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May 17th, 2013

Robots: Autonomous Lethal Weapons - mp3

In this episode, AJung talks to Peter Asaro from The New School in New York city about autonomous weapons systems. Peter tells us about the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an international consortium of NGOs working together to ban autonomous weapons systems. You can read our full coverage on Robohub.

Peter Asaro
Peter Asaro is an Assistant Professor at The New School and an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. As a Co-founder and Vice-Chair for the International Committee for Robot Arms Control founded in 2009, Peter has been thinking, talking, and writing about lethal robots for many years. Computer scientist and philosopher by training, he is one of the leading figures in roboethics urging scientists to join the Scientists’ Call to ban autonomous lethal weapons.

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May 3rd, 2013

Robots: Controlled Flight of Insect-sized Robots - mp3

In this episode we hear from researchers at the Harvard Microrobotics Lab about the Science paper published today reporting on the first controlled flight of an insect-sized robot. The amazing high-speed video below shows the robot taking off, hovering in place and steering left and right. This work is part of the Robobees project that aims to make swarms of insect robots. You can read our full coverage on Robohub.




Kevin Ma, Pakpong Chirarattananon and Sawyer Fuller
Kevin Ma and Pakpong Chirarattananon are graduate student researcher at the Harvard Microrobotics Lab working with Prof. Robert Wood (listen to Wood’s podcast here). Kevin studies the design and manufacturing of very small-scale robots while Pakpong’s work focuses on flight control strategies for flapping wing robots. Sawyer Fuller is a postdoctoral researcher with experience in the control and sensing of biological and robotic flies.

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April 19th, 2013

Robots: Ethical, Social and Legal Issues - mp3

In this episode, Per talks to Pericle Salvini from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna about his work with social, ethical and legal issues in robotics. He tells us about the Robolaw project that will provide advice to the European Union when it creates laws concerning robotics. Finally, we discuss how you can contribute to this important work.

Pericle Salvini
Pericle Salvini graduated in Foreign Languages and Literatures from the University of Pisa in 2000 with a thesis on ‘Theatre and Technologies’. In 2005, he completed a Master in Theatre Studies at Lancaster University (UK), where he delved into the telepresence artworks of E. Kac, R. Ascott and P. Sermon. In 2008, he received his PhD in Biorobotics Science and Engineering from IMT Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Italy). In his PhD thesis he studied robot design and ethical, legal and social implications. He is currently a research fellow at the BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy. His main research interests are in the fields of Human-Robot Interaction (design, human factor and social acceptance of robots), and technoethics (ethical, legal and social implications of robotics research and applications). He is also involved in activities concerning the use of robots in education and art. He is currently co-chair of the Human Robot Interaction and Communication Technical Committee of RAS-IEEE and project manager of the Robolaw project.

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April 5th, 2013

Robots: Software Marketplace - mp3

In this episode we hear how the Spanish robotic startup Adele is creating a marketplace for robotics software. Through their platform, robot developers can buy software components for their robots, and software developers can sell their code, in a practical way. Examples of the software components, Adele calls them sparks, are speech recognition, synthetic speech, vision systems and user interface components. Their flagship project FIONA (Framework for Interactive-services Over Natural-conversational Agents) allows users to create intelligent and interactive virtual avatars.

Celestino Alvarez Martinez
Celestino Alvarez Martinez is an Industrial Engineer, specialized in Electronics and Automation from the University of Oviedo and with a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence from Polytechnic University of Madrid. In 2002 he began his PhD in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, under the supervision of Professor Antonio Barrientos (DISAM, UPM) in the field of human-robot interaction.



Lucia Fernandez Cossio
Lucia Fernandez Cossio is a Computer Science Engineer from the University of Oviedo. She is specialized in artificial intelligence and social robotics and currently holds the position of Project Manager at Adele Robots. She has experience in management and direction of R & D related to different topics within the field of Information Technology and Communication.




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March 22nd, 2013

Robots: International Standards - mp3

In this episode we hear from Professor Gurvinder Virk from the University of Gävle about how international standards are created in the ISO. He also tells us why he thinks they are essential for robotics and how you can participate and contribute.

Gurvinder Virk
Gurvinder Virk is a Professor of Robotics and the Built Environment, at University of Gävle, Sweden as well as Professor of Robotics and autonomous systems at KTH, Sweden.

He is also Chairman of CLAWAR Association Ltd. in a voluntary capacity. CLAWAR is a UK registered charity with the mission to advance education and science for the public benefit in the field of robotics and associated technologies.

He is a technical expert in control theory and its applications with particular experience in service robotics and building management systems, and the use of advanced model-based control to a variety of applications. His current interests are in personal care robots, physical assistance exoskeletons, medical robots, olfactory navigation for mobile robots, and renewable energy systems for buildings. He has extensive experience of project management and leading large international projects. He has produced over 300 papers and 11 books.

Prof. Virk is a leading actor in international robot standardisation and the Convener of two robot safety work groups, ISO TC184/SC2/WG7 Personal care robot safety, and IEC TC62/SC62A & ISO TC184/SC2 JWG9 Medical electrical equipment and systems using robotic technology.

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