Claire chatted to Keenan Wyrobek from Zipline about drones for delivering life-saving medicine to remote locations.

Keenan Wyrobek is co-founder and head of product and engineering at Zipline, the world’s first drone delivery service whose focus is delivering life-saving medicine to the most difficult to reach places on earth. Prior to Zipline, Keenan was a co-founder and director of the Personal Robotics Program at Willow Garage. He was involved in launching the Robot Operating System (ROS) and shipping PR2, the first personal robot for software R&D. Keenan has spent years delivering high tech products to market across a range of fields including consumer electronics and medical robotics.

Claire chatted to Isabella Fiorello from the University of Freiburg about plant-inspired robots made from living materials.

Isabella Fiorello is a Junior Group Leader and Principal Investigator of the Bioinspired Plant-hybrid Materials group at the University of Freiburg in Germany. She has a Master’s Degree in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Turin in Italy and a PhD in Biorobotics from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy. Her research focusses on the development of biologically-inspired microfabricated living materials able to precisely interact with complex unstructured surfaces for applications in precision agriculture, smart fabrics, space, and soft robotics.

Claire chatted to Christos Bergeles from King’s College London about micro-surgical robots to deliver therapies deep inside the body.

Christos Bergeles received his PhD in Robotics from ETH Zurich in Switzerland in 2011. As a Professor at King’s College London, he directs the “Robotics and Vision in Medicine Lab” whose mission is to develop micro-surgical robots that deliver regenerative therapies deep inside the human body. He holds funding for the development of instrumentation that delivers stem cells to diseased retinal layers in the eye. He and his team are very active in public engagement and patient involvement activities, such as New Scientist Live and the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.

Claire chatted to Mini Rai from Orbit Rise about orbital and planetary robots.

Mini Rai is the founding Director of Orbit Rise Ltd and an honorary Professor at the University of Lincoln. Previously, she was the Global Chair in Robotic Engineering at the University of Lincoln and an Associate Professor at the Surrey Space Centre. Mini has over 27 years of research and innovation experience in Space Engineering and Technology. With deep-rooted expertise in robotics, automation, control and systems engineering, she has led a large and diverse portfolio of national and international programmes on space robotic missions, spanning orbital and planetary robotics.

Claire chatted to Joe Wolfel from Terradepth about autonomous submersible robots for collecting ocean data.

Joe Wolfel is the CEO and founder of Terradepth. He is passionate about helping people make better and faster decisions regarding what we do (and don’t do) in the ocean. Terradepth designs and builds ocean-going robots at scale, deploys them, and delivers data through an ocean data platform tailored for the maritime community. Prior to Terradepth, Joe has helped start a couple other companies, worked as a management consultant, and served as a US Navy SEAL officer with deployments throughout the Middle East and Africa. Joe was educated at the US Naval Academy.

Claire chatted to Gabriella Pizzuto from the University of Liverpool about intelligent robotic manipulators for laboratory automation.

Gabriella Pizzuto is a Lecturer in Robotics and Chemistry Automation at the University of Liverpool. She is also a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow and ECR Co-Chair on the EPSRC AI Hub in Chemistry. She has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Manchester, where she was also a Marie-Sklodowska Curie early stage researcher and a visiting scholar at the University of Edinburgh and Italian Institute of Technology. She was then a postdoctoral research associate at the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, prior to joining the University of Liverpool.

Claire chatted to Pratap Tokekar from the University of Maryland about how teams of robots with different capabilities can work together.

Pratap Tokekar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Maryland, and an Amazon Scholar. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the GRASP lab of University of Pennsylvania and later, an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech. He has a degree in Electronics and Telecommunication from the College of Engineering Pune in India and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. He received the Amazon Research Award in 2022, and the NSF CAREER award in 2020.

Claire chatted to Maria Elena Giannaccini from the University of Aberdeen about soft and bioinspired robotics for healthcare and beyond.

Maria Elena Giannaccini has a degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Università di Pisa in Italy. She conducted her Master’s thesis at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna as part of the EU-funded OCTOPUS project. In 2015, she obtained her PhD in Robotics at the Bristol Robotics, where she focussed on developing safe, variable stiffness robotic devices. She worked at the University of Bristol on the soft, bioinspired Tactip sensor and a soft robotics artificial larynx. In 2019, Elena was appointed as a Lecturer in Robotics at the University of Aberdeen where she pioneered research in soft robotics.

Claire chatted to Jonathan Walker from Innovate UK about translating robotics research into the commercial sector.

Jonathan Walker is the Innovation Lead for Robotics and Sensors at Innovate UK. He is working with government, universities, businesses and cross-sector teams to accelerate the development and uptake of robotics in the UK. Areas of particular interest are the built environment, circular economy, and helping people live independently for longer. Jonathan wants to support these themes through cluster development, funded collaborative R&D, skills programs from school outreach, apprenticeships and T-levels to CDTs, business support and leveraging private investment.

