Research into humanoid robots is a rapidly advancing field, with companies around the world striving to produce robots that look and act more like us. But what is it about recreating ourselves in robot form that we find so captivating? Why do humanoid robots both enthral and terrify us? And is our obsession with robotic humans just vanity, or could they play valuable roles in our future society?

In this special live recording at Imperial College London as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival, Claire chatted to Ben Russell (Science Museum), Maryam Banitalebi Dehkordi (University of Hertfordshire) and Petar Kormushev (Imperial College London) about humanoid robotics.

Ben Russell has been the Science Museum’s Curator of Mechanical Engineering since 2004. He has curated six permanent galleries and temporary exhibitions at the museum, including Engineers (2023), Robots (2017), Cosmonauts (2015) and James Watt’s Workshop (2011). He is the author of James Watt: Making the World Anew, (Reaktion Books, 2014), and editor of Robots (Scala, 2017), as well as numerous published and conference papers.

Maryam Banitalebi Dehkordi is a Senior Lecturer in Robotics and AI at the University of Hertfordshire. She has a master’s degree in Mechatronics and Automatic Control Engineering from the University Technology Malaysia and a Ph.D. in Perceptual Robotics from Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Italy. Her expertise spans assistive robots, mobile robots, agricultural robots, industrial robots, humanoid robots, parallel manipulators, navigation, and outdoor autonomous vehicles.

Petar Kormushev is Director of the Robot Intelligence Lab at Imperial College London and an Associate Professor in Robotics at the Dyson School of Design Engineering. His research focus is on reinforcement learning algorithms and their application to autonomous robots. Petar’s long-term goal is to create robots that can learn by themselves and adapt to dynamic environments. His machine learning algorithms have been applied to a variety of humanoid robots, including COMAN and iCub.

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Claire chatted to Gabriel Skantze from KTH Royal Institute of Technology about having natural face-to-face conversations with robots.

Gabriel Skantze is a Professor of Speech Communication and Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. He specializes in conversational systems and leads several research projects on conversational AI and human-robot interaction. His work focuses on computational models of spoken interaction, integrating both verbal and non-verbal aspects such as prosody, turn-taking, feedback, and joint attention. In 2014, he co-founded Furhat Robotics, where he continues to serve part-time as Chief Scientist.

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Claire chatted to Amy LaViers from the Robotics, Automation, and Dance Lab about the creative relationship between humans and machines.

Amy LaViers works at the intersection of robotics and dance. Her writing, choreography, and machine designs have been presented internationally at performing arts and engineering venues, including Merce Cunningham’s studios, the Performance Arcade, and universities like Berkeley and Brown. She is the founder of three startup companies, including AE Machines, which won “Product Design of the Year” at the 4th Rev Awards in Chicago. Amy runs the Robotics, Automation, and Dance (RAD) Lab, a non-profit for art-making, commercialization, education, outreach, and research.

Robot Talk Live
Be part of the audience for a live recording at the Great Exhibition Road Festival this weekend: https://www.greatexhibitionroadfestival.co.uk/event/why-are-we-building-humanoid-robots/

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