Julien Bourgeois talks about self-reconfiguring modular robotics and how he is developing millimeter sized robots called Claytronics. Host Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #52 supported by https://carbon.ai & http://www.aptomica.com.
Julien started out as a computer scientist. He was always interested in robotics privately but then had the opportunity to get into micro robots when his lab was merged into the FEMTO-ST Institute. He later worked with Seth Copen Goldstein at Carnegie Mellon on the Claytronics project.
He tells us how he works on creating a world built with programmable material that would allow objects to change their form and function automatically by running a program. This will create smart objects that can adapt to the world around them and user preference in a totally new way.
One large benefit of programmable matter is that development can happen both in the computer and in the real world with changes transferred between them. A change done in the code would appear in the part made up of programmable matter, but the part can also be changed in the real world and the change would be transferred to the program controlling it. This would create a very flexible, dynamic and highly intuitive design process.
The structures based on programmable matter also exhibit many very special characteristics. They can be self-healing if they get damaged, they can dynamically respond to load and be as strong as needed, they can degrade gracefully and predictably and can even indicate that they are overloaded and might fail so that the user can take the appropriate actions.
We also learn about a system for sorting very small components he built and how cameras could not be applied.
Per and Julien discuss how developing programmable material is hard and that many difficult problems have to be overcome. At the same time, many problems with the current way of doing things will be solved in a fundamentally better way by systems built with programmable matter.
Julien shows an enlarged mock-up of the small robots that make up programmable matter, catoms, and speaks about how they are designed. Currently he is working on a unit that is one centimeter in diameter and he shows us the very small CPU that goes into that model.
There is also an art project in progress, using another version of programmable material building blocks.
Achim Lilienthal talks about rescue robotics and how he is working with integrating sensors that can work and be useful in this challenging application like gas sensors. Host Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #51 supported by https://carbon.ai & http://www.aptomica.com.
Achim got in to robotics from working in physics when the team hid did his PhD worked on gas sensors and he saw an opportunity to contribute based on his background in physics.
He also talks about a strong personal reason for developing gas sensors as a family member was killed in a gas explosion when he was a kid.
We also hear more about the challenges in using commercial senors that are intended for lab use and not for field use mounted on a robot. He talks about how he implements machine learning to detect gasses that was not meant to be in that particular situation. We also get to hear about how you can use different sensors to create a fingerprint of the gases in a situation and how you can use this to great a “heat map” describing what gases are there and at what concentration. This can help in determening the risk of an explosion by sensing gas type, consentration and heat.
He also tells us about the smokebot project that aims to oreduce risks for emergensy personel and to use resourcess mor eficently in an timecritical amergency situation.
We hear about why it is very hard to deploy robots in many emergensy situations and especilay in fires where there are smoke that blocks most sensrors blinding the robot. One of the few sensors that actually still works are radar and that can offer great asistance to firefighters.
This episode was recorded at ICML, IJCAI-ECAI, AAMAS in Stockholm, Sweden 2018.
Please support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RobotsinDepth You can find the show blog here http://www.robotsindepth.com Robots in Depth on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/Robotsindepth The host Per Sjöborg on http://www.flexibilityenvelope.com
Ari Rantanen talks about how Tieto works with AI. They focus on offering it at scale with the reliability needed when your organisation depends on it. Host Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #50 supported by https://carbon.ai & http://www.aptomica.com.
Ari has always found computer science and artificial intelligence very interesting and was drawn to it already at university.
He talks about how he and Tieto work with their clients to create value from the data their business generates. The work across Tieto’s wide customer base allows them to develop broad products based on work with all the different use cases their customers have. Ari also shares how the experience and expertise Tieto has in running large scale, mission critical systems helps them develop systems that can be deployed and run when the customer’s operation depends on the system.
Ari then describes how he works within healthcare to manage the customer’s data and deploy AI systems on top of that to create value from the data. That can provide insight into the operation of the hospital and give management situational awareness that serves as a base for decisions and planning.
We also get to hear about his work with traffic monitoring using video lidar data and sensor fusion to help handle complex and security sensitive traffic situations for instance in city traffic tunnels where a situation can deteriorate quickly.
Find out more on www.tieto.com
This episode was recorded at ICML, IJCAI-ECAI, AAMAS in Stockholm, Sweden 2018.
Please support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RobotsinDepth You can find the show blog here http://www.robotsindepth.com Robots in Depth on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/Robotsindepth The host Per Sjöborg on http://www.flexibilityenvelope.com
Cristina Andersson talks about the impact off the ever growing set of tasks that robots can preform and that they can start taking taking decisions like humans do. Host Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #49 supported by https://carbon.ai & http://www.aptomica.com.
