David Johan Christensen talks about modular robotics and the Fable system.
Host: Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #22 supported by www.aptomica.com
David Johan started early in robotics, getting involved already in high school. At university he found the EU project Hydra, that introduced him to modular robotics. In the Hydra project he participated in developing, among other things, the Atron self-reconfiguring modular robotics system.
We also hear how the Fable system emerged from co-operating with Lego and how it’s used all the way from 4th grade to university level brain research.
Harsha Prahlad talks about his novel gripper for soft goods manufacturing and how he got into robotics via the aerospace industry. Host: Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #21 supported by http://www.aptomica.com
We get to hear about how the electrostatics gripper he is developing will be able to grip objects that previously have been considered hard or impossible to grip.
This technology is highly relevant in clothing and soft goods manufacturing. It will also be significant in other contexts, for instance in automotive when carbon fiber structures are introduced to make vehicles more energy efficient. Another interesting area is logistics, were a conveyor belt made from the Grabits gripper can be used to improve item transport, sort items and delayer stacked items.
Franziska Kirstein talks about her experience as a linguist working with human robot interaction. Host: Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #20 supported by http://www.aptomica.com
We get to hear about what works and what doesn’t when non-engineer users are tasked with teaching robots different movements.
Franziska also describes some of the challenges with kinestetic guidance and alternative methods that can be used.
She then talks about some of the projects she is involved in, including one in robot assisted health care and one involving social robots.
Justin Werfel talks about what termites can teach us about using autonomous swarms of robots. Host: Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #19 supported by http://www.aptomica.com
Termites have an amazing ability to create and maintain large, complicated structures with very limited capabilities.
Justin talks about the opportunity to learn from the termites capability to create impressive structures and use that to create structures with autonomous swarms of robots. We get to hear about how the Termes project aims to learn from termites and build on their capabilities to create any desired structure.
We also hear how Justin was drawn to robotics by the balance between theoretical and practical work.
Jana Tumova talks about formal verification of computer systems and synthesizing controllers from models. Host: Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #18 supported by http://www.aptomica.com
We get an introduction to the relatively new, especially when applied to robotics, field of formal verification. Jana talks about the requirements and limits of formal verification and how she feels we are ready to start merging the computer science process with regulatory and business processes.
Jana also describes how she worked on an autonomous golf cart in Singapore where the controller was synthesized.
Henrik Christensen shares his views on the impact of the robot revolution and stories from his life in European robotics research. Host: Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #17 supported by http://www.aptomica.com
Henrik talks about how he got started in computer vision and how working with cameras on mobile platforms got him into robotics. We hear about him being part of early EU supported research projects and how that brought him to KTH in Stockholm and the Centre for Autonomous Systems
While at KTH, he worked on early autonomous vacuum cleaners together with Electrolux. This fits well with his desire to both do interesting research and to transform the results into useful applications in the real world.
Henrik also tells us how the European robotics network mailing list led to the creation of robotics roadmaps.
Henrik and Per discusss that when it comes to talking about the robot revolution with the general public, Hollywood is our worst enemy, because the image they portray is usually completely incorrect.
Henrik then shares his views on how the robot revolution will affect the labor market and the environment and also improve the life of the handicapped and elderly. It is a huge opportunity for all, and Per could not agree more.
Peter Corke is well known for his work in computer vision and has written one of the books that define the area. We get to hear about his long and interesting journey into giving robots eyes to see the world. Host: Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #16 supported by http://www.aptomica.com
In this interview, Peter talks about how serendipity made him build a checkers playing robot and then move on to robotics and machine vision. We get to hear about how early experiments with “Blob Vision” got him interested in analyzing images and especially moving images.
The interview ends with Peter adding a new item to the CV, fashion model, when he shows us the ICRA 2018 T-shirt!
You can find Peters book here: http://petercorke.com/wordpress/books/book
On his web site you can also find many useful resources, including the MOOC Robot Academy, his Robotics Toolbox and the Machine Vision Toolbox
Dave Rollinson from Hebi Robotics talks about learning from watching his robots being used as everyday tools. We also get an initiated overview of the modular robotics systems that Hebi develops. Host: Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #15 supported by http://www.aptomica.com
Dave shares how he had the opportunity to work with sewer inspection robots early on. He learned a lot from constantly bringing the robots out in the field. Seeing how the robots were used, as regular tools, and how they succeeded and failed helped him iterate the design and take the steps needed to create a well-functioning product.
Dave also talks about how he wanted to continue to build robots as he continued his education. He chose to go to CMU and professor Howie Choset’s lab because they build their own hardware.
We get the opportunity to see one of the modular robotics system Hebi is working on live and a few examples of how it is being used.
At the end of the interview, Dave and the host Per, who is a major modular robotics fan, discuss the significance of modularity in robotics and how it can change how we develop and use robots and machines.
You can find out more about Hebi and their products on www.hebirobotics.com
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Aseem Prakash talks about how we can prepare for co-existing with robots & AI. What will the future with robots look like & how can we prepare to maximize the benefit Host: Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #14 supported http://www.aptomica. https://youtu.be/mPo4p6z30DY
Aseem, who is a Futurist at the Center for Innovating the Future, talks about a future with robots, rather than the future of robotics.
He also talks about studying how tomorrow unfolds and develop a strategy that will help us adapt to new technologies and how we best integrate them in our lives, private or professional.
Aseem then brings up the risk of not preparing, keeping up to date with what is happening and thinking about how these developments will affect your business or organization.
He ask the question, when we co-exist with 5-10 or even hundreds of robots and smart systems, what will that look like? A very important question that everyone needs to answer for themselves privately as well as in their business, and that we as a society have to answer collectively.
Daniel Pizzata talks about how his passion for modular robotics has driven him to start Modbot, a company building a robotics platform and creating a community. The goal of Modbot is to bring robots out of the research labs and make them accessible to everyone. Host: Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #13 supported by http://www.aptomica.
Daniel started out in the defense sector in Australia using robotics to measure radio transmissions. He worked on many different projects, but felt that he wanted to work with technology that was more widely applicable in society, and follow his ambitions.
Daniel also talks about how he met his co-founder Adam Ellison and how they had the idea of a platform and a community that could widen the range of people that are able to develop robotics and automation solutions. This turned out to be a life-changing journey with many intense moments and amazing experiences.
Daniel then shares how living on floor 7½ in the mezzanine corridor was one of the interesting aspects of moving to San Fransisco to pursue his dream of starting Modbot.
