Alberto Collasius Jr. from the Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US talks about his time at sea as expedition leader with the JASON remotely operated vehicle.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: New Year's SpecialCecilia Lashi, co-coordinator of the Octopus European project, talks about a soft bio-mimetic robotic octopus arm; Hobbyist Carl Morgan, presents his sleek silver humanoid that rides behind your tandem bike and does all the pedaling; and Carson Reynolds, professor at the University of Tokyo, tells us about his high-speed robotic hand.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Weight-Loss CoachCory Kidd is the founder of Intuitive Automata Inc. which commercializes a robotic weight-loss coach born during his PhD at the MIT Media Lab. He tells us about how good human-robot interaction can keep people motivated to eat well and exercise. We'll also be holding a Christmas contest for a chance to win two robot kits for beginners.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Planetary ExplorationJulie Townsend from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California talks about her work with NASA's Mars rovers and the lunar ATHLETE robot. Sebastian Gautsch from the the SAMLAB in Neuchatel, Switzerland, tells us about the Atomic Force Microscope that was sent to Mars aboard the Phoenix lander in the Spring of 2008.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: LearningAndrea Thomaz from Georgia Tech looks at how humans can teach and humanoids learn with the hope to create good human-robot interactions. We then speak with Sethu Vijayakumar from the University of Edinburgh about machine learning and how it can be used to teach a robot hand to balance a pole.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Stroke RehabilitationLudovic Dovat from the Singapore National University tells us about stroke victims' trouble re-learning to use their hands, and the robotic systems he designed to help with the rehabilitation process. David Brown tells us about the effects of stroke and his company Kinea Design that produces robots that help people learn to walk in unstructured terrain.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Slithering CreaturesHowie Choset from Carnegie Mellon University explains the basics of snake robots, and how he hopes to see them used anywhere from disaster areas to industrial inspection or even surgery. Erik Kyrkjebø from SINTEF Applied Cybernetics in Norway speaks about their own pipe inspection robots as well as a snake robot designed for fighting fires.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Active TouchTony Prescott from the University of Sheffield speaks about active perception in rats, and presents his SCRATCHbot robot that features artificial whiskers. Elio Tuci from the Italian National Research Council speaks of a robot arm that can distinguish between different objects using active perception.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Emergent CommunicationSara Mitri, researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne speaks about her bio-inspired experiments on the evolution of communication. Jürgen Jost, director at Leipzig's Max Planck Institute, discusses intentionality in robot communication.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Celebrating InventionDean Kaman from DEKA research speaks about the spirit of invention that drives him to create products that improve lives, and of the FIRST initiative that encourages young children to get engaged in engineering and science.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Robot-Assisted SurgeryRainer Konietschke at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of the German Aerospace Centre explains the MiroSurge project for robotic endoscopic surgery. Woung Youn Chung at the Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea explains using the Da Vinci surgical robot to treat thyroid cancer.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Brain-Machine InterfacesCharles Higgins from the University of Arizona tells us how he uses insects to control robot motion. Steve Potter from the Georgia Institute of Technololgy explains how he grows neural circuitry in a Petri-dish and interfaces it with robots.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Smart HomesRoger Orpwood, director of the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering in the UK explains how smart homes can be used to help dementia patients stay independent and receive better care. Andrew Sixsmith, Professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada then shares his experience from a medical perspective.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Soft MachinesRichard Jones, Professor of Physics at the University of Sheffield in the UK talks about Soft Machines, the future nanorobots inspired from biology.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: From Animals to AutomationMarkus Fischer, head of the Bionic Learning Network project and head of Corporate Design talks transferring technology from biomimetic research to actual products and their work on the AquaPenguin, AquaRay and AirJelly. Victor Zykov, PhD and PostDoc from Cornell University talks about modular robotics and introduces his bio-inspired Molecubes.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Celebrity Robots Brought to LifeFred Barton, also known as "Robotman", introduces Robby the Robot and talks about building robot collectibles for museums and fellow enthusiasts.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Autonomous City ExplorerDirk Wollherr, senior researcher at the Technical University of Munich, and Astrid Weiss from the University of Salzburg on the design and the goals of the Autonomous City Explorer (ACE) robot.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Robot actors at the theaterSwiss theater director Christian Denisart talks about his latest play where 3 of the 5 main characters are mobile robots. Nicolas Tomatis, CEO of Bluebotics Ltd., describes the three robotic actors, an obedient robot dog, a distinguished robot butler and a sensual female, in more detail.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Robots: Collective Coverage and Self-AssemblyMIT's Nikolaus Correll on his robot swarms for turbine inspection and his latest research on cooperating networks. In part two Roderich Gross introduces the swarm-bots and his work on robot cooperation, self-assembly and division of labour.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
