Two Heriot-Watt researchers, Amol Deshmukh and Dr. Srini Janarthanam from the department of Computer Science, recently took two robots into Beeslack Community High School in Penicuik. The researchers, led by Professor Ruth Aylett and Dr Helen Hastie, are part of a large European project EMOTE (www.emote-project.eu), which also has partners in Sweden, Germany and Portugal. The team have been creating a learning environment that includes a socially aware robotic tutor and a large touch table.

On 2nd September 2015, Sky News correspondent James Matthewson visited the Robotarium facilities at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. ‘Jazz’, ‘BLUE’, ‘The Castle’, a Prosthetic Hand, and other robots featured each hour from 9:30, as part of the Robot Revolution week at Sky News.

All six videos from the coverage can be found in our channel's YouTube playlist.

In collaboration with the University of Glasgow, Prof Oliver Lemon, from The Interaction Lab at Heriot-Watt University, and part of the ECR Robotarium facilities, has been awarded Horizon 2020 funding for their proposal “MultiModal Mall Entertainment Robot” (MuMMER). This is a follow-on of their work on socially intelligent robot communication in the FP7 JAMES project. It brings 900K euros over 4 years to the Interaction Lab.

We are delighted to issue the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics Newsletter for August 2015.

Read about upcoming events, latest news, Robotarium equipment (available to all researchers across the UK) and more!

We hope you enjoy it!

Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh are delighted to be founding members of the newly-launched EPSRC UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network (UK-RAS Network).

The Network will bring together the UK’s core academic capabilities in robotics innovation under national coordination for the first time and encourage academic and industry collaborations that will accelerate the development and adoption of robotics and autonomous systems.

We are delighted to publish the first edition of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics Newsletter.  We hope you enjoy finding out about what we do at the Centre. We'll publish the ECR newsletter bi-monthly so keep an eye out for our next newsletter in August. 

Useful links

Edinburgh Centre for Robotics

Robotarium

On Monday 18th May, the Centre was delighted to welcome a delegation from Kawasaki Heavy Industries, to discuss developments and teaming opportunities in Marine Robotics. The visit was a direct result of Professor David Lane's recent keynote speech on 22 April at the Japanese Embassy London's Japan-UK Robotics Seminar http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/event/2015/06/robotics.html 

On Monday 18th May, Professor Nick Taylor escorted a delegation from the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy led by its Head, Minister Counsellor Jin Xu, on a tour of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics at Heriot-Watt University. They were accompanied by Ruth Moir, Heriot-Watt’s Assistant Principal (International Development) and James Brodie of the China Britain Business Council.