Claire chatted to Esyin Chew from Cardiff Metropolitan University about service and social humanoid robots in healthcare and education.

Esyin Chew is the Director of the EUREKA Robotics Centre, one of 11 specialist robotics centres in the UK, impacting underprivileged communities with over 120 humanoid robots. She has led million-pound government or industrial-funded global projects across the UK, EU, Australia, Malaysia, China and Indonesia, including the British Council award-winning Global PIE programme for Women in STEAM-H. Esyin has impacted numerous underprivileged communities, particularly girls and women in education and healthcare sectors, refugees and Orang Asli (Indigenous people).

Claire chatted to Matt Beane from the University of California, Santa Barbara about how humans can learn to work with intelligent machines.

Matt Beane conducts field research on robots and AI in the workplace, focusing on positive exceptions applicable to the broader world of work. He has published his award-winning research in top management journals and presented on the TED stage. He’s been recognized as a Human-Robot Interaction Pioneer and named to the Thinkers50 Radar list. Matt is an assistant professor in the Technology Management department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Digital Fellow with Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab and MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy.

Claire chatted to Gisela Reyes-Cruz from the University of Nottingham about how humans interact with, trust and accept robots.

Gisela Reyes-Cruz investigates human-computer and human-robot interaction to understand everyday life interactions with technologies, as well as trust in them and public acceptance. These technologies include autonomous and robotic systems: from mobile apps that have, or may have, a component that works autonomously, to robots that can navigate a physical space on their own, such as telepresence robots. The goal of Gisela’s work is to inform responsible system design and design practices.

Claire chatted to John Leonard from Massachusetts Institute of Technology about autonomous navigation for underwater vehicles and self-driving cars.

John Leonard is a Professor of Mechanical and Ocean Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a member of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). His research addresses the problems of navigation and mapping for autonomous underwater vehicles, self-driving vehicles, and other types of mobile robots. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering and Science from the University of Pennsylvania and PhD in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford. He is a Technical Advisor at Toyota Research Institute.

Robotics is helping to rehabilitate and increase human abilities in areas like mobility and stamina. Innovations in robotic devices, exoskeletons, and wearable tech aim to offer disabled people different perspectives and new experiences, as well as supporting humans more widely to access, inhabit and work safely in dangerous and extreme conditions. What does the future hold for these technologies and the people they will become a part of?

In this special live recording at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival, Claire chatted to Milia Helena Hasbani (Imperial College London), Benjamin Metcalfe (University of Bath) and Dani Clode (Cambridge University) about robotic prosthetics and human augmentation.

Milia Helena Hasbani is a researcher in assistive technology at Imperial College London. She is passionate about improving people’s lives through innovation in healthcare and technology in multi-disciplinary environments interfacing with engineers, clinicians, and patients. Her research focuses on the control of active prosthetic arms, combining user intention for wrist movements with a computer vision system for dynamically selecting the grasp type to be used. Benjamin Metcalfe is a biomedical engineer who specialises in neural interfaces and implanted devices. He is Head of the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering at the University of Bath and Deputy Director of the Bath Institute for the Augmented Human. He is also Vice-President (Academic) of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. His interests explore the collision between technology and biology and the extent to which engineering can be used to augment and enhance human performance. Dani Clode is an augmentation and prosthetics designer. She is the Senior Technical Specialist at the Plasticity Lab at Cambridge University and a collaborator of the Alternative Limb Project. Dani’s work investigates the future architecture of our bodies, challenging the perception and boundaries of extending the human form. Her main project the ‘Third Thumb’ is currently being utilised in collaboration with neuroscientists at Cambridge University, investigating the brain’s ability to adapt to human augmentation.

Claire chatted to Simone Schuerle from ETH Zürich all about microrobots, medicine and science.

Simone Schuerle is Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, where she heads the Responsive Biomedical System Lab. With her team, she develops diagnostic and therapeutic systems at the nano- and microscale with the aim of tackling a range of challenging problems in medicine. One major focus of her current research is addressing limitations in drug delivery through scalable magnetically enhanced drug transport. In 2014, she co-founded the spin-off MagnebotiX that offers electromagnetic control systems for wireless micromanipulation.

Claire chatted to Lord Ara Darzi from Imperial College London all about robotic surgery – past, present and future.

Ara Darzi is Co-Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery. In 2002, he was knighted for his services to medicine and surgery and in 2007 was introduced as Lord Darzi of Denham to the UK’s House of Lords as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health. Professor Darzi leads a large multidisciplinary academic and policy research team, focused on convergence science across engineering, physical and data sciences, specifically in the areas of robotics, sensing, imaging and digital and AI technologies. He is Chair of the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Claire chatted to Isabelle Ormerod from the University of Bristol all about human-centred design and women in robotics.

Isabelle Ormerod is a PhD student at Bristol Robotics Lab in the Design and Manufacturing Futures Lab. Her professional path began in the medical product design industry, where she observed firsthand the application of human factors (HF) processes for dextrous and high-risk procedures. This experience sparked her interest in leveraging data-driven HF approaches in product design. Isabelle is also part of the Leadership team of Women in Robotics UK. This organization is committed to fostering an inclusive community for women and non-binary individuals in the robotics field in the UK.

