Dr. Carolyn Matl, Research Scientist at Toyota Research Institute, explains why Interactive Perception and soft tactile sensors are critical for manipulating challenging objects such as liquids, grains, and dough. She also dives into “StRETcH” a Soft to Resistive Elastic Tactile Hand, a variable stiffness soft tactile end-effector, presented by her research group.

Carolyn Matl

Carolyn Matl is a research scientist at the Toyota Research Institute, where she works on robotic perception and manipulation with the Mobile Manipulation Team. She received her B.S.E in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 2016, and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley in 2021. At Berkeley, she was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and was advised by Ruzena Bajcsy. Her dissertation work focused on developing and leveraging non-traditional sensors for robotic manipulation of complicated objects and substances like liquids and doughs.

Carolyn Matl’s Related Research Videos

Links

• StRETcH: a Soft to Resistive Elastic Tactile Hand
• Carolyn Matl’s personal website
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RE2 Sapien 6M Robot Arm

In this episode, Shihan Lu interviews Travis Schneider, Business Development Manager at RE2 Robotics, focusing on their work on mobile outdoor manipulation. Travis introduces several robotic products and services of RE2, including RE2 Sapien robotic arms and human-centered system integration, and how they can be used to help rather than replace workers. He also shares his thoughts about challenges in human-robot collaboration.

Travis Schneider
Travis Schneider, Business Development Manager at RE2 Robotics (RE2), works to foster commercial B2B partnerships with groups interested in leveraging RE2’s robotic technology for applications in a wide variety of markets, including aviation, construction, energy, and medical. With a background in Mechanical Engineering, Travis has an intimate knowledge of many of the fundamentals associated with robotic systems including electromechanical design, motion control, and associated software.

Links

• RE2 Robotics
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In this episode, Shihan Lu interviews Jivko Sinapov, Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Tufts University, about his work on behavior-grounded multisensory perception and exploration in robotics. Dr. Sinapov discusses several perspectives on multisensory perception in robotics, including data collection, data fusion, and robot control and planning. He also shares his experience about using robotics for K-12 education.

Jivko Sinapov

Jivko Sinapov received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction from Iowa State University (ISU). While working toward his Ph.D. at ISU’s Developmental Robotics Lab, he developed novel methods for behavioral object exploration and multi-modal perception. He went on to be a clinical assistant professor with the Texas Institute for Discovery, Education, and Science at UT Austin and a postdoctoral associate working with Peter Stone at the Artificial Intelligence lab. Sinapov’s research interests include developmental robotics, computational perception, autonomous manipulation, and human-robot interaction.

Links

• Download mp3 (10.6 MB)
• Sinapov’s research
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In this episode, Shihan Lu interviews Dr. Heather Culbertson, Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Southern California, about her work in haptics. Dr. Culbertson discusses the data-driven realistic texture modeling and rendering, haptic technologies in the social touch, the combination of haptics and robots, expectations and obstacles of haptics in the next 5 years.

Heather Culbertson

Heather Culbertson is a Gabilan Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on the design and control of haptic devices and rendering systems, human-robot interaction, and virtual reality. Particularly she is interested in creating haptic interactions that are natural and realistically mimic the touch sensations experienced during interactions with the physical world. Previously, she was a research scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University where she worked in the Collaborative Haptics and Robotics in Medicine (CHARM) Lab. She received her PhD in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) at the University of Pennsylvania in 2015 working in the Haptics Group, part of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory.

Links

• Download mp3 (14.8 MB)
• Culbertson’s research website
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