génie électrique dans le but de promouvoir le concept de "voilier robot". A cette occasion il a trouvé deux autres projets similaires en Europe : celui de Mark Neal et Colin Sauze (Université d'Aberystwidth, Pays de Galles) et celui de Roland Stelzer (Autriche). Ensemble ils ont proposé le règlement de ce challenge qui a stimulé de nombreuses autres équipes dans le monde.
Play the
BBC November 2012 video of Snoopy's launch on BBC TV South News
with Robin getting soaked.
Then
family video of Snoopy's 2012 launch
with BBC reporters too :-)
I give my pages a "tidy-up" when I can, moving material onto other linked pages. Over the years I've found it valuable,
despite it's limitations, to save everybody's time, when chatting to me directly: I am a very slow email typer ! These pages should be
of help to all in contact with me, including journalists and friends helping, both near me in UK, and in far off countries.
Many of my friends now providing invaluable help, first made contact with me after seeing the BBC TV South broadcast,
or a Newspaper article. Thank you everybody ! :-)
Normally we would say "PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH SNOOPY - it may disqualify him",
but now we must say
Please rescue Snoopy if it is safe to do so. Please still
Watch for "close encounters", and take photos or video that we can all share.
These words may read like a C.V. but they are not: since I retired, I've been much too busy to do real work,
so I certainly not seeking it, or anything that takes time away from my Snoopy hobby,
or UK NHS Coughlan Campaign charity work on www.nhscare.info Also, if the content below seems a bit too
"technology oriented", that's a reflection of me, but also of the type of person who contacts me about Snoopy.
From 1971 to 1980, I was employed as a NATO scientist, working at SHAPE Technical Centre in The Hague Netherlands, known then as STC.
This place is now called NC3A, or the NATO Command, Control, and Communications Agency. STC was originally in Paris, but
General De Gaule kicked them out in the early 1960s, when the French withdrew their military forces from under military
command of what is always an American General, with the post of SACEUR - Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
The top of the European Command structure is known as SHAPE (Supreme Allied Command Europe) and is now located in Belgium.
STC took it's instructions from SHAPE, and that's when I worked on SHEWS, mentioned on my
History page.
I fondly remember, when I was tasked with delivering this system,
having a formal meeting with French engineers, my opposite numbers, at one of the meeting rooms,
in NATO Headquaters, Brussels. They spoke French, and I only spoke English - plus a tiny bit of Dutch
- enough to ask for another beer. As we spoke, they in French, myself in English, sharing engineering
diagrams, on the table, we understood each other perfectly. The interpreters, in their glass booth,
chattered away, as best they could, to keep up, and we tried to ignore their words from our earphones.
Eventually they probably stopped, when they saw we had taken the headphones off.
Last year, my most loved and respected local French friend, George, passed away.
George was an amazingly inspirational man, and I would occasionally drop in to see him at his home,
on my way back home from Bray Lake.
George often gave me advice about Snoopy's robot boat, such as the nitty gritty
of compass navigation, as the Earth's magnetic Pole position, and steel in the ship,
effect the difference between "True North" and "Magnetic North".
But most of the time we discussed topical issues, such as Ukraine, Lagos Nigeria,
or the few places where we had shared memories. I'll end this with a direct quote
about George, from our
2014 Family Newsletter.
Georges widow, Lesley, rang me after she'd seen it, saying how she liked it,
and how she had not heard what he'd said on the 'phone to me from hospital
- but how that was so typical of George. Here it is ....
from the 2014 Lovelock Family Newsletter, published before Christmas ...
... maybe George is keeping a watch on Snoopy now !
Back to what has been on Snoopy's page for years ....
This is Snoopy's Boat 10 on 24/7 reliability test, while waiting for it's "launch window" to make Snoopy's next Atlantic attempt.
This was filmed by Boat 6.
© 1991-2015 Robin Lovelock. Please credit www.gpss.co.uk if you use material from any of these pages. Thankyou.
Message pour les marins en Manche:
PERTE DU SIGNAL SPOT DEPUIS PLUS DE 3 HEURES, CELA SIGNIFIE QU'UN SAUVETAGE EST OK SI VOUS NE PRENEZ AUCUN RISQUE.
UN SIGNALEMENT VISUEL EST ÉGALEMENT IMPORTANT. EXEMPLE: "PRIS DANS UN FILET DE PÊCHE"
Play the
June 2014 video of Snoopy's Robot Boat for 2014 and 2015 Microtransat Challenge for the big picture.
e.g. details of this year's boat and lessons learned.
Those on the Microtransat List:
Please see
Snoopy's Microtransat Contact List - but only if you are on the List already.
these words are from Robin, Mr Roast Beef, in Sunninghill, England, UK....
I set up my
Snoopy Page
in early 2008,
when I started this crazy hobby project: developing a small robot boat, capable of sailing itself
across the Atlantic, from UK to USA.
If you want to know more about me, our family, or my earlier defence systems career, then GPS software business,
you can start by clicking on my picture on the left, or
here. I'm Robin Lovelock, and the Press have described me as a "retired NATO scientist".
My wife June says that I retired much more than ten years ago !
Yes, these words are copied from introduction in the Snoopy page,
but you will soon see information further down this "Froggy" page,
that explains my long relationship, love, and respect, for
French military, who worked with in the 1970s, French engineers
in the 1990s - when I discovered Paris was the loveliest city in the World,
until recent years, when my most loved and respected local friend, George,
gave me advice about Snoopy's robot boat. More of that later, with pictures.
All the information seen here was already on this www.gpss.co.uk web site,
but hidden away in places like our anual Lovelock Family Newsletters.
e.g. the photos from my wife June and I having our 30 year Ruby Wedding Aniversary in Paris.
