Robot Talk

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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You can enter across multiple platforms. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month! 

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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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For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is:

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You can enter across multiple platforms. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month! 

Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

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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Claire chatted to Jims Marchang from Sheffield Hallam University all about security, privacy, and trust in healthcare robots.

Jims Marchang completed his Ph.D. from the CSCAN Research Laboratory, University of Plymouth, UK. He is currently a Sr. Lecturer in Cybersecurity and leads a Secure Intelligent Cyber research cluster and co-lead Digital, AI, and Robotics at Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre. His research focuses on building user-centric secure-by-design and privacy-by-design solutions in healthcare technologies.

Robot Talk will be taking a two-week break over the holidays, but we’ll be back in January with more fascinating guests and awesome robots. 

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Claire chatted to Katarzyna Szopinska from KUKA all about all about software and hardware for medical robotics.

Katarzyna Szopinska studied medical and mechanical engineering in both Warsaw and Munich. She got her first professional experience at Brainlab in Munich and then at KUKA where she started as mechanical engineer to later switch to portfolio and product management for the medical robotics business of KUKA, where she had been working since 2019. Katarzyna has worked on the definition of multiple software and hardware products for the medical sector, among other things on new software features for the LBR Med robot.

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Claire chatted to Rav Chunilal from Sellafield all about robotics and AI for nuclear decommissioning.

Rav Chunilal is the Head of Robotics & Artificial Intelligence at Sellafield Ltd, the UK's largest nuclear site. He is responsible for developing and deploying Robotics and AI technologies to decommission the site safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively. Under Rav's leadership, Sellafield Ltd and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Group has established itself as a leader in the use of Robotics and AI for nuclear decommissioning. The company has developed and deployed a wide range of robotic technologies to perform tasks such as remote inspection, waste handling, and demolition.

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Claire chatted to Ayse Kucukyilmaz from the University of Nottingham about collaboration, conflict and failure in human-robot interactions.

Ayse Kucukyilmaz is Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham and a founding member of the CHART research group. Her research focus is human-centered robotics, where she specialises in haptic shared and traded control for physical human-robot interaction. Her group primarily works on adjustable autonomy paradigms to enable dynamic switching behaviours between different levels of robotic autonomy (e.g. full human control vs. full autonomy) during shared control of a physical task, enabling effective human-autonomy teaming.

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For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is share your favourite episode on social media and tag us @RobotTalkPod. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month. Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Jorvon (Odd-Jayy) Moss from Digikey about making robots at home, and robot design and aesthetics.

Commonly known as Odd-Jayy, Jorvon Moss is an accomplished Maker best known for his Robotic Oddities. Jayy’s art background, BFA in Illustration, and self-taught electronics skills have combined to help launch his career and promote the wonderful world of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math). This achievement, and the many viral videos under his belt, gained him recognition from major forces in the industry; including Digi-Key Electronics, Tested Inc. with Adam Savage, various electronic and tech Faires, and as the first Black person in Make Magazine.

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For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is share your favourite episode on social media and tag us @RobotTalkPod. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month. Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Masoumeh (Iran) Mansouri from the University of Birmingham about culturally sensitive robots and planning in complex environments.

Masoumeh Mansouri is an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham. Her research includes two complementary areas: (i) developing hybrid robot planning methods for unstructured environments shared with humans, and (ii) exploring topics at the intersection of cultural theories and robotics. In the latter, her main goal is to study whether/how robots can be culturally sensitive given the broad definitions of culture in different fields of study.

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For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is share your favourite episode on social media and tag us @RobotTalkPod. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month. Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Carl Strathearn from Edinburgh Napier University all about humanoid robots, realistic robot faces and speech.

Carl Strathearn is a researcher interested in creating assistive social humanoid robots with embodied AI systems that appear, function, and interact like humans. He believes that creating realistic humanoid robots is significant to humanity as the human face is the most natural interface for human communication, and by emulating these conditions, we can increase accessibility to state-of-the-art technology for everyone and support people with specific health conditions and circumstances in their day-to-day lives.

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For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is share your favourite episode on social media and tag us @RobotTalkPod. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month. Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Ffion Llewellyn from Oshen about sea-faring robots and ocean sensing.

Ffion Llewellyn graduated from Imperial College London in 2022 with a masters in Aeronautical Engineering. Following this, she joined Oshen who are building low cost, autonomous micro-vessels for remote ocean sensing. Ffion has been focused on the integration and testing of sensors onto Oshen's autonomous micro-vessels, including metocean sensors and hydrophones for the monitoring of marine mammals. Her role also includes the design and manufacture of the micro-vessels, conducting sea trials and analysing the data collected.

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For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is share your favourite episode on social media and tag us @RobotTalkPod. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month. Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Lorenzo Jamone from Queen Mary University of London all about robotic hands, dexterity, and the sense of touch.

Lorenzo Jamone is a Senior Lecturer in Robotics at Queen Mary University of London, where he is the founder and director of the CRISP group: Cognitive Robotics and Intelligent Systems for the People. He received a PhD degree in humanoid technologies at the Italian Institute of Technology. He was previously an Associate Researcher at Waseda University in Japan, and at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal. His current research interests include cognitive robotics, robotic manipulation, force and tactile sensing, robot learning.

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For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is share your favourite episode on social media and tag us @RobotTalkPod. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month. Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Kate Devlin from King's College London about the social and ethical implications of robotics and AI.

We touch on a range of different topics from concerns over job losses and privacy to issues of inequality, trust and power. In the second half of the interview, we talk a bit about robotics, AI and relationships. The conversation isn’t explicit, but if you’d prefer to give that part of the conversation a miss, you can stop the podcast at around 22 minutes, when you hear the music.

Kate Devlin is Reader in Artificial Intelligence & Society in the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London. She is an interdisciplinary computer scientist investigating how people interact with and react to technologies, both past and future. Kate is the author of Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots, which examines the ethical and social implications of technology and intimacy. She is Creative and Outreach lead for the UKRI Responsible Artificial Intelligence UK programme — an international research and innovation ecosystem for responsible AI.

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For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is share your favourite episode on social media and tag us @RobotTalkPod. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month. Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.