Shows
Robohub Podcastep.366: Deep Learning Meets Trash: Amp Robotics’ Revolution in Materials Recovery, with Joe Castagneri
In this episode, Abate flew to Denver, Colorado, to get a behind-the-scenes look at the future of recycling with Joe Castagneri, the head of AI at Amp Robotics. With Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) processing a staggering 25 tons of trash per hour, robotic sorting is the clear long-term solution.
Recycling is a for-profit industry. When the margins don't make sense, the items will not be recycled. This is why Amp's mission to use robotics and AI to bring down the cost of recycling and increase the number of items that can be sorted for recycling is so impactful.
https://www...
2023-10-1300 min
Robohub Podcastep.365: ReRun An Open Source Package For Beautiful Visualizations, with Nikolaus West
Nico, Emil, and Moritz founded ReRun with the mission of making powerful visualization tools free and easily accessible for roboticists. Nico and Emil talk about how these powerful tools help debug the complex problem scopes faced by roboticists. Tune in for more.
Nikolaus West
Co-Founder and CEO
Niko is a second-time founder and software engineer with a computer vision background from Stanford. He’s fanatic about bringing great computer vision and robotics products to the physical world.
Emil Ernerfeldt
Co-Founder and CTO
Emil fell in love with coding over 20 years ago and hasn’t looked back since. He’s the cr...
2023-04-0500 min
Robohub Podcastep.364: Shaking Up The Sheetmetal Industry, with Ed Mehr
Conventional sheet metal manufacturing is highly inefficient for the low-volume production seen in the space industry. At Machina Labs, they developed a novel method of forming sheet metal using two robotic arms to bend the metal into different geometries. This method cuts down the time to produce large sheet metal parts from several months down to a few hours. Ed Mehr, Co-Founder and CEO of Machina Labs, explains this revolutionary manufacturing process.
Ed Mehr
Ed Mehr is the co-founder and CEO of Machina Labs. He has an engineering background in smart manufacturing and artificial intelligence. In his previous position...
2023-02-1700 min
Robohub Podcastep.363: Going out on a Bionic Limb, with Joel Gibbard
Joel Gibbard, co-founder of Open Bionics dives deep into their creative, imagination-capturing prosthetic limbs.
2022-12-2100 min
Robohub Podcastep.362: Precise Navigation using LEO Satellites, with Tyler Reid
Dr. Tyler Reid, CTO of Xona Space Systems, discusses a new approach to global navigation satellite systems designed for self-driving cars.
2022-11-0200 min
Robohub Podcastep.361: Recycling: An Opaque Industry, with Areeb Malik
Areeb, the co-founder of Glacier, gives some insight into the opaque recycling industry, and why it is unable to handle the volume of recyclable good Americans through out each year.
2022-10-1000 min
Robohub Podcastep.360: Building Communities Around AI in Africa, with Benjamin Rosman
Deep Learning Indaba is an organization that empowers and builds communities around Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning across Africa. Benjamin Rosman dives into how Deep Learning Indaba is impacting these communities.
2022-09-1400 min
Robohub Podcastep.359: Perception and Decision-Making for Underwater Robots, with Brendan Englot
Prof Brendan Englot, from Stevens Institute of Technology, discusses the challenges in perception and decision making for underwater robots - especially in the field.
2022-08-2100 min
Robohub Podcastep.358: Softbank: How Large Companies Approach Robotics, with Brady Watkins
Brady Watkins gives insights into how a large company like Softbank Robotics approaches the Robotics market
2022-08-0300 min
Robohub Podcastep.356: Controlling a Drone After Sudden Rotor Failure #ICRA2022, with Sihao Sun
Dr. Sihao Sun on his research for controlling a quadcopter after one of its rotors faces a sudden failure. His research takes in real-world assumptions where the quadcopter may already be in a compromised, difficult to correct orientation.
2022-06-0600 min
Robohub Podcastep.355: SLAM fused with Satellite Imagery #ICRA2022, with John McConnell
John McConnell discusses the research presented at ICRA 2022 to reduce drift in SLAM algorithms by incorporating overhead satellite imagery.
2022-05-2500 min
Robohub Podcastep.354: Autonomous Flight Demo with CMU AirLab #ICRA2022, with Sebastian Scherer
Sebastian Scherer from CMU's Airlab gives us a behind-the-scenes demo at ICRA of their Autonomous Flight Control AI. Their approach aims to cooperate with human pilots and act the way they would.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPsJ4ArdtTk
The team took this approach to create a more natural, less intrusive process for co-habiting human and AI pilots at a single airport. They describe it as a Turing Test, where ideally the human pilot will be unable to distinguish an AI from a person operating the plane.
Their communication system works parallel with a 6-camera hardware package based...
2022-05-2400 min
Robohub Podcastep.353: Robotics Grasping and Manipulation Competition Spotlight, with Yu Sun
Yu Sun, previous chair of the Robotics Grasping and Manipulation Competition, speaks on the value that this competition brought to the robotics community.
2022-05-2100 min
Robohub Podcastep.352: Early Days of ICRA Competitions, with Bill Smart
Bill Smart, one fo the early ICRA Competition Chairs, dives into the high-level decisions involved with creating a meaningful competition.
2022-05-2100 min
Robohub Podcastep.351: Duckietown Competition Spotlight, with Dr Liam Paull
Dr. Liam Paull, cofounder of the Duckietown competition talks about the only robotics competition where Rubber Duckies are the passengers on an autonomous driving track.