Cristina started out as a business consultant for major Finish companies and got interested in the quickly growing opportunities in robotics when she wrote a book on the subject. The key word for here in this work was autonomous, robots constantly expand the type of decisions they can take and that makes it possible to use them in ever more situations and their value increase quickly.
In 2013 she organized events in Finland during European robotics week and found that many people was very interested but that there was also a big lack of knowledge.
She calls of more visions on how we can use robotics to address the challenges society face today. She is especially interested in three areas,
Demography, many countries are facing a big change in the numbers of working to non working. She thinks that we need to develop technologies to address the needs of everyone and assure that it is accessible for everyone that needs it.
She also sees that robotics have a big role to play in exploring environments that are hostile to humans and that they can make it possible for us to better understand thees environments. This understanding will make it easier to address the most important issues in a efficient way.
Her third focus is making education accessible for everyone. When large transformations happen due to the introduction of new technologies it is very important to make it possible for everyone to participate and then education is critical. This is absolutely true for robotics.
She also talks about introducing robotics in society in a way that makes it easy for everyone to understand the benefits as this will make the process much easier. When people see the clear benefits in one field or situation they will be much more interested in bringing robotics in to their private or professional lives.
She also talks about the Bestick robot that helps people that can not eat by them self, and how profound this is, giving some one back an ability that most of us take for granted.
This episode was recorded at the RoboInsights https://roboinsights.com event in Helsingør, Denmark 2018. Two RoboInsights events will be held in 2019 one on the 11/09 in Helsingör and one at Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen on the 6 and 7 of November, check the web site for more information.
Please support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RobotsinDepth You can find the show blog here http://www.robotsindepth.com Robots in Depth on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/Robotsindepth The host Per Sjöborg on http://www.flexibilityenvelope.com
Michael Nielsen talks about his work in computer vision for field use in agriculture and recycling. Host Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #48 supported by https://carbon.ai & http://www.aptomica.com.
Michael started out in computer vision in the agriculture space doing machine vision and 3D reconstruction of plants. He then moved to the Danish Technological Institute when they expanded their work on machine vision for field use in agriculture.
Michael worked with a fusion of sensors like stereo vision, thermography, radar, lidar and high frame rate cameras, merging multiple images for high dynamic range. All this to be able to navigate the tricky situation in a farm field where you need to navigate close to or even in what is grown. Multi-baseline cameras were also used to provide range detection over a wide range of distances.
We also learn about how he expanded his work into sorting recycling, a very challenging problem. Here the sensor fusion gives him RGB as well as depth and temperature. Adding a powerful studio flash to the setup allowed him to heat the material being sorted, making it possible to determine the material, depending on how it absorbs the heat from the flash. Michael is also working on adding cameras capable of seeing above the human range of vision to make it easy to specify which materials to pick. We also hear about the problems faced when using time of flight and sheet of light cameras. He then shares some good results using stereo vision, especially combined with blue light random dot projectors.
This episode was recorded at the Danish Technological Institute in Odense 2016.
Please support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RobotsinDepth You can find the show blog here http://www.robotsindepth.com Robots in Depth on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/Robotsindepth The host Per Sjöborg on http://www.flexibilityenvelope.com
Nicole Immorlica talks about game theory and how she feels that it is her way to understand the world around her. Host Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #47 supported by https://carbon.ai & http://www.aptomica.com.
Nicole talks about game theory, a way to understand how intelligent agents, humans or machines, interact and optimize their outcome in a particular context.
Nicole discusses how this process can be used to create user interactions that are understandable and can be used efficiently.
We also hear about how dynamic games apply to robotics and how robots deal with the ever-changing world they act in.
Nicole then talks about a trend in market design where large amounts of data about previous behavior is used to redesign the market and optimize it. We also hear about how this is used to understand how people use and interact on social media platforms.
She also shares how game theory can be used to explain behavior that is not optimal, for instance in procrastination.
This episode was recorded at ICML, IJCAI-ECAI, AAMAS in Stockholm, Sweden 2018.
Please support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RobotsinDepth You can find the show blog here http://www.robotsindepth.com Robots in Depth on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/Robotsindepth The host Per Sjöborg on http://www.flexibilityenvelope.com
Gonzalo Rey talks about how Moog equipment is a part of systems in Aircraft’s, Robots and have even reached Mars and how 3D printing will revolutionize manufacturing. Host Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #46 supported by https://carbon.ai & http://www.aptomica.com Recorded in 2016.