Claire chatted to Mario Di Castro from CERN all about robotic inspection and maintenance in hazardous environments.

Mario Di Castro has a Master’s degree in electronic engineering from the University of Naples Federico II in Italy and a PhD in robotics and industrial controls from the Polytechnic University of Madrid in Spain. Since 2011 he has led the Mechatronics, Robotics and Operation section at CERN. The section is responsible for the design, construction, installation, operation and maintenance of robotic systems used for remote maintenance at the CERN accelerator complex. His research interests include tele-robotics, machine learning, and precise motion control in harsh environments.

Claire chatted to Margarita Chli from the University of Cyprus all about vision, navigation, and small aerial drones.

Margarita Chli is a professor of Robotic Vision and the director of the Vision for Robotics Lab, at the University of Cyprus and ETH Zurich. Her work has contributed to the first vision-based autonomous flight of a small drone and the first demonstration of collaborative monocular SLAM for a small swarm of drones. Margarita has given invited keynotes at the World Economic Forum in Davos, TEDx, and ICRA, and she was featured in Robohub’s 2016 list of “25 women in Robotics you need to know about”. In 2023, she won the ERC Consolidator Grant to research advanced robotic perception.

Claire chatted to Patricia Shaw from Aberystwyth University all about home assistance robots, and robot learning and development.

Patricia Shaw is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and Robotics at Aberystwyth University. Her current research interests include technology for assistive living and she is currently leading on establishing a new Smart Home Lab at the university. This new lab will be used to research, develop and test a wide range of sensing technology for monitoring activities in the home as well as robots ranging from companions to assistants around the home. She strongly supports public engagement and has been coordinating regional robotics week events for the last 6 years.

Rav Chunilal is the Head of Robotics & Artificial Intelligence at Sellafield Ltd, the UK’s largest nuclear site. He is responsible for developing and deploying Robotics and AI technologies to decommission the site safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively. Under Rav’s leadership, Sellafield Ltd and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Group has established itself as a leader in the use of Robotics and AI for nuclear decommissioning. The company has developed and deployed a wide range of robotic technologies to perform tasks such as remote inspection, waste handling, and demolition.

Claire chatted to Ayse Kucukyilmaz from the University of Nottingham about collaboration, conflict and failure in human-robot interactions.

Ayse Kucukyilmaz is Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham and a founding member of the CHART research group. Her research focus is human-centered robotics, where she specialises in haptic shared and traded control for physical human-robot interaction. Her group primarily works on adjustable autonomy paradigms to enable dynamic switching behaviours between different levels of robotic autonomy (e.g. full human control vs. full autonomy) during shared control of a physical task, enabling effective human-autonomy teaming.

Claire chatted to Jorvon (Odd-Jayy) Moss from Digikey about making robots at home, and robot design and aesthetics.

Commonly known as Odd-Jayy, Jorvon Moss is an accomplished Maker best known for his Robotic Oddities. Jayy’s art background, BFA in Illustration, and self-taught electronics skills have combined to help launch his career and promote the wonderful world of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math). This achievement, and the many viral videos under his belt, gained him recognition from major forces in the industry; including Digi-Key Electronics, Tested Inc. with Adam Savage, various electronic and tech Faires, and as the first Black person in Make Magazine.

Claire chatted to Masoumeh (Iran) Mansouri from the University of Birmingham about culturally sensitive robots and planning in complex environments.

Masoumeh Mansouri is an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham. Her research includes two complementary areas: (i) developing hybrid robot planning methods for unstructured environments shared with humans, and (ii) exploring topics at the intersection of cultural theories and robotics. In the latter, her main goal is to study whether/how robots can be culturally sensitive given the broad definitions of culture in different fields of study.

Claire chatted to Carl Strathearn from Edinburgh Napier University about humanoid robots, realistic robot faces and speech.

Carl Strathearn is a researcher interested in creating assistive social humanoid robots with embodied AI systems that appear, function, and interact like humans. He believes that creating realistic humanoid robots is significant to humanity as the human face is the most natural interface for human communication, and by emulating these conditions, we can increase accessibility to state-of-the-art technology for everyone and support people with specific health conditions and circumstances in their day-to-day lives.

Claire chatted to Ffion Llewellyn from Oshen about sea-faring robots and ocean sensing.

Ffion Llewellyn graduated from Imperial College London in 2022 with a masters in Aeronautical Engineering. Following this, she joined Oshen who are building low cost, autonomous micro-vessels for remote ocean sensing. Ffion has been focused on the integration and testing of sensors onto Oshen’s autonomous micro-vessels, including metocean sensors and hydrophones for the monitoring of marine mammals. Her role also includes the design and manufacture of the micro-vessels, conducting sea trials and analysing the data collected.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.