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c-Research-Innovation
ep.
213
podcast
Physics-Based Optimization for Robot Control, with Emo Todorov
Audrow Nash
23 Jul 2016
In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Emo Todorov, Director of Movement Control Laboratory at the University of Washington, about a physics-based optimization method for controlling robots. Todorov ...
Driving, flying, and climbing in a sand and gravel pit
Tim Barfoot
18 Jul 2016
In June, the University of Toronto (as part of the NSERC Canadian Field Robotics Network) carried out a set of field trials at an old sand and gravel pit in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. This involved thr...
Are skintight suits the future of robotic exoskeletons?
Steve Davis
13 Jul 2016
Children with a rare neurological disease were recently given the chance to walk for the first time thanks to a new robotic exoskeleton. These devices – which are essentially robotic suits that give...
Recreating ancient vertebrate’s first step on dry land, with a robot
the National Science Foundation (NSF)
12 Jul 2016
Could a tail have allowed ancient vertebrates to make the transition from water to land?
Reporting in Science today, researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Cl...
Boston Dynamics made a new robot: SpotMini
Robohub Editors
23 Jun 2016
SpotMini is a new smaller version of the Spot robot, weighing 55 lbs dripping wet (65 lbs if you include its arm.) SpotMini is all-electric (no hydraulics) and runs for about 90 minutes on a charge, d...
Building better trust between humans and machines
MIT News
23 Jun 2016
MIT-SUTD researchers are creating improved interfaces to help machines and humans work together to complete tasks....
Teaching machines to predict the future
CSAIL MIT
21 Jun 2016
When we see two people meet, we can often predict what happens next: a handshake, a hug, or maybe even a kiss. Our ability to anticipate actions is thanks to intuitions born out of a lifetime of exper...
Teaching robots the physics of sliding and pushing objects
Jiaji Zhou
16 Jun 2016
The Manipulation Lab at the CMU Robotics Institute proposes a computational model that relates an applied robot action to the resultant object motion. Their research won the Best Conference Paper Awar...
Using soft robots for artificial muscles
the National Science Foundation (NSF)
15 Jun 2016
Forget steel and aluminum. The robots of tomorrow may be able to squish, stretch and squeeze.
[focus11]
Novel robotic devices, part of the emerging field of soft robotics, offer many advances ov...
MIT’s AI passes Turing Test for sound
CSAIL MIT
13 Jun 2016
Nearly 70 years after the "Turing Test" was first proposed, the question remains: can we create intelligent machines that exhibit behavior indistinguishable from humans?
In December MIT researchers...
Soft-bodied robots: Actuators inspired by muscle
Wyss Institute
01 Jun 2016
To make robots more cooperative and have them perform tasks in close proximity to humans, they must be softer and safer. A new actuator developed by a team led by George Whitesides, Ph.D. — who is a...
‘Robot kindergarten’ trains droids of the future
University of British Columbia
27 May 2016
Less than 100 years from now, robots will be friendly, useful participants in our homes and workplaces, predicts UBC mechanical engineering professor and robotics expert Elizabeth Croft. We will be li...
Airborne tech is coming to the rescue
Horizon Magazine
25 May 2016
by Fintan Burke
‘There’s no real way to determine how safe it is to approach a building, and what is the safest route to do that,’ said Dr Angelos Amditis of the Institute of Communication an...
Using static electricity, RoboBees cling to surfaces
Wyss Institute
24 May 2016
By Leah Burrows, SEAS Communications
In a recent article in Science, Harvard roboticists demonstrate that their flying microrobots, nicknamed the RoboBees, can now perch during flight to save energ...
Robot bees open the lid on hive behaviour
Horizon Magazine
23 May 2016
by Steve Gillman
It’s part of a series of projects where researchers are building robots that mimic evolutionary traits of animals in order to interact with the world in a more efficient way.
...
Ingestible origami robot
MIT News
13 May 2016
By: Larry Hardesty
In experiments involving a simulation of the human esophagus and stomach, researchers at MIT, the University of Sheffield, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have demonstrated...
Making an autonomous robotic ecosystem: Hortum Machina B
William Victor Camilleri and Danilo Sampaio
13 May 2016
Largely architecture is understood as static. Buildings do not conform to nature, its environment and nor to human beings. We, as architects, feel the need to integrate plants in buildings to the poi...
Cable-driven parallel robots: Motion simulation in a new dimension
To date, cable-driven parallel robots have been used in production environments, where they meet high requirements. The systems surpass conventional industrial robots in size and payload by between on...
