Robotics is helping to rehabilitate and increase human abilities in areas like mobility and stamina. Innovations in robotic devices, exoskeletons, and wearable tech aim to offer disabled people different perspectives and new experiences, as well as supporting humans more widely to access, inhabit and work safely in dangerous and extreme conditions. What does the future hold for these technologies and the people they will become a part of?

In this special live recording at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival, Claire chatted to Milia Helena Hasbani (Imperial College London), Benjamin Metcalfe (University of Bath) and Dani Clode (Cambridge University) about robotic prosthetics and human augmentation.

Milia Helena Hasbani is a researcher in assistive technology at Imperial College London. She is passionate about improving people’s lives through innovation in healthcare and technology in multi-disciplinary environments interfacing with engineers, clinicians, and patients. Her research focuses on the control of active prosthetic arms, combining user intention for wrist movements with a computer vision system for dynamically selecting the grasp type to be used.

Benjamin Metcalfe is a biomedical engineer who specialises in neural interfaces and implanted devices. He is Head of the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering at the University of Bath and Deputy Director of the Bath Institute for the Augmented Human. He is also Vice-President (Academic) of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. His interests explore the collision between technology and biology and the extent to which engineering can be used to augment and enhance human performance.

Dani Clode is an augmentation and prosthetics designer. She is the Senior Technical Specialist at the Plasticity Lab at Cambridge University and a collaborator of the Alternative Limb Project. Dani’s work investigates the future architecture of our bodies, challenging the perception and boundaries of extending the human form. Her main project the ‘Third Thumb’ is currently being utilised in collaboration with neuroscientists at Cambridge University, investigating the brain’s ability to adapt to human augmentation.

Claire chatted to Simone Schuerle from ETH Zürich all about microrobots, medicine and science.

Simone Schuerle is Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, where she heads the Responsive Biomedical System Lab. With her team, she develops diagnostic and therapeutic systems at the nano- and microscale with the aim of tackling a range of challenging problems in medicine. One major focus of her current research is addressing limitations in drug delivery through scalable magnetically enhanced drug transport. In 2014, she co-founded the spin-off MagnebotiX that offers electromagnetic control systems for wireless micromanipulation.

Join the live audience!

Robot Talk will be at the Great Exhibition Road Festival this Sunday (16th June) for 'Humans 2.0: Robotically Augmented People' at the V&A Museum.

Register for a FREE ticket: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/humans-20-robotically-augmented-people-tickets-879494560907

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Claire chatted to Lord Ara Darzi from Imperial College London all about robotic surgery - past, present and future.

Ara Darzi is Co-Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery. In 2002, he was knighted for his services to medicine and surgery and in 2007 was introduced as Lord Darzi of Denham to the UK’s House of Lords as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health. Professor Darzi leads a large multidisciplinary academic and policy research team, focused on convergence science across engineering, physical and data sciences, specifically in the areas of robotics, sensing, imaging and digital and AI technologies. He is Chair of the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Join the live audience!

Robot Talk will be at the Great Exhibition Road Festival in June for 'Humans 2.0: Robotically Augmented People' at the V&A Museum in London, at 1.30pm on Sunday 16th June.

Register for a FREE ticket: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/humans-20-robotically-augmented-people-tickets-879494560907

Win a Robot Talk T-shirt

For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is:

1. Sign up to our newsletter
2. Share our competition post on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads or Mastodon

You can enter across multiple platforms. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month!

Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Isabelle Ormerod from the University of Bristol all about human-centred design and women in robotics.

Isabelle Ormerod is a PhD student at Bristol Robotics Lab in the Design and Manufacturing Futures Lab. Her professional path began in the medical product design industry, where she observed firsthand the application of human factors (HF) processes for dextrous and high-risk procedures. This experience sparked her interest in leveraging data-driven HF approaches in product design. Isabelle is also part of the Leadership team of Women in Robotics UK. This organization is committed to fostering an inclusive community for women and non-binary individuals in the robotics field in the UK.

Join the live audience!

Robot Talk will be at the Great Exhibition Road Festival in June for 'Humans 2.0: Robotically Augmented People' at the V&A Museum in London, at 1.30pm on Sunday 16th June.