2022-05-1600 min
Robohub Podcastep.350: Improving Perception through Interaction, with Carolyn Matl
Dr. Carolyn Matl, Research Scientist at Toyota Research Institute, explains why Interactive Perception and soft tactile sensors are critical for manipulating challenging objects such as liquids, grains, and dough.
2022-04-2100 min
Robohub Podcastep.349: Autonomous Need for Speed, with Joe Speed
Joe Speed, VP of Product at ApexAI, dives into the current multi-year development process of bringing a car to market, and how ApexAI will transform this process into the shorter development time we see with modern technology.
2022-04-0800 min
Robohub Podcastep.348: Mimicking the Five Senses, On Chip, with Rob Telson
Rob Telson dives into the Akida Neural Processor from BrainChip, which is mimicking the five senses from the human brain on a low-powered chip.
2022-03-2300 min
Robohub Podcastep.347: Event Cameras – An Evolution in Visual Data Capture, with Davide Scaramuzza
Davide Scaramuzza deep dives into Event Cameras, a fundamentally new approach to capturing visual data
2022-03-0800 min
Robohub Podcastep.346: Autonomously Transporting Crops, with Suma Reddy
Suma Reddy discusses crop transportation with autonomous mobile robots made by Future Acres.
2022-02-2100 min
Robohub Podcastep.345: Autonomous Vehicles for Operational Logistics with Evocargo, with Oleg Shipitko
Oleg Shipitko discusses Evocargo's approach to transform the way we transport goods within facilities such as ports and warehouses.
2022-02-0700 min
Robohub Podcastep.344: Learning for Collaboration, Not Competition, with Jakob Foerster
Jakob Foerster, an Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, dives into his work on multi-agent reinforcement learning.
2022-01-2500 min
Robohub Podcastep.343: A Robot You Swallow, with Torrey Smith
Torrey Smith discusses a robot you swallow that livestreams your digestive system for medical procedures such as endoscopies.
2022-01-0300 min
Robohub Podcastep.341: How Simbe Robotics is Innovating in Retail, with Brad Bogolea
Brad Bogolea discusses the innovation behind Tally, the autonomous robot from Simbe Robotics. Tally collects real-time analytics inside retail stores to improve the customer shopping experience, as well as the efficiency of managing the store.
2021-11-2300 min
Robohub Podcastep.340: NVIDIA and ROS Teaming Up To Accelerate Robotics Development, with Amit Goel
Amit Goel, Director of Product Management for Autonomous Machines at NVIDIA, discusses the new collaboration between Open Robotics and NVIDIA. The collaboration will dramatically improve the way ROS and NVIDIA's line of products such as Isaac SIM and the Jetson line of embedded boards operate together.
2021-10-2300 min
Robohub Podcastep.339: High Capacity Ride Sharing, with Alex Wallar
In this episode, our interviewer Lilly speaks to Alex Wallar, co-founder and CTO of The Routing Company. Wallar shares his background in multi-robot path-planning and optimization, and his research on scheduling and routing algorithms for high-capacity ride-sharing.
2021-10-1200 min
Robohub Podcastep.338: Marsupial Robots, with Chris Lee
Robohub Podcast · Marsupial Robots
Lilly interviews Chris Lee, a graduate student at Oregon State University. Lee explains his research on marsupial robots, or carrier-passenger pairs of heterogeneous robot systems. They discuss the possible applications of marsupial robots including the DARPA Subterranean Competition, and some of the technical challenges including optimal deployment formulated as a stochastic assignment problem.
2021-09-1400 min
Robohub Podcastep.337: Autonomously Mapping the Seafloor, with Anthony DiMare
and Charles Chiau
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJP6B5jfaOE
Robohub Podcast · Autonomously Mapping the Seafloor
Anthony DiMare and Charles Chiau deep dive into how Bedrock Ocean is innovating in the world of Marine Surveys. At Bedrock Ocean, they are developing an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) that is able to map the seafloor autonomously and at a high resolution. They are also developing a data platform to access, process, and visualize data captured from other companies at the seafloor.
Bedrock Ocean is solving two problems in the industry of Marine Surveying.
1. The vast majority of the seafloor is completely unmapped
2. T...
2021-08-2600 min
Robohub Podcastep.336: Mobile Outdoor Manipulation with RE2 Robotics, with Travis Schneider
Robohub Podcast · Mobile Outdoor Manipulation with RE2 Robotics
In this episode, Shihan Lu interviews Travis Schneider, Business Development Manager at RE2 Robotics, focusing on their work on mobile outdoor manipulation. Travis introduces several robotic products and services of RE2, including RE2 Sapien robotic arms and human-centered system integration, and how they can be used to help rather than replace workers. He also shares his thoughts about challenges in human-robot collaboration.
2021-08-0400 min
Robohub Podcastep.335: Autonomous Aircraft by Xwing, with Maxime Gariel
Robohub Podcast · Autonomous Aircraft
Abate talks to Maxime Gariel, CTO of Xwing about the autonomous flight technology they are developing.
At Xwing, they are converting traditional aircraft into remotely operated aircraft. They do this by retrofitting planes with multiple sensors including cameras, radar, and lidar, and by developing sensor fusion algorithms to allow their planes to understand the world around them, using highly accurate perception algorithms.
Xwing’s autonomous flight technology allows a plane to taxi in the airport, takeoff, fly to a destination, avoid airborne and ground threats, and land, all without any human input. This technology not onl...
