On May 4th, BBC journalists and crew came to the Robotarium East at the University of Edinburgh to report on our NASA Valkyrie Project for a special BBC News feature that was live streamed on the BBC Facebook page at 6pm.
This year, the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics took part in a number of events at the Edinburgh International Festival (26th March - 10th April). Below, we detail our activities during these past few weeks.
James Garforth, Edinburgh Centre for Robotics student, organised the events Robot Lab and Technologies of the Future, Today. Robot Lab ran from 26th to the 30th March in the National Museum of Scotland and consisted of a series demos that showcased the research carried out at the Centre by current students. Technologies of the Future, Today took place on 30th March in Summerhall. Carson Vogt, Iris Kyranou, Agamemnon Krasoulis, Sandy Enoch and Wolfgang Merkt gave talks about robots and showed some demos.
On Thursday 31st March, the British Consulate General Boston and UK Trade & Investment organised panel sessions with UK roboticists and leaders from the New England robotics community. The three-panel sessions covered the role of robotics in healthcare, autonomous systems, and defence applications.
Lloyd’s Register Foundation has identified Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) as a key technology that impacts on the Foundation’s core objectives and has therefore commissioned a team led by Professor David Lane , Edinburgh Centre for Robotics Director, to produce a Foresight Report.
Edinburgh Centre for Robotics is pleased to announce that next year’s European Robotics Forum will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 22nd to 24th March 2017. The Centre's application to host this event was approved early January this year by EU Robotics.
Edinburgh Centre for Robotics Director, Prof Sethu Vijayakumar, is one of the three judges for the 2016 BBC Robot Wars alongside:
The morning of monday 29th February 2016, Valkyrie, NASA's R5 Robot, arrived in the School of Informatics. The Edinburgh Centre for Robotics Valkyrie team, Professor Vijayakumar, Dr Fallon, Dr Vladimir Ivan, and PhD students Wolfgang Merkt, Marco Caravagna, Simona Nobili and Yiming Yang welcomed the NASA crew and set up the lab for the new addition to the Robotarium East. The Valkyrie is not ready for display and demos yet, but further information will be provided soon.
Last Wednesday 24th February, Professor Sethu Vijayakumar and PhD students, Alexander Enoch (Edinburgh) and Iris Kyranou (Heriot Watt) were live on BBC micro:bit Live Lesson at 11-11.45am . Professor Sethu Vijayakumar gave an insight of the Valkyrie robot that arrived in Edinburgh last Monday 29th February 2016. Alexander Enoch and Iris Kyranou demoed some of the robots that are part of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics Robotarium East, such as the prosthetic hand.
Will robots take over our jobs in the near future? Will the rise of robots lead to a decrease in human cognitive abilities? These are some of the questions the audience asked at the public debate “How Will Robotics Reshape Our Lives in the Next Two Decades”, an event co-organised by the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics and the British Science Association last Thursday 4th February 2016 at the Informatics Forum, University of Edinburgh.