Robot Talk

Claire chatted to Lorenzo Jamone from Queen Mary University of London all about robotic hands, dexterity, and the sense of touch.

Lorenzo Jamone is a Senior Lecturer in Robotics at Queen Mary University of London, where he is the founder and director of the CRISP group: Cognitive Robotics and Intelligent Systems for the People. He received a PhD degree in humanoid technologies at the Italian Institute of Technology. He was previously an Associate Researcher at Waseda University in Japan, and at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal. His current research interests include cognitive robotics, robotic manipulation, force and tactile sensing, robot learning.

Win a Robot Talk T-shirt

For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is share your favourite episode on social media and tag us @RobotTalkPod. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month. Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Kate Devlin from King's College London about the social and ethical implications of robotics and AI.

We touch on a range of different topics from concerns over job losses and privacy to issues of inequality, trust and power. In the second half of the interview, we talk a bit about robotics, AI and relationships. The conversation isn't explicit, but if you'd prefer to give that part of the conversation a miss, you can stop the podcast at around 22 minutes, when you hear the music.

Kate Devlin is Reader in Artificial Intelligence & Society in the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London. She is an interdisciplinary computer scientist investigating how people interact with and react to technologies, both past and future. Kate is the author of Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots, which examines the ethical and social implications of technology and intimacy. She is Creative and Outreach lead for the UKRI Responsible Artificial Intelligence UK programme — an international research and innovation ecosystem for responsible AI.

Win a Robot Talk T-shirt

For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is share your favourite episode on social media and tag us @RobotTalkPod. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month. Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Guillaume Doisy from Dexory about autonomous warehouse robots, mobile robotics, and software.

Guillaume Doisy is the current Lead Systems Architect at Dexory, the leading UK robotics and AI company building state-of-the-art fully autonomous mobile robots for use in warehouses. Guillaume has a wide range of responsibilities including building the robots ability to function autonomously. The French native has significant expertise in the field of autonomous mobile robots having begun his career at French start-up Wyca as Chief Robotics Officer. Guillaume is also a long-term contributor to ROS (Robotic Operating Software), the open-source robotics software project.

Win a Robot Talk T-shirt

For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shire, all you have to do is share your favourite episode on social media and tag us @RobotTalkPod. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month. Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Sara Adela Abad Guaman from University College London about adaptable robots inspired by nature.

Sara Adela Abad Guaman is a Lecturer at University College London's Mechanical Engineering Department. She is also the head of the Adaptable Robotics Lab. Inspired by biological organisms, Sara aims to develop robots and mechanical systems with enhanced adaptability to variable environmental conditions. Her vision is to use bioinspiration and morphological computation to address global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainability.

Win a Robot Talk T-shirt

Exciting news! The Robot Talk T-shirt competition is back for the new season. For a chance to win, all you have to do is share your favourite episode of Robot Talk on social media and tag us @RobotTalkPod. One lucky winner will be selected each month to receive an exclusive free organic cotton t-shirt.

Check out the Living with AI podcast

If you enjoy Robot Talk and you're looking for a new podcast to listen to, you might like to check out the Living with AI podcast!

Robot Talk will be back for Season 4 on the 29th September - make sure you're subscribed to be the first to hear the latest episodes.

Robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous machines have become a necessity for our future world but what are the implications of robots for society and how much influence does science fiction have on how we embrace our new friends? In this special live recording at the Great Exhibition Road Festival, Claire chatted to Glyn Morgan (Science Museum), Bani Anvari (University College London) and Thrishantha Nanayakara (Imperial College London) to explore how our intelligent friends from the world of science fiction match up with state-of-the art robotics and artificial intelligence reality.

Glyn Morgan is a curator of exhibitions at the Science Museum, most recently: "Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination" (open until August 20th). He also teaches a course on Science Fiction at Imperial College, and has published widely on many aspects of the genre writing for the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Royal Society, and the Science Fiction Research Association, amongst others. His research is interested in the interface between science fiction and other disciplines from history to psychology and beyond, and the ways science fiction can be used as a cognitive tool to help us understand ourselves and our society.

