Published:
A group of roboticists from Heriot-Watt’s School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences and School of Engineering and Physical Sciences featured strongly on the BBC’s Intelligent Machines week launch day.
The group, Professor Dave Lane, Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics (ECR), Dr Patricia A. Vargas, Director of the Robotics Lab and ERC Executive Member, Dr Katrin Lohan, Deputy Director of the Robotics Lab, and Prof Ruth Aylett, plus researchers, Steven Kay, Ingo Keller and Srinivasan Janarthanam, went down to London to give interviews at the BBC and present three demonstrations to show their work. They took with them a range of robotic equipment:
It was a great opportunity to showcase the cutting-edge research, which is taking place in our Robotics Lab.
An intelligent swarm of E-PUCK robots communicating with an autonomous humanoid robot (NAO robot) and an air drone
A human-robot interaction scenario featuring the iCub robot talking head on a learning task
An emphatic robot tutor interacting via a game with human students
Clips of their interviews can be seen at the Robotics Lab website
Dr Vargas, who organised the trip, said, “This was a day of live interviews and robot demos to launch a week’s specialist coverage by the BBC of robotics and artificial intelligence. It meant our group had to make our way down to Broadcasting House in London with our robots, but it was a great opportunity to showcase the cutting-edge research, which is taking place in our Robotics Lab at Heriot-Watt.”
“We’re very grateful for all those who helped to pull this together at such short notice, and I hope it encourages interest in the subject, especially among young people who might be encouraged to follow the subject.”