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PODCAST

Robot Talk

Join us each week as we explore the exciting world of robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous machines. Each episode, Dr Claire Asher — science communicator and robot enthusiast — chats with roboticists from around the world to find out how their cutting-edge research is influencing the future of every aspect of science, technology, and engineering, from the mundane to the extraordinary.

science

All Episodes

35:13

Episode 110: Designing ethical robots - Catherine Menon

Robot Talk ·

2025/02/21

Claire chatted to Catherine Menon from the University of Hertfordshire about designing home assistance robots with ethics in mind. Catherine Menon is a principal lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire. Her research explores the ethics and safety of autonomous systems, and she has a particular interest in the interaction between safety requirements, ethical imperatives and trust constraints in public-facing AI including assistive robots. She has previously worked as a safety-critical systems

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24:31

Episode 109: Dan Nicholson - Building robots at home

Robot Talk ·

2025/02/14

Claire chatted to Dan Nicholson from MakerForge.tech about creating open source robotics projects you can do at home. Dan Nicholson is a seasoned Software Engineering Manager with over 20 years of experience as a software engineer and architect. Four years ago, he began exploring robotics as a hobby, which quickly evolved into a large-scale bipedal robotics project that has inspired a wide audience. After making the project open-source and 3D printable, Dan built a vibrant community around it, with

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22:39

Episode 108: Anuradha Ranasinghe - Giving robots the...

Robot Talk ·

2025/02/07

Claire chatted to Anuradha Ranasinghe from Liverpool Hope University about haptic (touch) sensors for wearable tech and robotics. Anuradha Ranasinghe earned her PhD in robotics from King's College London in 2015, focusing on haptic-based human control in low-visibility conditions. She is now a senior lecturer in robotics at Liverpool Hope University, researching haptics, miniaturized sensors, and perception. Her work has received national and international media attention, including features by

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25:47

Episode 107: Robert Siddall - Animal-inspired robot...

Robot Talk ·

2025/01/31

Claire chatted to Robert Siddall from the University of Surrey about novel robot designs inspired by the way real animals move. Robert Siddall is an aerospace engineer with an enthusiasm for unconventional robotics. He is interested in understanding animal locomotion for the benefit of synthetic locomotion, particularly flight. Before becoming a Lecturer at the University of Surrey, he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, where he studied the arboreal

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27:05

Episode 106: Didem Gurdur Broo - The future of...

Robot Talk ·

2025/01/24

Claire chatted to Didem Gurdur Broo from Uppsala University about how to shape the future of robotics, autonomous vehicles, and industrial automation. Didem Gurdur Broo is an Assistant Professor and Associate Senior Lecturer at the Department of Information Technology at Uppsala University. She leads the Cyber-physical Systems Lab, directing research on intelligent systems like collaborative robots, autonomous vehicles, and smart cities. Didem is a computer scientist with a PhD in mechatronics,

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33:44

Episode 105: Gianmarco Pisanelli - working with...

Robot Talk ·

2025/01/17

Claire chatted to Gianmarco Pisanelli from the University of Sheffield about how to promote the safe and intuitive use of robots in manufacturing. Gianmarco Pisanelli specialises in early-stage technology readiness level (TRL) research, with a focus on collaborative workspaces, multi-robot systems, and robotic simulations. He possesses extensive experience in industrial robotics, including PLC programming and the development of intuitive robotic interfaces such as natural speech and augmented

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22:26

Episode 104: Kirstin Petersen - robot swarms inspired...

Robot Talk ·

2025/01/10

Claire chatted to Kirstin Petersen from Cornell University about how robots can work together to achieve complex behaviours. Kirstin Petersen is an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. Her lab, the Collective Embodied Intelligence Lab, is focused on design and coordination of robot collectives able to achieve complex behaviors beyond the reach of an individual, and corresponding studies on how social insects do so in nature. Petersen did

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28:17

Episode 103: Keenan Wyrobek - delivering medicine by...

Robot Talk ·

2024/12/20

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

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23:31

Episode 102: Isabella Fiorello - soft robots inspired...

Robot Talk ·

2024/12/13

I 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

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21:06

Episode 101: Christos Bergeles - microscopic surgical...

Robot Talk ·

2024/12/06

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

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23:50

Episode One Hundred: Mini Rai

Robot Talk ·

2024/11/29

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

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27:49

Episode Ninety-Nine: Joe Wolfel

Robot Talk ·

2024/11/22

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,

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24:10

Episode Ninety-Eight: Gabriella Pizzuto

Robot Talk ·

2024/11/15

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

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31:13

Episode Ninety-Seven: Pratap Tokekar

Robot Talk ·

2024/11/08

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

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28:18

Episode Ninety-Six: Maria Elena Giannaccini

Robot Talk ·

2024/11/01

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

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28:38

Episode Ninety-Five: Jonathan Walker

Robot Talk ·

2024/10/25

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

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30:00

Episode Ninety-Four: Esyin Chew

Robot Talk ·

2024/10/18

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

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38:27

Episode Ninety-Three: Matt Beane

Robot Talk ·

2024/10/11

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

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21:51

Episode Ninety-Two: Gisela Reyes-Cruz

Robot Talk ·

2024/10/04

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,

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30:58

Episode Ninety-One: John Leonard

Robot Talk ·

2024/09/27

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

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