Bani Anvari is a Full Professor of Intelligent Mobility at the Centre for Transport Studies in the Faculty of Engineering at University College London (UCL). She is the founder and director of Intelligent Mobility at UCL. Her vision is to enable humans to trust and fully exploit the benefits of future mobility services through new technology and innovation. Her research focuses on Intelligent Mobility and exploring interactions with semi- and fully-autonomous vehicles in various contexts, benefiting significantly from Robotics and AI.

Thrishantha Nanayakkara is a Professor of Robotics and the Director of the Morphlab at Dyson School of Design Engineering (DSDE), Imperial College London. His group has used soft robots to understand how compliance of the body helps to stabilise dynamic interactions with the environment. He is and has been PI on projects of more than £5 million that have pushed the boundaries of our understanding on how conditioning the body improves the efficacy of action and perception in human-human and human-robot interactions.

This week, Claire chatted to Robert Richardson from the University of Leeds all about 3D printing, robot design, and infrastructure repair.

Robert Richardson is Professor of Robotics in the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds, and executive chair of EPSRC UK-RAS network. His research interests include robotics for civil infrastructure inspection and repair, making smart bodies for smart robots, and robotics for 3D printing applications. As Innovation Director for University of Leeds spin out company Acuity robotics, he is working towards real world impact in civil inspection tasks. In 2011 he led an international team to develop and deploy robots into the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

Join us for Robot Talk Live

Claire will be chatting about Robotics and Science Fiction with three very special guests at Imperial College London this Sunday at 1pm, as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival and the UK Festival of Robotics. Drop-in spaces will be available on the day.

This week, Claire chatted to Sara Bernardini from Royal Holloway University of London all about decision-making, reconfigurable robots, and oceanography.

Sara Bernardini is a Professor of AI at Royal Holloway University of London, the Principal Research Scientist in AI and Data Science at the National Oceanography Centre and a Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute. Her research in decision-making for autonomous systems lies at the intersection of AI, cognitive robotics, and mathematical optimisation. Most of her work focuses on planning for single-agent and multi-agent systems to enable them to act intelligently in real time despite resource and environmental constraints, noisy or faulty sensors, imperfect abilities and extreme conditions.

Join us for Robot Talk Live

Claire will be chatting about Robotics and Science Fiction with three very special guests at Imperial College London at 1pm on Sunday 18th June, as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival and the UK Festival of Robotics. Drop-in spaces will be available on the day.

This week, Claire chatted to James Kell from Jacobs Engineering UK all about civil infrastructure, nuclear robotics and jet engine inspection.

James Kell is Robotics Technical Director at Jacobs Engineering UK. He is responsible for the internal robotics technical strategy and is actively looking to apply the decades worth of robotics and remote handling experience that Jacobs has to the wider market in other sectors. The overall intention is to extend the life of critical national infrastructure like roads, rail, and water. James's previously worked for Rolls-Royce where his role was to develop keyhole surgery technologies to service jet engines. James is also a member of the Robotics Growth Partnership, supported by BEIS.

Join us for Robot Talk Live

Advance tickets are available for the live recording of Robot Talk in June: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robotics-and-science-fiction-tickets-623492231047 Claire will be chatting about Robotics and Science Fiction with three very special guests at Imperial College London at 1pm on Sunday 18th June, as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival and the UK Festival of Robotics.

This week, Claire chatted to Elena De Momi from the the Polytechnic University of Milan all about surgical robotics, artificial intelligence, and the upcoming ICRA robotics conference in London.

Elena De Momi received her MSc in Biomedical Engineering in 2002, PhD in Bioengineering in 2006, and she is currently Associate Professor in the Electronic Information and Bioengineering Department (DEIB) of Politecnico di Milano. She is co-founder of the Neuroengineering and Medical Robotics Laboratory, in 2008, being responsible of the Medical Robotics section. Her academic interests include computer vision and image-processing, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and simulators, teleoperation, haptics, medical robotics, human robot interaction.

Join us for Robot Talk Live

Advance tickets are now available for the live recording of Robot Talk in June!

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robotics-and-science-fiction-tickets-623492231047 Claire will be chatting about Robotics and Science Fiction with three very special guests at Imperial College London at 1pm on Sunday 18th June, as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival and the UK Festival of Robotics.