2021-07-1200 min
Robohub Podcastep.334: Intel RealSense Enabling Computer Vision and Machine Learning At The Edge, with Joel Hagberg
Robohub Podcast · Intel RealSense Enabling Computer Vision and Machine Learning At The Edge
Intel RealSense is known in the robotics community for its plug-and-play stereo cameras. These cameras make gathering 3D depth data a seamless process, with easy integrations into ROS to simplify the software development for your robots. From the RealSense team, Joel Hagberg talks about how they built this product, which allows roboticists to perform computer vision and machine learning at the edge.
2021-06-1000 min
Robohub Podcastep.333: Snake-like Robot as a Worker Companion, with Matt Bilsky
Robohub Podcast · Snake-like Robot as a Worker Companion - FLX BOT
Matt Bilsky, founder and CEO of FLX Solutions, discusses the snake-like robot he invented called the FLX BOT. The FLX BOT consists of modular links, each with a joint that can extend and rotate to get into tight spaces. Each link includes sensors including inertial measurement units and a camera. The robot is used to navigate and work in challenging environments, such as above ceilings and within walls. Matt discusses the key innovations of his product as well as his academic and entrepreneurial journey that led him to t...
2021-05-2700 min
Robohub Podcastep.332: Swarms in Space, with Giovanni Beltrame
Robohub Podcast · Swarms in Space
In this episode, Lilly interviews Giovanni Beltrame, Professor of Computer and Software Engineering at École Polytechnique de Montréal where he directs the Making Innovative Space Technology (MIST) lab. Beltrame highlights the technical challenges of exploring another planet with a swarm of robots controlled by an astronaut operator. They discuss minimizing cognitive load for the operator, analog missions to volcanic lava tubes on Earth, and spherical hopping robots for the moon.
2021-05-1000 min
Robohub Podcastep.331: Multi-Robot Learning, with Amanda Prorok
Robohub Podcast · Multi-Robot Learning
In this episode, Lilly interviews Amanda Prorok, Professor of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge. Prorok discusses her research on multi-robot and multi-agent systems and learning coordination policies via Graph Neural Networks. They dig into her recent work on self-interested robots and finding explainability in emergent behavior.
2021-03-2900 min
Robohub Podcastep.330: Construction Site Automation by Dusty Robotics, with Tessa Lau
Robohub Podcast · Construction Site Automation
Abate interviews Tessa Lau on her startup Dusty Robotics which is innovating in the field of construction.
At Dusty Robotics, they developed a robot to automate the laying of floor plans on the floors in construction sites. Typically, this is done manually using a tape measure and reading printed out plans. This difficult task can often take a team of two a week to complete. Time-consuming tasks like this are incredibly expensive on a construction site where multiple different teams are waiting on this task to complete. Any errors in this process are even m...
2021-03-1200 min
Robohub Podcastep.329: Robots-as-a-Service, with Afshin Doust
Robohub Podcast · Robots-as-a-Service
In this episode, Lilly interviews Afshin Doust, CEO of Advanced Intelligent Systems. Doust explains the company’s modular, robots-as-a-service subscription business model. They discuss robotic solutions for the agricultural industry, disinfecting robots to combat COVID19, and other exciting new developments at AIS.
2021-02-2400 min
Robohub Podcastep.328: Inside Cybathlon, with Anni Kern
Robohub Podcast · Inside Cybathlon
Kate speaks with Anni Kern, Head of Communication, strategy, and teams at Cybathlon for over four years. She describes the motivation and concepts for the Cybathlon organizations to develop a common platform to remove barriers between people with disabilities, technology developers, and the public. Anni also describes the specifics of Cybathlon competitions and the organization and planning.
2021-02-1600 min
Robohub Podcastep.327: Computational Design, with Bernhard Thomaszewski
Robohub Podcast · Computational Design
Lilly interviews Bernhard Thomaszewski, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Montréal and research scientist at ETH Zurich. Thomaszewski discusses his background in animation at Disney, his current work on mechanical metamaterials and digital fabrication, and how physics-based modeling has connected the dots.
2021-01-2700 min
Robohub Podcastep.326: Deep Sea Mining, with Benjamin Pietro Filardo
Robohub Podcast · Deep Sea Mining
In this episode, Abate follows up with Benjamin Pietro Filardo, founder of Pliant Energy Systems and NACROM, the North American Consortium for Responsible Ocean Mining. Pietro talks about the deep sea mining industry, an untapped market with a massive potential for growth. Pietro discusses the current proposed solutions for deep sea mining which are environmentally destructive, and he offers an alternative solution using swarm robots which could mine the depths of the ocean while creating minimal disturbance to this mysterious habitat.
2021-01-1800 min
Robohub Podcastep.325: The Advantage of Fins, with Benjamin Pietro Filardo
Robohub Podcast · The Advantage of Fins
Abate interviews Benjamin "Pietro" Filardo, CEO and founder of Pliant Energy Systems. At PES, they developed a novel form of actuation using two undulating fins on a robot. These fins present multiple benefits over traditional propeller systems including excellent energy efficiency, low water turbulence, and an ability to maneuver in water, land, and ice. Aside from its benefits on a robot, Pietro also talks about its advantages for harnessing energy from moving water.
