Robohub Podcast

In this episode we speak with Chris Rogers about the use of LEGO in educating young children in engineering, math and science. We then speak with Liz Herron on her experiences with children using LEGO MINDSTORMS robotic kits at the LEGO Education Centre.

In this episode we speak with Davide Faconti, leader of the REEM project, one of the few European contenders in humanoid robotics. We then speak with Jun Ho Oh from South Korea who was the general chair of the last International Conference on Humanoid Robots for his snapshot view of the field as well as the HUBO humanoids developed in his lab.

This second episode in a two-part series on Robot Ethics interviews Ronald Arkin, Regents' Professor and Associate Dean for Research at Georgia Tech University in the US. Topics include military robots, robots in the society, medical robots and legal responsibilities.

This first episode in a two part series on Robot Ethics interviews Noel Sharkey, Professor of Public Engagement, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield in the UK. Topics include military robots, robots in the society, medical robots and legal responsibilities.

David Levy, author of the book "Love + Sex with Robots" and Kathleen Richardson who is a doctor of Robot Anthropology at Cambridge University discuss the future of human-robot relationships, both physical and emotional.

Raúl Ordóñez from the Motoman Robotics Lab talks about research in industrial robotics and how he hopes to use visual servoing as a feedback mechanism allowing robot arms to accomplish complex tasks such as juggling.

We review the biggest events in robotics in 2008 and look to what 2009 has to offer with our panel of experts: Dan Kara from Robotics Trends, Terry Fong from the NASA Ames Research Center, Dario Floreano from the EPFL, Steve Rainwater from robots.net, and Minoru Asada from Osaka University.

Mark Tilden, passionate robot builder with WowWee Robotics, talks about designing robots for children, and what he thinks that scientists and researchers can learn from the toy industry.

Gil Weinberg who is the Director of Music Technology at Georgia Tech, presents his wooden robot drummer Haile that is capable of playing with human teachers and even evolving its own beats to reach robotic improvisation. He also introduces his latest robot, Shimon the Marimba player. Our second guest, Atsuo Takanishi describes the Waseda Flutist, a robot that mimics human lungs, vocal chords, and lips to accurately play the flute.

Robert Full from UC Berkley presents his research on animal locomotion and how his insights have been inspiring engineers to create robots. Auke Ijspeert from the EPFL then shares some thoughts on bio-inspired locomotion.