Episode Forty-Three: Maitreyee Wairagkar

Claire chatted to Andrew Starr from Cranfield University all about robot maintenance and railway inspection robots.

Andrew Starr holds a PhD in condition monitoring of robotic production systems and is a Chartered Engineer. His career started with British Aerospace, before working for the University of Manchester, University of Huddersfield, and the University of Hertfordshire. At Cranfield University he is Professor of Maintenance Systems, and former Head of the Centre for Life-cycle Engineering and Management. His research is in monitoring of mechanical systems with special interests in railways, aero gears, sensor systems, and maintenance optimisation through data fusion.

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Claire chatted to Antonia Tzemanaki from the University of Bristol all about hand exoskeletons, robotic hands, and teleoperation.

Antonia Tzemanaki is Senior Lecturer in Robotics at the University of Bristol and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. Prior to this, she was Lecturer in Mechatronics at the University of the West of England. Her research includes human and robot hands, hand exoskeletons, haptics and wearable robotics, especially with applications in surgery, preventative medicine, rehabilitation, physiotherapy and dexterous tele-operation, as well as extreme environments (nuclear and space).

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Claire chatted to Edward Johns from Imperial College London, all about robotic manipulators, learning, and artificial intelligence.

Edward Johns is the Director of the Robot Learning Lab at Imperial College London, where he is also a Senior Lecturer. He completed a PhD in Computer Vision at Imperial College and was then a Research Fellow in the Dyson Robotics Lab at Imperial College. In 2017, he was awarded a prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship. Since founding the Robot Learning Lab in 2018, he and his team have been developing efficient methods for robots to learn new skills for physically interacting with objects, with a particular emphasis on everyday tasks.

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Claire chatted to Maria Jose (Marisé) Galvez Trigo from Cardiff University all about human-robot interaction, machine learning, and accessibility.

Maria Jose Galvez Trigo (Marisé) is a Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University, and part of the Human-centred Computing (HCC) Research Section and its Subgroup in Computational and Human-centred Robotics. Marisé is interested in Robotics, Human-Robot Interaction, Human-Computer Interaction and applications of Machine Learning in those areas, with accessibility and co-design as key aspects of her research. Within those areas, her research explores how the uptake of robotics systems can be improved.

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Claire chatted to Rafael Lopez from Robotnik Automation all about mobile robots, logistics, and inspection.

Rafael Lopez has a degree in Telecommunications Engineering. He worked in research and development at Althea Productos Industriales before joining IBM as a System Engineer for wide area networks in Madrid and Barcelona. He co-founded Robotnik in 2002, where he was the Research and Development Manager, participating in and managing many EU projects. After the acquisition of Robotnik by United Robotics Group in 2023, he became Managing Director of the company. In 2017 he joined the board of Directors of the Spanish robotics technology platform Hisparob.

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Claire chatted to Virginia Ruiz Garate from Mondragon University all about assistive robotics, mobility, and bio-inspired control.

Virginia Ruiz Garate obtained her PhD in 2016 in bio-inspired control for leg exoskeletons at the Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium. Later, she worked on new bio-inspired grasping methods for robotic hands at the Italian Institute of Technology. She then became Associate Professor in assistive robots at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. Currently, she is a Lecturer and Researcher in Robotics at Mondragon University. Her research interests include robotic grasping and manipulation, bio-inspired control, assistive robotics and human-robot interfaces.

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Claire chatted to Josh Caputo from Humotech all about robotic prostheses, exoskeletons and prototyping.

Josh Caputo has a background as a multi-disciplinary engineer focused on robotics. He developed a passion for wearable technology working in the Experimental Biomechatronics Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. His early work focused on studying powered push-off in prosthetic foot and ankle devices. In 2015, Josh founded Humotech to support clinical trials, commercialization and research and development efforts in wearable robotics. Josh’s dream is to see the field expand dramatically in size and innovativeness so that anyone, anywhere can realize their mobility goals.

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Claire chatted to Elizabeth Sklar from the University of Lincoln all about agricultural robotics, human-robot teams, and sustainability.

Elizabeth Sklar is a Professor of Agri-Robotics and Research Director at the Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology (LIAT), at the University of Lincoln, UK. Her research investigates the implementation of intelligent methodologies in the context of multi-robot teams, human-machine teaming, behaviour mining and data-backed decision making, most recently applied within the agri-food pipeline. She is co-founder of the international educational initiative RoboCupJunior and currently serves on the editorial board for the journal Current Robotics Reports.

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Claire chatted to Rolf Mueller from Virginia Tech all about biomimicry, flapping-wing flight, sensing, and artificial intelligence.

Rolf Mueller has studied bat biosonar from the perspectives of biophysics and bioinspired engineering for over 20 years. He has worked on statistical signal processing of sonar signals in complex, natural environments, biosonar beamforming, as well as biomimetic sonar systems. The overarching goal of his current research is meeting the sensory information needs of autonomy in complex natural environments. Besides serving as the Lynn professor of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, he directs the University of Brunei - Virginia Tech International Laboratory.

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Claire chatted to Kris Dorsey from Northeastern University all about wearable soft robots, healthcare and rehabilitation.

Kris Dorsey is an associate professor in the departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physical Therapy, Movement, and Rehabilitation Sciences and a core faculty member at the Institute for Experiential Robotics at Northeastern University. Her current research interests include reconfigurable, novel morphology, and active soft sensors and the design of soft sensors for soft robot actuators and wearable medical and rehabilitation devices. Kris’ work has been recognized by an NSF CAREER award and the Emerging Leader ABIE Award in honor of Denice Denton.

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