All posts by Robots in Depth

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Anouk Wipprecht, a Dutch FashionTech Designer who incorporates technology and robotics into fashion. She thinks that “Fashion lacks Microcontrollers”.

Anouk creates instinctual and behavioral wearables; essentially clothes that can sense, process and react. She creates dresses that move, including motors and special effects. They don´t follow the normal fashion cycle of becoming irrelevant after six months, since they can be updated, improved, and interacted with.

She is a big supporter of open source and is contributing an open source unicorn horn + cam design for children with ADHD amongst other things that she publishes on Instructables.com or Hackster.io.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Paul Ekas about his EZGripper and how he designed it to be low cost, lightweight, robust and to offer reliable gripping of small and large objects.

The EZGripper is a tendon based gripper using Dyneema tendons and aluminum oxide eyelets to make it durable and able to handle rough environments.

The EZGripper is under-actuated, the fingers stay straight when picking up small objects and wrap around large objects. You can control position and torque allowing you to grip soft or hard objects and to do so gently or firmly.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Linda Thayer about how to apply for, maintain and use patents.

Linda tells us about the benefits of getting in touch with a patent attorney early in the innovation process. She then walks us through the process of applying for a patent, key dates and important steps.

We also get to hear about defending your patent and international patents.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Frank Tobe about his experience covering robotics in The Robot Report and creating the index Robo-Stox.

Frank talks about how and why he shifted to robotics and how looking for an investment opportunity in robotics lead him to start Robo-Stox (since renamed to ROBO Global), a robotics focused index company.

Both companies have given Frank a unique perspective on the robotics scene as a whole, over a significant period of time.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with David Johan, Co-Founder and CEO of Shape Robotics.

David started early in robotics, getting involved already in high school. At university he founded the EU project Hydra, that introduced him to modular robotics. In the Hydra project he participated in developing, among other things, the Atron self-reconfiguring modular robotic system. We also hear how the Fable system emerged from co-operating with Lego and how it’s used all the way from 4th grade to university research.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Harsha Prahlad, CoFounder and Chief Technology and Products Officer at Grabit Inc. Harsha talks about his novel gripper for soft goods manufacturing, and how he got into robotics via the aerospace industry.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Franziska Kirstein, Human-Robot Interaction Expert and Project Manager at Blue Ocean Robotics, about her experience as a linguist working with human robot interaction. We get to hear about what works and what doesn’t when non-engineer users are tasked with teaching robots different movements. Franziska also describes some of the challenges with kinestetic guidance and alternative methods that can be used. She then presents some of the projects she is involved in, including one in robot assisted health care and one involving social robots.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Justin Werfel, senior research scientist at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

Justin talks about what termites can teach us about creating impressive structures using autonomous swarms of robots, as demonstrated in the Termes project. We also hear how Justin was drawn to robotics by the balance between theoretical and practical work.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Jana Tumova, Assistant Professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, about formal verification of computer systems and synthesizing controllers from models.

We get an introduction to the relatively new, especially when applied to robotics, field of formal verification. Jana talks about the requirements and limits of formal verification and how she feels we are ready to start merging the computer science process with regulatory and business processes.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Henrik Christensen, the Qualcomm Chancellor’s Chair of Robot Systems and a Professor of Computer Science at Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering UC San Diego. He is also the director of the Institute for Contextual Robotics. Prior to UC San Diego he was the founding director of Institute for Robotics and Intelligent machines (IRIM) at Georgia Institute of Technology (2006-2016).

Christensen shares stories from his life in European robotics research, his views on the robot revolution, and experience developing robotics roadmaps.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Peter Corke, distinguished professor of robotic vision from Queensland University of Technology, and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Robotic Vision. Peter is well known for his work in computer vision and has written one of the books that defines the area. He talks about how serendipity made him build a checkers playing robot and then move on to robotics and machine vision. We get to hear about how early experiments with “Blob Vision” got him interested in analyzing images and especially moving images, and his long and interesting journey giving robots eyes to see the world.

The interview ends with Peter adding a new item to the CV, fashion model, when he shows us the ICRA 2018 T-shirt!

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Dave Rollinson from Hebi Robotics about their modular robotics systems.

Dave shares how he had the opportunity to work with sewer inspection robots early on. He learned a lot from constantly bringing the robots out in the field. Seeing how the robots were used, as regular tools, and how they succeeded and failed helped him iterate the design and take the steps needed to create a well-functioning product.

Dave also talks about how he wanted to continue to build robots as he continued his education. He chose to go to Howie Choset’s laboratory at CMU because they build their own hardware.

We get the opportunity to see one of the modular robotics system Hebi is working on live, and a few examples of how it is being used.

At the end of the interview, Dave and the host Per, who is a major modular robotics fan, discuss the significance of modularity in robotics and how it can change how we develop and use robots and machines.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Aseem Prakash, a Futurist at the Center for Innovating the Future, about how we can prepare for co-existing with robots and AI.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Daniel Pizzata about how his passion for modular robotics led him to start Modbot, a company building robotics platforms. The goal of Modbot is to bring robots out of the research labs and make them accessible to everyone.

Daniel started out in the defence sector in Australia using robotics to measure radio transmissions. He worked on many different projects, but felt that he wanted to work with technology that was more widely applicable in society.

Daniel also talks about how he met his co-founder Adam Ellison and how they had the idea of a platform and a community that could widen the range of people that are able to develop robotics and automation solutions. This turned out to be a life-changing journey with many intense moments and amazing experiences.

Daniel then shares how living on floor 7½ in the mezzanine corridor was one of the interesting aspects of moving to San Fransisco to pursue his dream of starting Modbot.

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Erin Rapacki about how the FIRST robotics competition was a natural and inspiring way into her career spanning multiple robotics companies.

Erin talks about her work marketing for several startups, including selling points, examples from different industries, and launching a robotics product. She also shares her game plan for starting a new robotics company and insight on the startup and venture capital landscape.