Robohub Podcast

In this episode, we speak with Ramon Pericet and Michal Dobrzynski from EPFL about their Curved Artificial Compound Eye (CurvACE) published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last week. Inspired by the fly’s vision system, their sensor can enable a large range of applications that require motion detection using a small plug-and-play device. As shown in the video below, you could use these sensors to control small robots navigating an environment, even in the dark, or equip a small autonomous flying robot with limited payload.

Link to audio file (29:07)In this episode, AJung talks to Peter Asaro from The New School in New York city about autonomous weapons systems. Peter tells us about the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an international consortium of NGOs working together t...

In this episode we hear from Peter Asaro, an expert on lethal robotic weapons, about an international campaign to ban autonomous killer robots.

Link to audio file (25:02)In this episode we hear from researchers at the Harvard Microrobotics Lab about the Science paper published today reporting on the first controlled flight of an insect-sized robot. The amazing high-speed video below shows the ...

In this episode we hear from researchers at the Harvard Microrobotics Lab about the Science paper published today reporting on the first controlled flight of an insect-sized robot.

Link to audio file (33:23)In this episode Per talk to Pericle Salvini from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna about his work with social, ethical and legal issues in robotics today. We also hear about the Robolaw project that will be fundamental for a Eu...

In this episode Per talks to Pericle Salvini from Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna about his work with social, ethical and legal issues in robotics today. We also hear about the Robolaw project that will provide advice to the European Union when it creates laws concerning robotics.

Link to audio file (31:43)In this episode we hear how the Spanish robotic startup Adele is creating a marketplace for robotics software. Through their platform, robot developers can buy software components for their robots, and software developers can ...

In this episode we hear how the Spanish robotic startup Adele is creating a marketplace for robotics software. Through their platform, robot developers can buy software components for their robots, and software developers can sell their code, in a practical way. Examples of the software components, Adele calls them sparks, are speech recognition, synthetic speech, vision systems and user interface components. Their flagship project FIONA allows users to create intelligent and interactive virtual avatars.

Link to audio file (50:26)In this episode we hear from Professor Gurvinder Virk from the University of Gävl about how international standards are created in the ISO. He also tells us why he thinks they are essential for robotics and how you can partic...