Watch this episode on YouTube
2020-12-1600 min
Robohub Podcastep.324: Embodied Interactions: from Robotics to Dance, with Kim Baraka
Robohub Podcast · Embodied Interactions: from Robotics to Dance
In this episode, our interviewer Lauren Klein speaks with Kim Baraka about his PhD research to enable robots to engage in social interactions, including interactions with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Baraka discusses how robots can plan their actions across multiple modalities when interacting with humans, and how models from psychology can inform this process. He also tells us about his passion for dance, and how dance may serve as a testbed for embodied intelligence within Human-Robot Interaction.
2020-12-0200 min
Robohub Podcastep.323: Multisensory Perception, with Jivko Sinapov
Robohub Podcast · Multisensory Perception
In this episode, Shihan Lu interviews Jivko Sinapov, Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Tufts University, about his work on behavior-grounded multisensory perception and exploration in robotics. Dr. Sinapov discusses several perspectives on multisensory perception in robotics, including data collection, data fusion, and robot control and planning. He also shares his experience about using robotics for K-12 education.
2020-11-1500 min
Robohub Podcastep.322: Exploring Venus with a Clockwork Rover, with Jonathan Sauder
Robohub Podcast · Exploring Venus with a Clockwork Rover
In this episode, Lilly interviews Jonathan Sauder, the Principal Investigator of a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts project to design a rover for the surface of Venus. Sauder explains why exploring Venus is important and why previous surface missions have only lasted a few hours. They discuss his innovative wheeled-robot concept, a hybrid automaton rover which would be mostly mechanical and powered by wind.
2020-11-0400 min
Robohub Podcastep.321: Empowering Farmers Through Root AI, with Josh Lessing
Robohub Podcast · Empowering Farmers Through Root AI
In this episode, Abate interviews Josh Lessing, co-founder and CEO of Root AI. At Root AI they are developing a system that tracks data on the farm and autonomously harvests crops using delicate grippers and computer vision. Lessing talks about the path they took to build a product with good market fit and how they brought a venture capital backed startup to market.
2020-10-1900 min
Robohub Podcastep.320: Planetary Drilling, with Kris Zacny
Robohub Podcast · Planetary Drilling
In this episode, Lilly Clark interviews Kris Zacny, the Vice President of Exploration Technologies at Honeybee Robotics. They discuss two focuses of development at Honeybee: technology for finding extinct extraterrestrial life and technology for in-situ resource utilization. Zacny speaks about the design and operation of current flight projects, and why drilling technology is key to these missions.
2020-10-0700 min
Robohub Podcastep.319: Micro-scale Surgical Robots, with Eric Diller
Robohub Podcast · Micro-scale Surgical Robots
In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Eric Diller, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, on wireless micro-scale robots that could eventually be used in human surgery. Diller speaks about the design, control, and manufacture of micro-scale surgical robotic devices, as well as when we might see this technology in the operating room.
2020-09-2300 min
Robohub Podcastep.318: Humanized Intelligence in Academia and Industry, with Ayanna Howard
Robohub Podcast · Humanized Intelligence in Academia and Industry
In this episode, Lauren Klein interviews Ayanna Howard, Professor and Chair of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. Professor Howard describes her wide range of work in robotics, from robots that assist children with special needs to trust in autonomous systems. She also discusses her path through the field of robotics in both academia and business, and the importance of conducting in-the-wild robotics research.
2020-09-0800 min
Robohub Podcastep.317: Environmental Monitoring with the SlothBot, with Gennaro Notomista
Robohub Podcast · Environmental Monitoring with the SlothBot
In this episode, Lauren Klein interviews Gennaro Notimista, a robotics PhD student in the Georgia Robotics and InTelligent Systems Laboratory at Georgia Tech. Gennaro discusses the SlothBot, a solar-powered robot that slowly traverses wires, like its animal namesake, to monitor the environment.
2020-08-2500 min
Robohub Podcastep.316: Introspective Robots, with Nathan Michael
Robohub Podcast · Introspective Robots
In this episode, Lilly interviews Nathan Michael, Professor and Director of the Resilient Intelligent Systems Lab at the Robotics Institute within Carnegie Mellon University. They discuss introspection, adaptation, and evolvement in robotics. Michael speaks about topics in state estimation and distributed perception, and other challenges in control, perception, and cognition for both single and multi-robot systems.
2020-08-0900 min
Robohub Podcastep.315: Exploring from a Distance, with Muralidharan Arikara
Robohub Podcast · Exploring From a Distance
In this episode, Lauren Klein interviews Muralidharan Arikara, CEO of Xarpie Labs. Xarpie Labs creates visualization and simulation experiences within the retail, healthcare, and defense industries. Arikara describes how Xarpie Labs grew as part of the Machani Group, which has decades of experience in automotive manufacturing, into an innovator in virtual and augmented reality. He elaborates on the role of Xarpie Lab’s virtual reality and augmented reality experiences in allowing real estate customers a vision of properties from a distance. Arikara also paints a picture of Xarpie Labs’ augmented reality tools, including a pro...
2020-07-2800 min
Robohub Podcastep.314: High Earth Orbit Robotics, with William Crowe
Robohub Podcast · High Earth Orbit Robotics
In this episode, Lilly interviews Dr. William Crowe, CEO of High Earth Orbit (HEO) Robotics. The mission of HEO Robotics is to provide high quality imagery of satellites, space-debris and resource-rich asteroids. Crowe discusses the technical challenges which make robotics and satellites similar like computer vision and controls, and those where traditional robotics approaches aren’t suitable like localization and mobility. He explains new trends in the satellite industry, and the need for high quality imagery.
