# Presenting Gemm at the Parque de la Innovación

- Date: 29 September 2026
- Project: gemm
- Tags: Robotics, Presentation, Gemm

> Teleoperation worked at ORT and again when we arrived, but failed just before our pitch. We had tested the setup and recorded a backup. This is how the Community Meetup at the Parque de la Innovación unfolded.

On September 29, we presented Gemm at the Community Meetup at the Parque de la
Innovación. We brought the robot, a rehearsed presentation and a teleoperation
demo that had worked at ORT and worked again when we arrived at the event.

Just before we went on stage, it stopped working.

<img
	src="../../_media/gemm-parque-innovacion/gemm-parque-innovacion.webp"
	alt="The Unitree G1 beside the stage in the foreground, with the team presenting Gemm behind it."
	title="Presenting Gemm at the Community Meetup at the Parque de la Innovación."
	width={2000}
	height={1333}
	loading="eager"
/>

## Before we left

I spent the day in ORT's AI and Robotics lab with Guido, trying to restore the
robot's connection. We could not access it over the internet or Ethernet.

We ended up connecting a hub, a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse to get directly
into its terminal. After several attempts, we restored remote access and could
continue preparing the presentation.

The LiDAR was not working either, so we would not be able to show the dashboard
with live data from the robot. For that part, we had a video prepared using data
we had recorded earlier in the lab.

A few hours before presenting, I told Guido: “everything that could possibly
break is going to break.” We needed to be ready to keep going if something failed.

After [what happened at Bibi’s with Restoman](/notes/restoman-bibis-launch), I did
not want to rely only on something having worked up to that point. I had told Guido we should record
everything working and recreate at ORT the setup we would need at the Parque de
la Innovación.

We did. We tested the demo, rehearsed the full presentation and recorded
teleoperation working a few hours before leaving.

<Video
	src="../../_media/gemm-parque-innovacion/teleoperation-ort.mp4"
	hasAudio={false}
	poster="../../_media/gemm-parque-innovacion/teleoperation-ort.webp"
	width={1920}
	height={1080}
	title="G1 teleoperation at ORT before leaving for the Parque de la Innovación"
	caption="Guido controls the G1's movements with a VR headset at ORT, a few hours before the event. This video was not shown during the pitch."
/>

Then we walked the few blocks from ORT to the Parque de la Innovación, bringing
the robot and everything we needed to set up our own local network.

## From ten minutes to three

We had prepared a presentation of about ten minutes. When we arrived, we were
told we had three. In the end, we got seven.

We wanted to explain how Gemm had evolved: from a visual editor for programming
a quadruped robot to a project focused on inspection and operations in
refineries. The robot drew attention, but the important part was explaining
what work we wanted it to do and why.

We set up the network and tested again. After a few adjustments, teleoperation
worked at the Parque de la Innovación too.

While the previous group was presenting, we started powering up the robot and
preparing the demo. This time, we could not get teleoperation working. The host
even gave us a little more time, but it was not enough.

The robot stood beside the stage. Guido and I presented anyway.

We showed the video of the dashboard processing real data recorded by the
robot: camera footage, a point cloud and map views. It was not a live run.

<Video
	src="../../_media/gemm-parque-innovacion/dashboard-replay.mp4"
	hasAudio={false}
	poster="../../_media/gemm-parque-innovacion/dashboard-replay.webp"
	width={1920}
	height={1080}
	title="Gemm dashboard video shown during the pitch"
	caption="The video we showed during the presentation: the dashboard working with recorded G1 data. A replay, not a live run."
/>

To explain the teleoperation we could not demonstrate, Guido went to get the VR
headset. He almost fell as he stepped off the stage. Nothing happened, and we
ended up laughing about it on stage.

We were nervous and forgot a few things, but I felt we got the central message
across.

## After the presentation

After we came off stage, people approached us with questions and interviews.
One of them offered to put us in touch with someone experienced in robotics
projects.

Later, Fabrizio Guaglianone spoke about building with AI and the importance of
judgement. I liked the talk: being able to build something does not mean it
makes sense to do it.

The demo was an important part of what we had prepared, and I wish it had
worked. This time we had tested the setup and prepared a backup; even so,
something that had worked in the same place stopped working just before we
presented.

I cannot take away a technical explanation we do not yet have. What I take
away is a presentation we managed to give with what we did have to show, and
conversations about Gemm that continued after we came off stage.

More about [Gemm](/work/gemm).

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