News

Avatar XPrize Semi-finalists

Submitted by Zoe McGonigle on Mon, 03/05/2021 - 12:25

Members of the Statistical Learning and Motor Control Group at the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with Touchlab qualify for the USA semi-finals.

The Avater XPrize aims to create an avatar system that can transport human presence to a remote location in real time. Dr Vladimir Ivan and Professor Sethu Vijayakumar are part of the AvatarX team led by Touchlab developing a mobile remotely operated robot with a unique capability of touch combined advanced shared control. 

Paper published in Science Robotics

Submitted by Anne Murphy on Mon, 08/02/2021 - 09:12

How to make robots behave like animals in nature is the subject of a long exploration by robotics experts around the world. Dogs or cats don't put too much thought into how they move. They rely on instinct to adapt to the changes in nature, jumping up and down in complex terrain performing flexible movements. But this is not easy for intelligent robots, such as quadrupeds.

Professor Sethu Vijayakumar interview with The Scotsman newspaper

Submitted by Anne Murphy on Fri, 05/02/2021 - 09:30

In a recent article published in The Scotsman, Professor Sethu Vijayakumar looks at the potential of robotics in healthcare and explains how the latest advancements might be used in the fight against cancers or lung damage brought on by Covid-19. 

The following is a modified version of the article.  

Turing Lecture: Building Dynamic Robotics with Marc Raibert of Boston Dynamics

Submitted by Zoe McGonigle on Tue, 17/11/2020 - 09:40

Over 630 attendees logged in to watch the full interview between Marc Raibert, Founder and Chairman of Boston Dynamics and Professor Sethu Vijayakumar, and to interactively take part in the live online polls and Q&A session.

Boston Dynamics are leaders in some of the world’s most advanced robots including Spot, Atlas and Handle. The company specialises in robots which can reach inaccessible areas and are able to move more quickly to get the work done faster.

ECR Staff to lead Research Nodes as part of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Programme

Submitted by Zoe McGonigle on Mon, 09/11/2020 - 16:04

The UK Research  and Innovation (UKRI) has launched six new research projects or, “nodes” aimed at tackling challenges to the development of autonomous systems.  These are part of the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) programme which will undertake fundamental, creative and multidisciplinary research in various areas key to ensure autonomous systems can be built in a way society can trust and use.

The Edinburgh Centre for Robotics has been awarded funding for two nodes:

Report on our Annual Conference, October 6th 2020

Submitted by Zoe McGonigle on Wed, 04/11/2020 - 10:55

Our annual conference took place online this year, and we found it to be just as engaging and diverse as ever.  We were joined on Zoom by four keynote speakers, and about 100 students, staff and industry representatives. 

We kicked off with Keynote speaker Professor Metin Sitti from Max Planck institute who did a talk on soft-bodied small scale robotics that featured memorable robots modelled after baby jellyfish. 

Welcome to Dr. (Chris) Xiaoxuan Lu !

Submitted by Zoe McGonigle on Wed, 16/09/2020 - 11:54

We would like to welcome (Chris) Xiaoxuan Lu as a supervisor for the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics! He is the new Lecturer in Cyber-Physical Systems in the School of Informatics at The University of Edinburgh. His research interests broadly lie in mobile autonomy, perception and sensing (MAPS), with the focus on spatial AI under visual degradation, fog Robotics and edge IoT, RF and multi-modal sensor fusion; secure and privacy-aware autonomous systems.

Upcoming Event - Turing Lecture: Building dynamic robots

Submitted by Zoe McGonigle on Tue, 08/09/2020 - 14:05

On September 22nd the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics and The Alan Turing Institute will be hosting exciting talk with guest Marc Raibert from Boston Dynamics.  You can register here.

Turing Lecture: Building dynamic robots

The finale in the Turing Lecture mini-series exploring the role of AI and data science in our lives post-lockdown.

Speakers: