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#309: Learning to Grasp, with Jeannette Bohg

In this episode, Lilly Clark interviews Jeannette Bohg, Assistant Professor at Stanford, about her work in interactive perception and robot learning for grasping and manipulation tasks. Bohg discusses how robots and humans are different, the challenge of high dimensional data, and unsolved problems including continuous learning and decentralized manipulation.

Jeannette Bohg is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. She was a group leader at MPI until September 2017 and remains affiliated as a guest researcher. Her research focuses on perception for autonomous robotic manipulation and grasping. She is specifically interested in developing methods that are goal-directed, real-time and multi-modal such that they can provide meaningful feedback for execution and learning.

Before joining the Autonomous Motion lab in January 2012, Jeannette Bohg was a PhD student at the Computer Vision and Active Perception lab (CVAP) at KTH in Stockholm. Her thesis on Multi-modal scene understanding for Robotic Grasping was performed under the supervision of Prof. Danica Kragic. She studied at Chalmers in Gothenburg and at the Technical University in Dresden where she received her Masters in Art and Technology and her Diploma in Computer Science, respectively.

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#307: Commercializing Robot Brains, with Kajal Gada

In this episode, Lilly interviews Kajal Gada on her work at BrainCorp, the San Diego-based company behind BrainOS, a technology stack for autonomous solutions. Kajal discusses BrainCorp’s cloud-connected operating system and their floor cleaning, vacuuming, and warehouse delivery robots. She also articulates some of the challenges in becoming a software engineer and developing commercial solutions.

Kajal Gada

Kajal Gada is a software engineer at BrainCorp. She works on developing algorithms for realizing robotic operations in the real world. Kajal received her Masters in Robotics from University of Maryland – College Park, and also has an MBA in Technology Management from NMIMS, Mumbai. She is an advocate for women in the workplace and has spoken at GHC in 2018. In her free time, she loves to read mystery novels and work on puzzles

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#307: Commercializing Robot Brains, with Kajal Gada

In this episode, Lilly interviews Kajal Gada on her work at BrainCorp, the San Diego-based company behind BrainOS, a technology stack for autonomous solutions. Kajal discusses BrainCorp’s cloud-connected operating system and their floor cleaning, vacuuming, and warehouse delivery robots. She also articulates some of the challenges in becoming a software engineer and developing commercial solutions.

Kajal Gada

Kajal Gada is a software engineer at BrainCorp. She works on developing algorithms for realizing robotic operations in the real world. Kajal received her Masters in Robotics from University of Maryland – College Park, and also has an MBA in Technology Management from NMIMS, Mumbai. She is an advocate for women in the workplace and has spoken at GHC in 2018. In her free time, she loves to read mystery novels and work on puzzles

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#305: Coordination, Cooperation, and Collaboration, with Vijay Kumar


In this interview, Lilly interviews Vijay Kumar, Professor and Dean at the University of Pennsylvania. He discusses coordination, cooperation, and collaboration in multi-robot systems. He also explains where he draws inspiration from in his research, and why robotics has yet to meet science fiction.

Vijay Kumar

Vijay Kumar is the Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering with appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Computer and Information Science, and Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Kumar’s group works on creating autonomous ground and aerial robots, designing bio-inspired algorithms for collective behaviors, and on robot swarms. They have won many best paper awards at conferences, and group alumni are leaders in teaching, research, business and entrepreneurship. Kumar is a fellow of ASME and IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Vijay Kumar has held many administrative positions in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, including director of the GRASP Laboratory, chair of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, and the position of the Deputy Dean. He served as the assistant director of robotics and cyber physical systems at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

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#302: Robots That Can See, Do, and Win, with Juxi Leitner


In this episode, Lilly interviews Juxi Leitner, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Queensland University of Technology and Co-Founder/CEO of LYRO Robotics. LYRO spun out of the 2017 win of the Amazon Robotics Challenge by Team ACRV. Here Juxi discusses deep learning, computer vision, intent in grasping and manipulation, and bridging the gap between abstract and low-level understandings of the world. He also discusses why robotics is really an integration field, the Amazon and other robotics challenges, and what’s important to consider when spinning an idea into a company.

Juxi Leitner

Juxi Leitner is co-founder of LYRO Robotics, a deep-tech startup based in Brisbane, Australia, creating robotic picking and packing solutions. LYRO is a spin-out of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Robotic Vision (ACRV), where Juxi is the research lead for the manipulation research stream (previously Vision and Action project). His research focus is on integrating Robotics, Computer Vision and Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence (AI) for robust grasping and manipulation in real-world scenarios. In 2017 his team won the Amazon Robotics Challenge. Juxi is active in the local Brisbane deep-tech ecosystem and started Brisbane.AI and the Brisbane robotics interest group.

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#298: Cognitive Robotics Under Uncertainty, with Marlyse Reeves



In this episode Lilly Clark interviews Marlyse Reeves, PhD student at MIT, about her work in cognitive robotics and hybrid activity-motion planning. Reeves discusses the role of robotics in space, the challenges of multi-vehicle missions, planning under uncertainty, and her work on an underwater exploration mission.

Marlyse Reeves

Marlyse is a third-year PhD student in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. She received her B.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 2017. Her current research in the Model-based Embedded and Robotic Systems Group focuses on multi-vehicle online planning, incorporating complex dynamics and constraints. She is also interested in risk-aware planning, fault protection and diagnosis, and adaptive sampling. Outside of the lab, she enjoys playing soccer, dancing, and reading science fiction.

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#296: Robust Robotics and the Quest for Intelligence, with Nicholas Roy


In this episode Lilly Clark interviews Nicholas Roy, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, about the Quest for Intelligence initiative and his research in robust robotics. Roy discusses how cognitive science pushes artificial intelligence, further pushing the capabilities of engineering tools and services, and speaks about the importance of explainable and ethical AI. He explains the challenges of capturing context and semantics in useful models of a system, and designing unmanned aerial vehicles and robots which interact with humans.

Nicholas Roy

Nicholas Roy is the Bisplinghoff Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, and leads the Robust Robotics Group in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He received a BS and MS from McGill University, and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests span robotics, machine learning, planning and reasoning, and human-computer interaction.

 
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#287: Robonomics Platform: Integrating Robots into the Economy, with Aleksandr Kapitonov



In this episode, Lilly Clark interviews Aleksandr Kapitonov, “robot economics” academic society professor at Airalab, on his work for Robonomics Platform, an Ethereum network infrastructure for integrating robots and cyber-physical systems directly into the economy. Kapitonov discusses the advantages of using blockchain, use cases including a fully autonomous vending machine, and the Robonomics technology stack.

Below are two videos showing the Robonomics Platform in action via a fully autonomous robot artist and drones for environmental monitoring.

Aleksandr Kapitonov

Aleksandr Kapitonov is a “robot economics” academic society progressor at Airalab (the team behind Robonomics Platform), an assistant professor of Control Systems and Robotics at ITMO University, and regional coordinator of the Erasmus+ IOT-OPEN.EU project for researching and developing IoT education practices. His research focuses on navigation, computer vision, control of mobile robots and communication for multi-agents systems.

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