New startup accelerator looks to enable smart and connected machines
Sabine Hauert
14 Apr 2016
The Kickstart Accelerator program in Switzerland is currently accepting applications from early-stage startups making "smart and connected machines", namely robots....
3-D printing hydraulically-powered robots, no assembly required
CSAIL MIT
06 Apr 2016
By Adam Conner-Simons | CSAIL
One reason we don’t yet have robot personal assistants buzzing around doing our chores is because making them is hard. Assembling robots by hand is time-consuming, ...
Wireless localizer could mean safer drones and password-free WiFi
CSAIL MIT
01 Apr 2016
By Adam Conner-Simons | CSAIL
We’ve all been there, impatiently twiddling our thumbs while trying to locate a WiFi signal. But what if, instead, the WiFi could locate us?...
Gestures improve communication – even with robots
Frontiers in Psychology
31 Mar 2016
By: Abigail Pattenden
In the world of robot communication, it seems actions speak louder than words. Scientists in the UK have discovered that by getting robot avatars to “talk with their hands,...
Why making robots is still hard
SPARC
23 Mar 2016
Making robots is no easy task. If you talk to roboticists, they will tell you that it took years before the last robot they built or programmed was any good at performing a specific task. And although...
Interview: Billion dollar brain with Professor Alois Knoll
Robotics and Automation News
23 Mar 2016
By: Abdul Montaqim
Professor Knoll, one of the most influential roboticists in Europe, is currently the co-ordinator of the European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development (Echord), and one of...
Talking Machines: Machine learning in healthcare and the AlphaGo matches
Talking Machines
14 Mar 2016
In episode five of season two, Ryan walks us through variational inference. We put some listener questions about Go and how to play it to Andy Okun, president of the American Go Association (who is in...
Applying direct transcription methods to robot motion planning
NCCR Robotics
08 Mar 2016
When you walk across a room or down a path, your brain is making thousands of decisions on how best to move. For example, how best to use your weight, scanning for any obstacles or uneven surfaces, ...
Testing the lifetime of human-machine interfaces in a few days
Fraunhofer IPA and Martin Haegele
07 Mar 2016
Thousands of repetitions in the space of just a few days: while manually impossible, this can be accomplished by a newly developed robot system from Fraunhofer IPA. Whether it’s a matter of pressing...
New electrical film that is both solid and liquid
NCCR Robotics
29 Feb 2016
As soft robotics increases in both scope and popularity, it is becoming more and more vital that each element of the electrical circuits contained within are also soft and elastic and able to continue...
A new quadrupedal robot, the ANYmal
NCCR Robotics
25 Feb 2016
ANYmal is a quadrupedal robot designed for autonomous operation in difficult terrains. It is capable of running and climbing, and with its incorporated laser sensors and cameras, the robot can perce...
Enabling human-robot rescue teams
MIT News
18 Feb 2016
By Larry Hardesty, MIT CSAIL
Autonomous robots performing a joint task send each other continual updates: “I’ve passed through a door and am turning 90 degrees right.” “After advancing 2 fe...
Creating a synthetic “second skin” with soft pneumatic actuators
NCCR Robotics
17 Feb 2016
Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) are an up and coming solution to the contradictory design criteria that many robotic systems have – high torque/force often means greater weight and volume, which is ...
What’s new in robotics this week? Chameleon robot blends in with its surroundings
Emmet Cole and Robotiq Inc.
12 Feb 2016
Soft bots; record-breaking North American robot sales; robots saving refugees; chameleon robot blends in with its surroundings; Robot Law and more....
Understanding joint impedance with a knee exoskeleton
NCCR Robotics
09 Feb 2016
When designing exoskeletons for rehabilitation of patients after spinal cord injury or stroke, a constant concern is creating them to be as natural as possible to best enable user training to rebuild ...
Vote for your favourite AI video – AAAI Video Competition People’s Choice Award
Sabine Hauert
01 Feb 2016
You get to decide the winner of the People’s Choice Award for the AI Video Competition 2016!...
Talking Machines: Gaussian processes and OpenAI, with IIya Sutskever
Talking Machines
29 Jan 2016
In episode two of season two Ryan introduces us to Gaussian processes, we take a listener question on K-means. Plus, we talk with Ilya Sutskever the director of research for OpenAI. (For more from Ily...
Talking Machines: Real human actions and Women in Machine Learning (WiML), with Jenn Wortman Vaughan
Talking Machines
28 Jan 2016
In episode one of season two, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Women in Machine Learning (WiML) with its co-founder -- and our guest host for this episode -- Hanna Wallach of Microsoft Research....