2020-07-1400 min
Robohub Podcastep.313: Solid State Lidar – the 3D Camera, with Erin Bishop
Robohub Podcast · Solid State Lidar - The 3D Camera
In this episode, Abate interviews Erin Bishop from Sense Photonics about the technology in their “Solid State” LiDAR sensors that allows them to detect objects more accurately and over a larger field of view than traditional scanning LiDAR. Erin dives into the technical details of Solid State Lidar, discusses the applications and industries of the technology.
2020-06-2900 min
Robohub Podcastep.312: Safe Motion Planning in Real-time, with Luca Colasanto
Robohub Podcast · Safe Motion Planning in Real-time
In this episode, we hear from Luca Colasanto, Senior Robotic Scientist at Realtime Robotics, about real-time robot motion planning in dynamic and complex environments with human-robot collaboration. Realtime Robotics focuses on accelerating conventional motion planning through optimization of algorithms and hardware to allow safe use of robotic tools in work areas with humans. Luca spoke to our interviewer Kate about Realtime Robotic’s fast motion planning technology, including key aspects, such as perception, algorithms and custom hardware.
2020-06-1900 min
Robohub Podcastep.311: Robotics Manipulation with MoveIt, with Dave Coleman
Robohub Podcast · Robotics Manipulation with MoveIt
In this episode, Audrow Nash speaks with Dave Coleman, CEO of PickNik Robotics, about the open source robotics manipulation platform called MoveIt. Coleman talks about MoveIt's story, from inception and the early days to development and maintenance, as well as how MoveIt relates to the Robot Operating System (ROS) and their move to support ROS-2. He also speaks about MoveIt's implementation, including global versus local planners and what that means. Coleman concludes by talking about World MoveIt Day and how those interested can begin learning MoveIt and contributing.
2020-05-3100 min
Robohub Podcastep.310: RoboBee’s Untethered Flight, with Farrell Helbling
In this episode, Kate Zhou interviews Farrell Helbling, postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Microrobotics lab, who has worked on developing the RoboBee, an insect-inspired robot that is the lightest vehicle to achieve untethered flight. Farrell discusses challenges with building the robot at centimeter-scale as well as integration of sensors and power electronics particularly in considerations with weight trade-offs.
2020-05-2000 min
Robohub Podcastep.309: Learning to Grasp, with Jeannette Bohg
In this episode, Lilly Clark interviews Jeannette Bohg, Assistant Professor at Stanford, about her work in interactive perception and robot learning for grasping and manipulation tasks. Bohg discusses how robots and humans are different, the challenge of high dimensional data, and unsolved problems including continuous learning and decentralized manipulation.
2020-05-1100 min
Robohub Podcastep.308: Seeing like a Rover, with Janet Vertessi
Robohub Podcast · Seeing like a Rover
In this episode, Audrow Nash speaks with Janet Vertessi, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Princeton, on her book Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars. The book is written about her experience living and working with NASA's Mars Rover team, and includes her observations about the team’s leadership and their relationship with their robot millions of miles away on Mars. She also gives some advice from her findings for teams.
2020-04-2800 min
Robohub Podcastep.307: Commercializing Robot Brains, with Kajal Gada
In this episode, Lilly interviews Kajal Gada on her work at BrainCorp, the San Diego-based company behind BrainOS, a technology stack for autonomous solutions. Kajal discusses BrainCorp’s cloud-connected operating system and their floor cleaning, vacuuming, and warehouse delivery robots. She also articulates some of the challenges in becoming a software engineer and developing commercial solutions.
2020-04-1300 min
Robohub Podcastep.306: Microlocation, with David Mindell
In this episode, Abate interviews David Mindell, co-founder of Humatics. David discusses a system they developed that can detect the location of a special tracking device down to a centimeter level accuracy. They are currently developing a device to detect location down to a millimeter level accuracy. This solves a the core problem of localization for robots. David discusses the technology behind these products and their applications.
2020-03-2800 min
Robohub Podcastep.305: Coordination, Cooperation, and Collaboration, with Vijay Kumar
In this interview, Lilly interviews Vijay Kumar, Professor and Dean at the University of Pennsylvania. He discusses coordination, cooperation, and collaboration in multi-robot systems. He also explains where he draws inspiration from in his research, and why robotics has yet to meet science fiction.
2020-03-0100 min
Robohub Podcastep.304: Haptics and Virtual Interactions, with Heather Culbertson
In this episode, Shihan Lu interviews Dr. Heather Culbertson, Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Southern California, about her work in haptics. Dr. Culbertson discusses the data-driven realistic texture modeling and rendering, haptic technologies in the social touch, the combination of haptics and robots, expectations and obstacles of haptics in the next 5 years.
2020-02-1700 min
Robohub Podcastep.303: Fostering Creativity: RSS Pioneers and the YOLO Robot, with Patrícia Alves-Oliveira
In this episode, Lauren Klein interviews Human-Robot Interaction researcher Patrícia Alves-Oliveira. Alves-Oliveira tells us about the upcoming RSS Pioneers workshop at the 2020 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference; the workshop brings senior PhD students and postdoctoral researchers together to collaborate and discuss their work with distinguished members of the robotics field. She also describes her own research designing robots to encourage creativity in children.
