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Robot Talk Episode 121 – Adaptable robots for the home, with Lerrel Pinto

Claire chatted to Lerrel Pinto from New York University about using machine learning to train robots to adapt to new environments.Lerrel Pinto is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at New York University (NYU). His research is aimed at getting robots to generalize and adapt in the messy world we live in. His lab focuses broadly on robot learning and decision making, with an emphasis on large-scale learning (both data and models); representation learning for sensory data; developing algor

What’s coming up at #ICRA2025?

The 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) will take place from 19-23 May, in Atlanta, USA. The event will feature plenary talks, technical sessions, posters, workshops and tutorials, forums, and a science communication short course.Plenary speakersThere are three plenary sessions this year. The speakers are as follows:Allison Okamura (Stanford University) – Rewired: The Interplay of Robots and SocietyTessa Lau (Dusty Robotics) – So you want to build a r

Robot see, robot do: System learns after watching how-tos

Kushal Kedia (left) and Prithwish Dan (right) are members of the development team behind RHyME, a system that allows robots to learn tasks by watching a single how-to video.By Louis DiPietroCornell researchers have developed a new robotic framework powered by artificial intelligence – called RHyME (Retrieval for Hybrid Imitation under Mismatched Execution) – that allows robots to learn tasks by watching a single how-to video. RHyME could fast-track the development and deployment of robotic syste

AI-powered robots help tackle Europe’s growing e-waste problem

Photo credit: Muntaka Chasant, reproduced under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. By Kaja ŠerugaJust outside the historic German town of Goslar, a sprawling industrial complex receives an endless stream of discarded electronics. On arrival, this electronic waste is laboriously prepared for recycling. Electrocycling GmbH is one of the largest e-waste recycling facilities in Europe. Every year, it processes up to 80 000 tonnes of electronic waste, which comes in all shapes and forms.Manual dismantlingDespit

Robot Talk Episode 120 – Evolving robots to explore other planets, with Emma Hart

Claire chatted to Emma Hart from Edinburgh Napier University about algorithms that ‘evolve’ better robot designs and control systems.Emma Hart is a computer scientist working in the field of evolutionary computation. Her work takes inspiration from the natural world, in particular biological evolution, and uses this to develop algorithms that ‘evolve’  both the design and control systems of a robot, customised  to a specific application. She was elected as a Fellow of the

Robot Talk Episode 119 – Robotics for small manufacturers, with Will Kinghorn

Claire chatted to Will Kinghorn from Made Smarter about how to increase adoption of new tech by small manufacturers.Will Kinghorn is an automation and robotics specialist for the Made Smarter Adoption Programme in the UK. With a background as a chartered manufacturing engineer in the aerospace industry, Will has extensive experience in developing and implementing automation and robotic solutions. He now works with smaller manufacturing companies, assessing their needs, identifying suitable techn

Multi-agent path finding in continuous environments

By Kristýna Janovská and Pavel SurynekImagine if all of our cars could drive themselves – autonomous driving is becoming possible, but to what extent? To get a vehicle somewhere by itself may not seem so tricky if the route is clear and well defined, but what if there are more cars, each trying to get to a different place? And what if we add pedestrians, animals and other unaccounted for elements? This problem has recently been increasingly studied, and already used in scenarios such as warehous

Interview with Yuki Mitsufuji: Improving AI image generation

Yuki Mitsufuji is a Lead Research Scientist at Sony AI. Yuki and his team presented two papers at the recent Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2024). These works tackle different aspects of image generation and are entitled: GenWarp: Single Image to Novel Views with Semantic-Preserving Generative Warping and PaGoDA: Progressive Growing of a One-Step Generator from a Low-Resolution Diffusion Teacher . We caught up with Yuki to find out more about this research.There a

Robot Talk Episode 118 – Soft robotics and electronic skin, with Miranda Lowther

Claire chatted to Miranda Lowther from the University of Bristol about soft, sensitive electronic skin for prosthetic limbs.Miranda Lowther is a PhD researcher at the FARSCOPE-TU Centre for Doctoral Training, a joint venture between University of Bristol, University of West of England, and Bristol Robotics Laboratory, where she is pursuing her passion for using soft robotics and morphological computation to help people in healthcare. For her PhD, she is investigating how soft e-skins and morphol

Interview with Amina Mević: Machine learning applied to semiconductor manufacturing

In a series of interviews, we’re meeting some of the AAAI/SIGAI Doctoral Consortium participants to find out more about their research. In this latest interview, we hear from Amina Mević who is applying machine learning to semiconductor manufacturing. Find out more about her PhD research so far, what makes this field so interesting, and how she found the AAAI Doctoral Consortium experience. Tell us a bit about your PhD – where are you studying, and what is the topic of your research?I am c