After browsing this page
and others, you can form your own opinion on myself and this rather challenging project. My local friend John told me about
the friendly Microtransat international competition, and I was soon hooked.
It was Yves Briere in France,
who first suggested the idea in 2004, at a conference. Their early attempts fired my enthusiasm.
That's a French boat on the right and at the very top of this page.
Below that is the 2014 American boat.
Click on these pictures for the 2012 and 2014 teams - all with small boats.
From there you can go to other Microtransat pages, maintained by Aberystwyth University in UK.
Their web site has been the focus for this activity since 2005,
after Dr Mark Neal, at the University, and Yves, conceived the "Microtransat Challenge".
Their site includes the rules, teams "competing", and tracking of their robot boats.
Over the years, several teams have tried, but all
these heroic attempts only survived a few days or a few hundred miles.
A journalist pointed out to me, in 2012, that Snoopy had already sailed over 5,000 miles, during our reliability testing of him on Bray Lake
in 2012. Snoopy has done a lot more sailing since then,
and that's why I am confident Snoopy has as much chance as the other teams ! :-)
You will find links below to more detailed pages, amusing TV broadcasts, newspaper articles, and home videos, of Snoopy's attempts
on the Atlantic since November 2012.
The last Atlantic Attempt, on 30th November 2014, was the best so far: Snoopy got as far as Weymouth, but
crash landed near Portland Bill, with little damage. The same boat will try again in early 2015.
Earlier in the year, this boat landed on the Isle of Wight, but lived to sail again.
The same thing
happened in 2013, but for different reasons.
Watch our attempts to "beat the surf" in March 2013: now we know how to do it - with Magic Seaweed !
Snoopy's very first attempt was in 2012, and that was perhaps
the most mysterious story of all - we never did find where he went, after visiting that military bunker :-)
Robin's love and respect for the French ... and enjoyment in our Love/Hate banter :-)
I've had a long relationship, love, and respect, for the French, starting when I worked for NATO in the 1970s.
None of this is classified, and has been in the Public Domain for years, including papers read at International Conferences,
such as the one that I presented a paper on the NATO militaty system SHEWS, at The Hague, Netherlands, in 1981.
However, the more important information, such my late French friend George, has been on these pages for years.
The Lovelock Family returned to England in 1980,
and I began work with EASAMS (Elliot Automation Space and Advanced Military Systems)
and I helped, in my small way, of working with other colleages, to get very large
military contracts, including a Billion pound one in Malaysia, against stiff American competition.
This is also spoken of on my "History" page.
It was when working with French engineers in the 1990s,
that I discovered Paris was the loveliest city in the World.
It was then that, when collaborating with companies such as Dassault Electronique
(who did militarised laptop PCs), and Thompson CSF, and working closely with their
engineers ( Henry, are you still out there somewhere?), that I
fully understtod my suspicion that they had a similar sense of humour as English Engineers.
e.g. They know we call them "Frogs", because they like to eat frogs. They call us "Roast Beef",
because we were stupid enough to eat it. I think that was before Mad Cow Desease ?
The technical stuff is mentioned in my "Barrosa" page, probably also linked from the "History" page,
June and I had a lovely weekend in Paris, to celibrate our Ruby (30 year) Wedding Anniversary.
This appears in our
2011 Family Newsletter
and the detailed pictures have been on
www.gpss.co.uk/paris since then.
June and I were married, in Sunninghill Church, on 26th June, 1971, having met at Ferranti.
I knew Paris to be my favourite city - more even than London, where I went to City University,
in the late 1960s, employed as a Student Apprentice, with Ferranti, the UK Defence Contractor.
When, as a young Technical College boy, I went for an interview at Ferranti, in Bracknell,
I thought they made racing cars (Ferrari). I discovered that they made military computers
and systems, but - since they were paying for me to go to University - I did not mind.
That's how I got into defence systems, and met some of our best friends.
One is Roy, who was in the March 2015 launch team. I was reliably informed,
in later years, that June was given advice to seek work at Ferranti, as a young 17 year old,
because there were a lot of eligable engineers there.
Robin does not usually talk of those who passed away, in these Christmas newsletters, other than, of course, close family.
However, this year, he had to mention George Gourier, the Frenchman, who died this year, aged 75. There are many friends and family
who are loved and respected, but, of all the people Robin has known, George is the person he admires the most.
George was able to maintain a cheerful spirit, and mischievous sense of humour, despite the pain and frustration
of poor health, including first losing one leg, then the other, and then one eye due to a stroke.
Robin first met George in the 1990s, when he was in the next hospital bed to Robin's dad. George was a well
known character in Bracknell, on his mobility scooter, and had an amazing life story, some of which he would share.
He ran away from home as a boy in France, and went to sea. His career included serving in the French Foreign Legion,
a mercenary, many years in the French merchant navy, until he eventually came to the UK. There he married his lovely wife
Lesley, and he had jobs which included being a policeman based at Bracknell. He never lost his strong French accent,
which sometimes made him difficult to understand. Bracknell Police Station would get George to make 'phone calls
to Wokingham Station - few would believe he was a copper.
He must have been "as tough as nails", but you might not
have thought it, from his gentle manner, and humour. Robin remembers a 'phone call from hospital by George,
soon after he had his second leg amputated: "Robin, it was all my fault...". "Why?", I replied, "You should have seen
the doctor earlier?". "No", replied George, "I should have known how much English surgeons love frogs legs".
Robin would occasionally drop in to George and Lesley, for coffee and a chat. It had to be a Monday, because the
rest of the week, George was whizzing around Bracknell on his mobility scooter, swapping banter with the other old boys.
There is much more that could be said here, but maybe this is not the place to say it. Thank you for inspiration, George.
the French ENSTA-Bretagne boat, braving the Atlantic waves !