2020-02-0200 min
Robohub Podcastep.302: Robots That Can See, Do, and Win, with Juxi Leitner
In this episode, Lilly interviews Juxi Leitner, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Queensland University of Technology and Co-Founder/CEO of LYRO Robotics. LYRO spun out of the 2017 win of the Amazon Robotics Challenge by Team ACRV. Here Juxi discusses deep learning, computer vision, intent in grasping and manipulation, and bridging the gap between abstract and low-level understandings of the world. He also discusses why robotics is really an integration field, the Amazon and other robotics challenges, and what’s important to consider when spinning an idea into a company.
2020-01-2900 min
Robohub Podcastep.301: Listening like a Human, Playing like a Machine, with Gil Weinberg
In this episode, our interviewer Audrow Nash speaks to Gil Weinberg, Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Music and the founding director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology. Weinberg leads a research lab called the Robotic Musicianship group, which focuses on developing artificial creativity and musical expression for robots and on augmented humans. Weinberg discusses several of his improvisational robots and how they work, including Shimon, a multi-armed robot marimba player, as well as his work in prosthetic devices for musicians.
2020-01-1000 min
RobotsPodcastPast and Present Podcast Team MembersPast and Present Podcast Team Members by Robots Podcast
2019-12-2235 min
Robohub Podcastep.300: Past and Present Podcast Team Members, with Sabine Hauert, Peter Dürr
and Andra Keay
Welcome to the 300th episode of the Robohub podcast! You might not know that the podcast has been going in one form or another for 14 years. Originally called “Talking Robots,” the podcast was started in 2006 by Dario Floreano and several of his PhD students at EPFL, in Switzerland, including Sabine Hauert, Peter Dürr, and Markus Waibel, who are all still involved in Robohub today. Since then, the podcast team has become international, with most of its interviewers in the United States and Europe, and all of its members being volunteers.
To celebrate 300 episodes of our podcast, we thought we wou...
2019-12-2200 min
Robohub Podcastep.299: On the Novelty Effect in Human-Robot Interaction, with Catharina Vesterager Smedegaard
In this episode, we take a closer look at the effect of novelty in human-robot interaction. Novelty is the quality of being new or unusual.
The typical view is that while something is new, or “a novelty”, it will initially make us behave differently than we would normally. But over time, as the novelty wears off, we will likely return to our regular behaviors. For example, a new robot may cause a person to behave differently initially, as its introduced into the person’s life, but after some time, the robot won't be as exciting, novel and motivating, and the pe...
2019-12-0900 min
Robohub Podcastep.298: Cognitive Robotics Under Uncertainty, with Marlyse Reeves
In this episode Lilly Clark interviews Marlyse Reeves, PhD student at MIT, about her work in cognitive robotics and hybrid activity-motion planning. Reeves discusses the role of robotics in space, the challenges of multi-vehicle missions, planning under uncertainty, and her work on an underwater exploration mission.
2019-11-2600 min
Robohub Podcastep.297: Using Natural Language in Human-Robot Collaboration, with Brad Hayes
In this episode, we hear from Brad Hayes, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, who directs the university's Collaborative AI and Robotics lab. The lab’s work focuses on developing systems that can learn from and work with humans—from physical robots or machines, to software systems or decision support tools—so that together, the human and system can achieve more than each could achieve on their own.
Our interviewer Audrow caught up with Dr. Hayes to discuss why collaboration may at times be preferable to full autonomy and automation, how human naration can be use...
2019-11-1100 min
Robohub Podcastep.296: Robust Robotics and the Quest for Intelligence, with Nicholas Roy
In this episode Lilly Clark interviews Nicholas Roy, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, about the Quest for Intelligence initiative and his research in robust robotics. Roy discusses how cognitive science pushes artificial intelligence, further pushing the capabilities of engineering tools and services, and speaks about the importance of explainable and ethical AI. He explains the challenges of capturing context and semantics in useful models of a system, and designing unmanned aerial vehicles and robots which interact with humans.
2019-10-2900 min
Robohub Podcastep.295: inVia Robotics: Product-Picking Robots for the Warehouse, with Rand Voorhies
In this episode, Lauren Klein speaks with Dr. Rand Voorhies, co-founder and CTO of inVia Robotics. In a world where consumers expect fast home delivery of a variety of goods, inVia’s mission is to help warehouse workers package diverse sets of products quickly using a system of autonomous mobile robots. Voorhies describes how inVia’s robots operate to pick and deliver boxes or totes of products to and from people workers in a warehouse environment eliminating the need for people to walk throughout the warehouse, and how the actions of the robots are optimized.
2019-10-0700 min
Robohub Podcastep.294: Autonomous Bricklaying by FBR, with Mark Pivac
In this episode, Ron Vanderkley interviews Mark Pivac, Chief Technical Officer and co-founder of FBR (formerly Fastbrick Robotics) about the world’s first end-to-end autonomous bricklaying robot, ‘Hadrian X’. Three years after his first interview, we catch up with Pivac to see how FBR has expanded its operation and chat about their latest commercial prototype, ‘Hadrian X’, as well as the future of the robotic construction industry.
2019-09-1800 min
Robohub Podcastep.293: A Robot to Help with Artificial Insemination, with Zhuoran Zhang
In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Zhuoran Zhang, PhD student at the University of Toronto, about how robots can be used to assist in artificial insemination. Zhang discusses how precise robotic manipulators can be used to extract a single sperm and how sperm can be evaluated for fitness using computer vision. Zhang also discusses his future plans.
