Robot Talk Episode 127 – Robots exploring other planets, with Frances Zhu

by Robot Talk

03 October 2025

share this:

Claire chatted to Frances Zhu from the Colorado School of Mines about intelligent robotic systems for space exploration.

Frances Zhu has a degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University. She was previously a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow and an Assistant Research Professor in the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology at the University of Hawaii, specialising in machine learning, dynamics, systems, and controls engineering. Since 2025, she has been an Assistant Professor at the Colorado School of Mines in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, affiliated with the Robotics program and Space Resources Program.

Robot Talk is a weekly podcast that explores the exciting world of robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous machines.

Mars rovers serve as scientists’ eyes and ears from millions of miles away – here are the tools Perseverance used to spot a potential sign of anci

The Conversation 02 Oct 2025

How do scientists engage with rover data and use robots such as Perseverance?

Rethinking how robots move: Light and AI drive precise motion in soft robotic arm

Rice University 01 Oct 2025

Researchers at Rice University have developed a soft robotic arm capable of performing complex tasks.

RoboCup Logistics League: an interview with Alexander Ferrein, Till Hofmann and Wataru Uemura

AIhub and Lucy Smith 25 Sep 2025

Find out more about the RoboCup league focused on production logistics and the planning.

Drones and Droids: a co-operative strategy game

Phil Peterson 22 Sep 2025

Scottish Association for Marine Science is running a crowdfunding campaign for educational card game.

Call for AAAI educational AI videos

AIhub 22 Sep 2025

Submit your contributions by 30 November 2025.

Self-supervised learning for soccer ball detection and beyond: interview with winners of the RoboCup 2025 best paper award

Lucy Smith 19 Sep 2025

Method for improving ball detection can also be applied in other fields, such as precision farming.

#ICML2025 outstanding position paper: Interview with Jaeho Kim on addressing the problems with conference reviewing

AIhub 15 Sep 2025

Jaeho argues that the AI conference peer review crisis demands author feedback and reviewer rewards.

Apertus: a fully open, transparent, multilingual language model

EPFL 11 Sep 2025

EPFL, ETH Zurich and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) released Apertus today, Switzerland’s first large-scale, open, multilingual language model.