The closest thing there was to a robot in the 60s Spain, outside the cinema, was the 600 and the Minipimer. The car for him, the blender for her, was understood in most cases. But Teresa de Pedro, a graduate in Physics before she turned 22, was already entangled with artificial intelligence . The concept, so beloved now, came from the most avant-garde science and "almost never heard of" it, recalls this researcher, today retired after 49 years of career at the Higher Council for Scientific Research ( CSIC ).

His doctoral thesis was a pioneer in solving a problem that affected electronic devices of the time through an artificial intelligence program. Interestingly, today this kind of computer techniques are used in many devices, but not the electronic circuits on which Teresa de Pedro worked. In the era of the Yeyés and Spain is different , the guts of the televisions and other gadgets were very different from the current chips: « Technology changes a lot and I am already very old », jokes De Pedro. But programming a computer to face complex problems is today as everyday as it was then innovative.

The great scientific project of this researcher - or, at least, the most striking seen since our days - was the one that she promoted with her research group since the 90s, when no one was still taking seriously an industry today called to revolutionize the automotive: cars that drive alone .

As so often happens in science and in life, the revolutionary idea arose from the need to solve a specific problem, although its consequences were much broader.

Teresa de Pedro worked in what is now the Center for Automation and Robotics of the CSIC, which was one of the first groups in Spain to work with mobile robots. But being pioneers entailed a series of difficulties, such as the endless procedures for importing robots, not to mention its high price.

"It was much more expensive than a good Mercedes," exemplifies De Pedro. And that was precisely the spark that ignited the great idea in that scientific group: "It occurred, above all, to my first husband, Ricardo García Rosa," says De Pedro. «We think: a car is not so different from a mobile robot». Why not use a car, robotize it, and thus save the messes of budget and bureaucracy?

They called the project Autopía . Then there were other times. Spain was finally European, with all of the law, and even had trains - not many - high speed. But that of the driverless cars still sounded like science fiction: «The first time we took him to the director, he told us: 'What barbarity !, you are crazy!' ... », remember Pedro. It was not the only problem: "You had to get cars, tracks ...".

Bald elm

In 1996, when all the obstacles were overcome, the project began to roll. Never better said: the group had two electric Citröen Berlingo and, later, a C3, plus a kilometer of test tracks in Arganda del Rey (Madrid). " There we could no longer simulate, but reproduce real situations, " says the scientist. "We did very interesting experiments with the three cars on the track."

- But did they direct them with remote control?

- No, no, no ... By remote control, no!

The control was the computer of each vehicle. "The computer inside the car was connected to the brake, throttle and steering wheel actuators," explains De Pedro. "What we did was an artificial intelligence program based on fuzzy logic, which makes it easy to emulate human behavior."

The Berlingo were baptized Babieca and Rocinante , in honor of the horses of El Cid and Don Quijote . When the third car arrived, he went back to the Cervates novel, but this time to the wooden equid on which Quijote and Sancho, victims of a joke, believe they are flying over the sky: Clavileño .

Using ordinary computers of those years and simple instruments, which "almost did not look", to turn the steering wheel or step on the pedals, they managed to experiment with "relatively complex situations, such as overtaking with a third car coming from the front."

The only female leader of a project

- Are you a feminist?

- Yes

- What is feminism?

- Be aware of the capabilities of women and put them in value, make them notice to people who do not think about them. Eye, they are not only men, there are also women. I don't consider myself a rabid feminist, unless they puncture me ...

- You have achieved, throughout your career, that your work is valued

- I remember a meeting of special projects launched by the European Union, and I was the only woman who led one of them. When I got there: 'Oh, you are the lady boss' (... You are the only woman') ... Because she was the only one!

- I mean, Europe wasn't much better.

- No. Maybe a little, yes. But not much.

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