2019-09-0200 min
Robohub Podcastep.292: Robot Operating System (ROS) & Gazebo, with Brian Gerkey
In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Brian Gerkey, CEO of Open Robotics about the Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo. Both ROS and Gazebo are open source and are widely used in the robotics community. ROS is a set of software libraries and tools, and Gazebo is a 3D robotics simulator. Gerkey explains ROS and Gazebo and talks about how they are used in robotics, as well as some of the design decisions of the second version of ROS, ROS2.
2019-08-0600 min
RobotsPodcastMedieval Automata and Cathartic Objects: Modern Robots Inspired by History by Robots PodcastMedieval Automata and Cathartic Objects: Modern Robots Inspired by History by Robots Podcast by Robots Podcast
2019-07-3130 min
Robohub Podcastep.291: Medieval Automata and Cathartic Objects: Modern Robots Inspired by History, with Michal Luria
In this episode, Lauren Klein interviews Michal Luria, a PhD candidate in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, about research that explores the boundaries of Human-Robot Interaction. Michal draws inspiration from the Medieval Times for her project to test how historical automata can inform modern robotics. She also discusses her work with cathartic objects to support emotional release.
2019-07-2200 min
Robohub Podcastep.289: On Design in Human-Robot Interaction, with Bilge Mutlu
In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Bilge Mutlu, Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, about design-thinking in human-robot interaction. Professor Mutlu discusses design-thinking at a high-level, how design relates to science, and he speaks about the main areas of his work: the design space, the evaluation space, and how features are used within a context. He also gives advice on how to apply a design-oriented mindset.
2019-06-2400 min
Robohub Podcastep.288: On Artificial Intelligence for Wildlife Conservation, with Milind Tambe
In this episode, Lauren Klein interviews Professor Milind Tambe of Computer Science and Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California about his research using artificial intelligence for wildlife conservation. Dr. Tambe describes his team's use of security games to combat poaching, and his experience deploying his algorithms to inform park ranger schedules internationally.
2019-06-1100 min
Robohub Podcastep.287: Robonomics Platform: Integrating Robots into the Economy, with Aleksandr Kapitonov
In this episode, Lilly Clark interviews Aleksandr Kapitonov, “robot economics” academic society professor at Airalab, on his work for Robonomics Platform, an Ethereum network infrastructure for integrating robots and cyber-physical systems directly into the economy. Kapitonov discusses the advantages of using blockchain, use cases including a fully autonomous vending machine, and the Robonomics technology stack.
2019-05-2800 min
Robohub Podcastep.286: Halodi Robotics’ EVEr3: A Full-size Humanoid Robot, with Bernt Børnich
In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Bernt Børnich, CEO, CTO, and Co-founder of Halodi Robotics, about Eve (EVEr3), a general purpose full-size humanoid robot, capable of a wide variety of tasks. Børnich discusses how Eve can be used in research, how Eve’s motors have been designed to be safe around humans (including why they use a low gear ratio), how they do direct force control and the benefits of this approach, and how they use machine learning to reduce cogging in their motors. Børnich also discusses the longterm goal of Halodi Robotics and how they plan to...
2019-05-1300 min
Robohub Podcastep.285: On Storytelling Robots for Children, with Hae Won Park
In this episode, Lauren Klein interviews Hae Won Park, a Research Scientist in the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, about storytelling robots for children. Dr. Park elaborates on enabling robots to understand how children are learning, and how they can help children with literacy skills and encourage exploration.
2019-05-0100 min
Robohub Podcastep.284: ERICA: A Robot Made to Look Human, with Dylan Glas
In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Dylan Glas, Senior Robotics Software Architect at Futurewei Technologies and former chief architect for the ERICA android in the ERATO Ishiguro Symbiotic Human-Robot Interaction Project, about his work on ERICA, a realistic android robot. Glas discusses how ERICA was designed, the uncanny valley, the software architecture of ERICA, and some of the research studies that ERICA has been involved in.
2019-04-1500 min
Robohub Podcastep.283: Misty II: A Robotics Platform for Developers, with Ian Bernstein
In this episode, Audrow Nash speaks with Ian Bernstein, Founder and Head of Product at Misty Robotics, about a robotics platform designed for developers called Misty II. Bernstein discusses the motivation behind making a robotics platform for developers (relating it to personal computers), Misty II’s hardware extensibility and software “skills,” and the future direction of Misty Robotics.
2019-04-0700 min
Robohub Podcastep.282: A Social Robot Companion for Older Adults, with Dor Skuler
In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Dor Skuler, CEO and co-founder of Intuition Robotics, about a socially assistive robot for older adults named ElliQ. Skuler discusses the motivation for ElliQ, how it infers context and changes its behavior accordingly, and how ElliQ adapts its behavior over time.
2019-03-1800 min
Robohub Podcastep.281: On Demand Drone Deliveries, with Yariv Bash
In this episode Abate interviews Yariv Bash from Flytrex. Yariv discusses how Flytrex works in cooperation with local businesses in a city to use drones to rapidly transport goods in a local region. A practical application is the delivery of food from local restaurants. Yariv discusses Flytrex’s plans for using their USD$7.5 million series B round of funding.
2019-03-0500 min
Robohub Podcastep.280: Semantics in Robotics, with Amy Loutfi
In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Amy Loutfi, a professor at Örebro University, about how semantic representations can be used to help robots reason about the world. Loutfi discusses semantics in general, as well as how semantics have been used for a simulated quad rotor to do path planning within constraints.