Gonzalo talks about how Moog got started with hydraulic control,taking part in the space program and early robotics development.
He shares how Moog’s technology is used in fly-by-wire systems in aircraft and in flow control in deep space probes. They have even reached Mars.
The experiences in these other safety critical areas have prepared Moog well for new, emerging markets like autonomous vehicles and robotics that are also complex and safety critical.
We also learn how Moog works with 3D printing to reduce complexity and increase performance.
You can find more information about Moog here: https://www.moog.com/markets/industri… https://www.moog.com/markets/industri…
This interview was recorded at IEEE ICRA 2016 in Stockholm Sweden..
Please support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RobotsinDepth You can find the show blog here http://www.robotsindepth.com Robots in Depth on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/Robotsindepth The host Per Sjöborg on http://www.flexibilityenvelope.com Connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/persjoborg/ Twitter https://www.twitter.com/Perblog Instagram https://www.instagram.com/persjoborg/
Lael Odhner talks about grasping objects with a compliant hand. This interview was recorded in 2015.
Lael Odhner is a co-founder of RightHand Robotics, that is developing a gripper based on the combination of control and soft, compliant parts to get better grasping of objects. Their work focuses on grasping and manipulating everyday human objects in everyday environments.This mimics how human hands combine control and flexibility to grasp objects with great dexterity.
The combination of control and compliance makes the RightHand robotics gripper very light-weight and affordable. The compliance makes it easier to grasp objects of unknown shape and differs from the way industrial robots usually grip. The compliance also helps in a more unstructured environment where contact with the object and its surroundings cannot be exactly predicted.
Lael also talks about how most of what needs to be achieved when grasping and manipulating objects can be done with far fewer controlled degrees of freedom in the manipulator. That leads to a much less complex hand that is smaller, lighter and cheaper.
We also hear about how testing what the hand can grasp led to strange looks at a farmers market.
Alec Rivers talks about how he created the Shaper CNC router to empower everyone to easily manufacture high precision parts. Host Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #44 supported by https://carbon.ai & http://www.aptomica.com
Alec is a co-founder of Shaper that develops a handheld and CNC router. This combination has a number of significant benefits like low cost, high precision and great flexibility.
He describes how they add fiducial marker tape to the work piece to digitally augment it and accurately track the position of the router bit while you move the router to roughly position it.
The Shaper router is truly a co-bot and a great example of people and robots working together to active a result that neither humans nor robots could by themselves.
The Shaper router can work on a big work piece that would require a very expensive conventional CNC machine. At the same time, it achieves a precision that humans alone cannot, by reading the fiducial marker tape and automatically guiding the router bit from a vector file.
We also get to hear about the beginning of Alec’s start-up journey and how it all began with a failed picture frame. That led to the insight that together with a CNC machine he could have been more successful.
Gabriel Skantze talks about how he works with human robot communication Host Per Sjöborg, Robots in Depth #43 supported by https://carbon.ai & http://www.aptomica.com
Gabriel Skantze is co-founder and Chief Scientist at Furhat Robotics and Professor in speech technology at KTH with a specialization in conversational systems. He has a background in research into how humans use spoken communication to interact.
In this interview, Gabriel talks about how the social robot revolution makes it necessary to communicate with humans in a human ways through speech and facial expressions. This is necessary as we expand the number of people that interact with robots as well as the types of interaction.
Gabriel gives us more insight into the many challenges of implementing spoken communication for co-bots, where robots and humans work closely together. They need to communicate about the world, the objects in it and how to handle them.
We also get to hear how having an embodied system using the Furhat robot head helps the interaction between humans and the system.
Having an expressive face like the Furhat adds many improvements to how a system can communicate with people. It also improves the human engagement and understanding of what the system tries to communicate significantly.
Gabriel then talks about the how they use AI and machine learning to understand speech. Understanding an individual speaker’s way to speak, thus adapting a robot to its user can improve their communication.
As the Furhat system is used out in the field, we get valuable insights from real world situations. One such case is guiding travellers at an airport to improve their experience and make travelling more efficient for everyone.
More information about Furhat at https://www.furhatrobotics.com
Please support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RobotsinDepth
You can find the show blog here http://www.robotsindepth.com Robots in Depth on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/Robotsindepth
The host Per Sjöborg on http://www.flexibilityenvelope.com
Connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/persjoborg/
Twitter https://www.twitter.com/Perblog
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/persjoborg/
