Building a Future with Robots

Peter Gray from Team Gray Matter tells us how he controls machines with his mind.  Part of our free online course Building a Future with Robots:
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/robotic-future/3

Meet the educators from Sheffield Robotics who contribute to the free online course 'Building a Future with Robots.'

Each of our educators has a vision for a future with robots. We ask, has learning about the current research and development and where it’s potentially going given you some insight into why flying cars, Robocops and Iron Men don’t exist yet?

Our experts share what the future will look like for team working robots.

First up, Dr Jonathan Aitken gives us a glimpse into the factories of the future, explaining how the Kuka iiwa robot arm will work alongside workers on the factory floor. We’ll then hear from Professor Noel Sharkey about robot surgeons and from Dr Roderich Gross about swarms of exploratory robots.

Who might be working with robots in the future? Could the study of robotic systems be the key to unlocking your future career?

In this video, academics and students from The University of Sheffield give us their view on how, in a growing industry, there are many careers options for those who can work with robots.

As we have seen in previous videos, a human-robot team, the robot knows how to act because the human controller is telling it what to do. However, in a robot-robot team, the robots must interact and co-operate with each other to decide what to do next.

In this video, Dr Michalis Smyrnakis explains how game theory provides a mathematical framework for robots (in the example he uses UAVs or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) to work together to achieve a common goal. We’ll look at game theory in a bit more detail in the next step.

The Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield is home to one of the world’s most advanced medical robots: The daVinci Si. In this video, Urological surgeon David Yates discusses his working relationship with the daVinci Si robot surgeon and we watch them work together to perform a prostatectomy.

WARNING: This video contains some brief graphic footage of surgery that some learners may find distressing.

Swarm robotics provides another mechanism for the coordination of multi-robot systems. In robot swarms, a desired collective behavior emerges from the interactions between the robots and interactions of robots with the environment.

In this video, Dr Roderich Gross introduces us to the e-puck and explains how, with very little brain power, these robots can work together to successfully achieve a complex common goal.

Dr Mahnaz Arvaneh is developing a brain-computer interface (BCI) which uses electroencephalography (EEG) technology to read brain signals and convert them into actions on a computer screen.

In this video, Mahnaz demonstrates her system, using the Emotiv EPOC+, an EEG headset which measures brain signals.

We take a look into a realistic future for robots inspired by nature. Emily Collins is a PhD student in Psychology and in this video, she explains her research which explores how human psychology and emotion can improve the biomimetic robot, Miro.

We’ll then hear insights from educators from Sheffield Robotics on some of the future applications of bioinspired robots.