Robot Talk

This week, Claire chatted to Maria Bauza Villalonga from DeepMind all about robot learning, transferable skills, and general AI.

Maria Bauza Villalonga is research scientist at DeepMind. In 2022, she earned her PhD in Robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with Prof. Alberto Rodriguez. Her research focuses on achieving precise robotic generalization by learning probabilistic models of the world that allow robots to reuse their skills across multiple tasks with high success. Maria has received several fellowships including Facebook, NVIDIA, and LaCaixa.

This week, Claire chatted to Jonathan Aitken from the University of Sheffield all about manufacturing, sewer inspection, and robots in the real world.

Jonathan Aitken is a Senior University Teacher in Robotics at the University of Sheffield. His research is focused on building useful, useable, and expandable architectures for future robotics systems. Most recently this has involved building complex digital twins for collaborative robots in manufacturing processes and investigating localisation for robots operating in sewer pipes. His teaching focuses on providing students with the tools to bring distributed computing to complex robotic processes.

This week, Claire chatted to Yang Gao from the University of Surrey all about space robotics and planetary exploration.

Yang Gao is Professor of Space Autonomous Systems and Founding Head of the STAR LAB that specializes in robotic sensing, perception, visual guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) and biomimetic mechanisms for industrial applications in extreme environments. She brings over 20 years of research experience in developing robotics and autonomous systems, in which she has been the principal investigator of over 30 inter/nationally teamed projects and involved in real-world mission development.

This week, Claire chatted to Ignazio Maria Viola from the University of Edinburgh all about aerodynamics, dandelion-inspired drones, and swarm sensing.

Ignazio Maria Viola is Professor of Fluid Mechanics and Bioinspired Engineering at the School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. He is the recipient of the ERC Consolidator Grant Dandidrone to explore the unsteady aerodynamics of dandelion-inspired drones.

This week, Claire chatted to Emily S. Cross from the University of Glasgow and Western Sydney University all about neuroscience, social learning, and human-robot interaction.

Emily S. Cross is a Professor of Social Robotics at the University of Glasgow, and a Professor of Human Neuroscience at the MARCS Institute at Western Sydney University. Using interactive learning tasks, brain scanning, and dance, acrobatics and robots, she and her Social Brain in Action Laboratory team explore how we learn by watching others throughout the lifespan, how action experts' brains enable them to perform physical skills so exquisitely, and the social influences that shape human-robot interaction.

This week, Claire chatted to Sabine Hauert from the University of Bristol all about swarm robotics, nanorobots, and environmental monitoring.

Sabine Hauert is Associate Professor of Swarm Engineering at University of Bristol. She leads a team of 20 researchers working on making swarms for people, and across scales, from nanorobots for cancer treatment, to larger robots for environmental monitoring, or logistics. Previously she worked at MIT and EPFL. She is President and Executive Trustee of non-profits robohub.org and aihub.org, which connect the robotics and AI communities to the public.

This week, Claire chatted to Dan Stoyanov from University College London all about robotic vision, surgical robotics, and artificial intelligence.

Dan Stoyanov, FREng, FIET, is a Professor at UCL Computer Science holding a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies. He is Director of the Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS), a large research centre combining engineering and clinical expertise. His research interests are focused on surgical robotics, surgical data science and the development of surgical AI systems for clinical use. He is Chief Scientist at Digital Surgery, and he co-founded Odin Vision Ltd as a UCL spin-out focused on AI in gastroenterology.

This week, Claire chatted to Mollie Claypool from Automated Architecture all about robot house-building, zero-carbon architecture, and community participation.

Mollie Claypool is CEO of AUAR Ltd, a tech company revolutionising house building using automation. Mollie is a leading architecture theorist focused on issues of social justice highlighted by increasing automation in architecture and design production. She is also Associate Professor in Architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.

This week, Claire chatted to Chris Atkeson from Carnegie Mellon University all about humanoid robots, human-aware environments and the future of AI and robotics.

Chris Atkeson is a professor in the Robotics Institute and Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on developing humanoid and super-human robots. His work inspired aspects of the design of the character Baymax (an inflatable robot that takes care of people) in the Disney movie Big Hero 6. His life goal is to fulfil the science fiction vision of machines that achieve human levels of competence in perceiving, thinking, and acting.

As a special treat for the holiday season, Claire asked her guests some extra questions about their careers, their advice, and their favourite robots. In this clip, UK roboticists describe their daily lives working in robotics.