IPAB Workshop: Quadrotors as a model for the study of dragonfly hunting behaviour & Emergence of Human-comparable Balancing Behaviours by Deep Reinforcement Learning

Date: 
Thu, 11/01/2018 - 12:45
Location: 
Informatics Forum 4.31/4.33, University of Edinburgh
Speaker: 
Jan Stanciewicz & Chuanyu Yang
University of Edinburgh

There will be an IPAB Workshop on Thursday the 11th January at 12:45 - 13:45 held in conference room 4.31/33. Jan Stanciewicz and Chuanyu Yang will be speaking.

Pastries will be available.

Why Do Robots Need Common Sense?

Date: 
Sat, 03/02/2018 - 13:30
Location: 
Big Bang Weekend - Main Hall, County Buildings, Wigtown
Speaker: 
Dr Subramanian Ramamoorthy
Edinburgh Centre for Robotics

Why is it so hard to create a machine that can think like a 2-year old child, yet that same machine can beat a grand master in chess?

Dr Subramanian Ramamoorthy will take the audience from the the lab floor and into the future where scientists are exploring consciousness, learning and how thinking creates life.

1st Local Tournament of the European Robotics League Service Robot (ERL-SR) challenge to be held at Heriot-Watt University

Date: 
Mon, 22/01/2018 - 09:00 to Tue, 23/01/2018 - 08:45
Location: 
Robotic Assisted Living Laboratory, Heriot-Watt University

We are pleased to announce the 1st Local Tournament of the European Robotics League Service Robot (ERL-SR) challenge to be held from January 22nd to 26th, 2018 at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (Scotland, UK).

Art of Possible: Rise of the Robots

Date: 
Thu, 25/01/2018 - 12:30
Location: 
The Lighthouse, Gallery 4, 56 Mitchell Street, Glasgow, G1 3LX
Speaker: 
Professor Ruth Aylett

The Art of Possible is a movement bringing together Scotland’s creatives, policy-makers and STEM professionals to consider civic uses for the regions’ world-leading emerging and enabling (E&E) technologies.

Keynote speakers at this event are Professor Ruth Aylett, Professor of Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence at Heriot Watt University and Dr Rachael Jack, Lecturer in Psychology at the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology and School of Psychology, University of Glasgow.

Centre wins £36M grant for research into robotics in offshore energy sector

Submitted by Anne Murphy on Mon, 04/12/2017 - 08:54

ORCA Hub (Offshore Robotics for Certification of Assets) is a £36M programme aimed at addressing the offshore energy industry vision for a completely autonomous offshore energy field. The Hub brings together internationally leading experts from five UK universities with over thirty industry partners led by the Edinburgh Centre of Robotics in collaboration with Imperial College, Oxford and Liverpool Universities.

Workshop on the Social Impact of Intelligent Robots

Date: 
Fri, 15/12/2017 - 00:00 to 23:45
Location: 
Robotarium Seminar Room, Earl Mountbatten Building, Heriot-Watt University

This workshop will bring together researchers from across the Scotland, and the rest of the UK to introduce cutting edge work in Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Architectures and Planning.

Speakers will include:

Tony Pipe : Bristol University

Subramanian Ramamoorthy : University of Edinburgh

Dimitra Gkatzia : Edinburgh Napier University

Mary Ellen Foster : Glasgow University

Ron Petrick : Heriot-Watt University

Leslie Smith : Stirling University

IET ENGFEST

Submitted by Colette Bush on Thu, 30/11/2017 - 10:45

Three of our RAS CDT students exhibited some of our robots at the IET headquarters in London as part of the Festival of Engineering in October. Siobhan Duncan has written about the experience:

 

Vibhav Bharti, James Horn and I travelled to the Institute of Engineering and Technology’s headquarters in London to represent the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics at their recent Festival of Engineering.

IPAB Workshop: Spatial self-organisation in swarm robots through Turing Patterns

Date: 
Thu, 16/11/2017 - 12:45
Location: 
Informatics Forum 4.31/4.33, University of Edinburgh
Speaker: 
Calum Imrie
University of Edinburgh

There will be an IPAB Workshop on Thursday the 16th November at 12:45 held in conference room 4.31/33.  Pastries will be available.

Speaker: Calum Imrie

Title: Spatial self-organisation in swarm robots through Turing Patterns:

Abstract:

Year of Robotics Parliamentary Reception 

Submitted by Colette Bush on Fri, 10/11/2017 - 16:21

Academics and students from the Centre along with guests from industry attended a reception hosted by Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 8th November to celebrate Heriot-Watt’s ‘Year of Robotics’.
Professor Oliver Lemon, Director of the Interaction Lab at Heriot-Watt University, outlined how the Centre’s research is contributing towards the UK’s drive to realise its industrial potential in the rapidly evolving robotic sector. He also shared the University’s success in the Amazon Alexa Challenge to date.