2019-02-1800 min
Robohub Podcastep.279: Safe Robot Learning on Hardware, with Jaime Fernández Fisac
In this interview, Audrow Nash interviews Jaime Fernández Fisac, a PhD student at University of California, Berkeley, working with Professors Shankar Sastry, Claire Tomlin, and Anca Dragan. Fisac is interested in ensuring that autonomous systems such as self-driving cars, delivery drones, and home robots can operate and learn in the world—while satisfying safety constraints. Towards this goal, Fisac discusses different examples of his work with unmanned aerial vehicles and talks about safe robot learning in general; including, the curse of dimensionality and how it impacts control problems (including how some systems can be decomposed into simpler control prob...
2019-02-0400 min
Robohub Podcastep.278: IROS 2018 Exhibition (Part 3 of 3), with Ryan Gariepy, Lars Grimstad
and Péter Fankhauser
In this interview, Audrow Nash interviews Ryan Gariepy, Lars Grimstad, and Péter Fankhauser.
2019-01-2000 min
Robohub Podcastep.277: Presented work at IROS 2018 (Part 3 of 3), with Pauline Pounds, Philippe Morere
and Yujung Liu
In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Pauline Pound, Philippe Morere, and Yujung Liu about the work they presented at the 2018 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) in Madrid, Spain.
2019-01-0900 min
Robohub Podcastep.276: IROS 2018 Exhibition (Part 2 of 3), with Kristoffer Richardsson, Michael Zillich
and Paulo Alvito
In this interview, Audrow Nash interviews Kristoffer Richardsson, Michael Zillich, and Paulo Alvito.
2018-12-2700 min
Robohub Podcastep.275: Presented work at IROS 2018 (Part 2 of 3), with Robert Lösch, Ali Marjovi
and Sophia Sakr
In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Robert Lösch, Ali Marjovi, and Sophia Sakr about the work they presented at the 2018 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) in Madrid, Spain.
2018-12-1000 min
Robohub Podcastep.274: IROS 2018 Exhibition (Part 1 of 3), with Gabriel Lopes
and Bernt Børnich
In this interview, Audrow Nash interviews Gabriel Lopes, Robot and Control Scientist at Robot Care Systems, and Bernt Børnich, CEO and Co-founder of Halodi Robotics.
2018-11-2700 min
RobotsPodcastRobot Pediatric CoachIn this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Ayanna Howard, Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, about her work to help children with the movement disorder cerebral palsy. Howard discusses how robots and tablet can be used to “gamify” pediatric therapy. The idea is that if therapy is fun and engaging children are more likely to do it, and thus, they are more likely to see the long-term benefits of the therapy. Howard discusses how therapy is “gamified,” how a small humanoid robot is used to coach children, and how they work with pediatricians.
http://robohub.org/robot-pediatric-coach/
2017-09-3042 min
RobotsPodcastSatellite Assembly in SpaceIn this episode, Andrew Vaziri speaks with John Lymer, Chief Architect of Robotics and Automation at SSL. They highlight key programs in space robotics from the 1980s through to SSL’s current program to robotically assemble satellites in space.
http://robohub.org/robots-satellite-assembly-in-space/
2016-10-2644 min
RobotsPodcastHuman 2.0: Exoskeletons and OrthosesIn this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Hugh Herr, Director of the Biomechatronics Group at MIT. Herr talks about the accident that led to the amputation of both of his legs below the knee and how this shaped his rock climbing and academic career. Herr also discusses orthoses and exoskeletons developed by his research group, as well as the future of bionic technology.
http://robohub.org/human-2-0-exoskeletons-and-orthoses/
2016-08-2038 min
RobotsPodcastSelf-driving Cars: From Research to RoadIn this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Karl Iagnemma, a Principal Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the CEO of nuTonomy, about autonomous vehicles in urban environments. Iagnemma discusses the market for autonomous cars, why nuTonomy is being developed and, at least initially, deployed in Singapore, and the technology of autonomous cars.
http://robohub.org/self-driving-cars-from-research-to-road/
2016-07-0935 min
Robohub Podcastep.200: 200th Episode Special, with Rodney Brooks
Transcript below.
In this episode, we celebrate our 200th episode! That’s over 6000 minutes of robot goodness and nearly 8 years releasing interviews with your favorite roboticists. The podcast is all volunteer run, a special thanks to everyone on the team who’s made this possible! And thanks to all of you for listening in all these years.
To celebrate, our president Audrow Nash has invited a team of old-timers from the podcast team, and one of our favorite recurring guests, Rodney Brooks from Rethink Robotics.
2016-01-2237 min
Robohub Podcastep.180: Soft Robotics Toolkit, with Donal Holland
In this podcast, Ron Vanderkley speaks to Donal Holland of Harvard University about his team’s work on the Soft Robotics Toolkit.
2015-04-1700 min
Robohub Podcastep.173: RoboThespian, with Will Jackson
Transcript below
In today’s podcast, Ron Vanderkley speaks with Will Jackson from Engineered Arts Limited about his team’s work making robot actors.
2015-01-1000 min
Robohub Podcastep.167: Engaging Girls in Robotics, with Hannah and Rachael Tipperman, Ross Mead
and Elizabeth Croft
Earlier this year, the Robots Podcast team came across a story about two 17 year old twin sisters who started their own robotics outreach group. The story about the Tipperman sisters got us curious. What kind of robotics outreach activities are out there to inspire children? Do any of these activities make a difference in getting more girls interested in robotics?
2014-10-1700 min