Robot Talk Episode 117 – Robots in orbit, with Jeremy Hadall

Claire chatted to Jeremy Hadall from the Satellite Applications Catapult about robotic systems for in-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing.Jeremy Hadall has worked with robotics for his entire career, developing novel and innovative approaches for manufacturing and logistics industries. He’s now turned his experience into the development of robots that enable those tasks in the orbital environment. Prior to joining the Satellite Applications Catapult, he served as Chief Engineer fo

Robot Talk Episode 116 – Evolved behaviour for robot teams, with Tanja Kaiser

Claire chatted to Tanja Katharina Kaiser from the University of Technology Nuremberg about how applying evolutionary principles can help robot teams make better decisions.Tanja Katharina Kaiser is a senior researcher heading the Multi-Robot Systems Satellite Lab at the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN) in Germany. She and her team focus on the development of adaptive multi-robot systems to solve complex real-world tasks using artificial intelligence. Tanja received her doctorate in roboti

AI can be a powerful tool for scientists. But it can also fuel research misconduct

Nadia Piet & Archival Images of AI + AIxDESIGN / Model Collapse / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0By Jon Whittle, CSIRO and Stefan Harrer, CSIROIn February this year, Google announced it was launching “a new AI system for scientists”. It said this system was a collaborative tool designed to help scientists “in creating novel hypotheses and research plans”. It’s too early to tell just how useful this particular tool will be to scientists. But what is clear is that artificial intelligence (AI) more gen

Robot Talk Episode 115 – Robot dogs working in industry, with Benjamin Mottis

Claire chatted to Benjamin Mottis from ANYbotics about deploying their four-legged ANYmal robot in a variety of industries.Benjamin Mottis is a Robotics Engineer in charge of ANYmal Research at ANYbotics. After graduating in robotics from EPFL, he joined ANYbotics as a Field Engineer in 2023. He specializes in deploying ANYmal and training customers across all ANYbotics verticals (Oil & Gas, Nuclear, Metals, Chemicals, etc.). Since 2024, as the Global Research Community Manager, he has been

Robot Talk Episode 114 – Reducing waste with robotics, with Josie Gotz

Claire chatted to Josie Gotz from the Manufacturing Technology Centre about robotics for material recovery, reuse and recycling.Josie Gotz is a Senior Research Engineer in the Intelligent Robotics Team at the Manufacturing Technology Centre. She works as the technical lead on a variety of robotics and automation projects from research and development through to integration across a wide variety of manufacturing sectors. She specialises in creating innovative solutions for these industries, combi

Shlomo Zilberstein wins the 2025 ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award

Congratulations to Shlomo Zilberstein on winning the 2025 ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award. This prestigious award is made for excellence in research in the area of autonomous agents. It is intended to recognize researchers in autonomous agents whose current work is an important influence on the field.Professor Shlomo Zilberstein was recognised for his work establishing the field of decentralized Markov Decision Processes (DEC-MDPs), laying the groundwork for decision-theoretic plannin

Robot Talk Episode 113 – Soft robotic hands, with Kaspar Althoefer

Claire chatted to Kaspar Althoefer from Queen Mary University of London about soft robotic manipulators for healthcare and manufacturing.Kaspar Althoefer is Director of the Centre for Advanced Robotics at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). His research focuses on soft robotics, tactile perception, intelligent manipulation, and machine learning techniques for sensor signal interpretation. His research advancements have significant applications in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery, re

Visualizing research in the age of AI

An original photograph taken by Felice Frankel (left) and an AI-generated image of the same content. Credit: Felice Frankel. Image on right was generated with DALL-EBy Melanie M KaufmanFor over 30 years, science photographer Felice Frankel has helped MIT professors, researchers, and students communicate their work visually. Throughout that time, she has seen the development of various tools to support the creation of compelling images: some helpful, and some antithetical to the effort of produci

Robot Talk Episode 112 – Getting creative with robotics, with Vali Lalioti

Claire chatted to Vali Lalioti from the University of the Arts London about how art, culture and robotics interact.Vali Lalioti is a pioneering designer, computer scientist and innovator. She has a PhD in Computer Science, an MRes in Design and an MBA, and extensive international leadership, research and innovation experience in Silicon Valley, Africa, China, Japan and Europe. Vali is passionate about how technology interacts with society and talks globally on women in tech, art and technology e

Report on the future of AI research

Image taken from the front cover of the Future of AI Research report.The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), has published a report on the Future of AI Research. The report, which was announced by outgoing AAAI President Francesca Rossi during the AAAI 2025 conference, covers 17 different AI topics and aims to clearly identify the trajectory of AI research in a structured way. The report is the result of a Presidential Panel, chaired by Francesca Rossi, and compris