Register for a FREE ticket: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/humans-20-robotically-augmented-people-tickets-879494560907

Win a Robot Talk T-shirt

For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is:

1. Sign up to our newsletter
2. Share our competition post on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads or Mastodon

You can enter across multiple platforms. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month!

Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Mario Di Castro from CERN all about robotic inspection and maintenance in hazardous environments.

Mario Di Castro has a Master’s degree in electronic engineering from the University of Naples Federico II in Italy and a PhD in robotics and industrial controls from the Polytechnic University of Madrid in Spain. Since 2011 he has led the Mechatronics, Robotics and Operation section at CERN. The section is responsible for the design, construction, installation, operation and maintenance of robotic systems used for remote maintenance at the CERN accelerator complex. His research interests include tele-robotics, machine learning, and precise motion control in harsh environments.

Join the live audience!

Robot Talk will be returning for another live episode recording this June, as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival in London. 'Humans 2.0: Robotically Augmented People' will be held at the V&A Museum at 1.30pm on Sunday 16th June.

Register for a free ticket now: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/humans-20-robotically-augmented-people-tickets-879494560907

Win a Robot Talk T-shirt

For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is:

1. Sign up to our newsletter
2. Share our competition post on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads or Mastodon

You can enter across multiple platforms. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month!

Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Margarita Chli from the University of Cyprus all about vision, navigation, and small aerial drones.

Margarita Chli is a professor of Robotic Vision and the director of the Vision for Robotics Lab, at the University of Cyprus and ETH Zurich. Her work has contributed to the first vision-based autonomous flight of a small drone and the first demonstration of collaborative monocular SLAM for a small swarm of drones. Margarita has given invited keynotes at the World Economic Forum in Davos, TEDx, and ICRA, and she was featured in Robohub's 2016 list of "25 women in Robotics you need to know about". In 2023, she won the ERC Consolidator Grant to research advanced robotic perception.

Join the live audience!

Robot Talk will be returning for another live episode recording this June, as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival in London. 'Humans 2.0: Robotically Augmented People' will be held at the V&A Museum at 1.30pm on Sunday 16th June.

Register for a free ticket now: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/humans-20-robotically-augmented-people-tickets-879494560907

Win a Robot Talk T-shirt

For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is:

1. Sign up to our newsletter
2. Share our competition post on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads or Mastodon

You can enter across multiple platforms. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month!

Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Steve Benford from the University of Nottingham all about art, dance, and cat sitting robots.

Steve Benford is the Dunford Professor of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham where he co-founded the Mixed Reality Laboratory. His research explores artistic applications of digital technologies through performance-led methods that engage artists in creating, touring and studying unique interactive experiences. He directs the EPSRC-funded Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training and the University’s newly founded Cobot Maker Space that is exploring human interaction with robots. He is also a keen musician.

Join the live audience!

Robot Talk will be returning for another live episode recording this June, as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival in London. 'Humans 2.0: Robotically Augmented People' will be held at the V&A Museum at 1.30pm on Sunday 16th June.

Win a Robot Talk T-shirt

For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is:

1. Sign up to our newsletter
2. Share our competition post on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads or Mastodon

You can enter across multiple platforms. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month!

Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.

Claire chatted to Estelle Raffy from the University of Bristol all about animal behaviour, intelligence, and life-like artificial systems.

Estelle Raffy is a PhD student at the University of Bristol. During her Bachelor's degree in neuroscience and cognitive science, the “brained body” of the octopus kept her wondering: how can nature start with similar basic principles and end up with massive decentralized systems that we still call intelligent? She did a Master in epistemology and history of science where she addressed what embodiment principles tell us about biological and artificial systems' design and behaviour. Building on this, her PhD research aims to contribute to finding the ingredients for adaptive, 'life-like' behaviours in novel artificial systems."

Check out the MorphoTalks YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@morphologicalcomputation/playlists

Join the live audience!

Robot Talk will be returning for another live episode recording this June, as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival in London. 'Humans 2.0: Robotically Augmented People' will be held at the V&A Museum at 1.30pm on Sunday 16th June.

Win a Robot Talk T-shirt

For a chance to win your very own organic cotton Robot Talk t-shirt, all you have to do is:

1. Sign up to our newsletter
2. Share our competition post on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads or Mastodon

You can enter across multiple platforms. One lucky winner will be randomly selected each month!

Find out more: https://www.robottalk.org/t-shirt-competition/.