Abstract: We have a long history of robotics in manufacturing, and over the past 20 years a second wave of robotics in warehouses - both controlled environments. As we bring robots into the world to operate in unconstrained environments around the general public, new challenges arise. This talk will review work from Willow Garage with early humanoid robots, and some of the challenges of bringing robots to hotels and hospitals. We will introduce the Stanford Robotics Center, which is looking at the next generation of challenges.
Bio: Dr. Steve Cousins is the Executive Director of the Stanford Robotics Center. He founded Relay Robotics, formerly Savioke, serving as CTO and CEO, where he led the development and deployment of Relay – an autonomous delivery robot that works in human environments to help people. Steve was previously President and CEO of Willow Garage, and is a founding board member of the Open Source Robotics Foundation. Steve received the IEEE/IFR Award for Invention and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation award in 2017. Steve did his PhD in Computer Science at Stanford University under the direction of Terry Winograd, and also holds BS and MS computer science degrees from Washington University.