Robohub Podcast has launched a campaign on Patreon! If you don't know, Robohub Podcast is a biweekly podcast about robotics. Our goal is to explore global robotics through interviews with experts, both in academia and industry. We have published nearly 250 episodes and have spoken with many of the most influential people in robotics, such as Rodney Brooks, Dean Kamen, Radhika Nagpal, and Helen Griener. We would like your support so we can bring you interviews from the leading robotics conferences and laboratories around the world.

The difference is that active below-knee prostheses work to move the person's weight, emulating the calf muscle, while semi-active devices use small amounts of power to improve the performance of the prosthesis. Adamczyk discusses the motivation for semi-active devices and gives three examples: shiftable shapes, controllable keels, and alignable ankles. Peter Adamczyk directs the UW Biomechatronics, Assistive Devices, Gait Engineering and Rehabilitation Laboratory (UW BADGER Lab) which aims to enhance physical and functional recovery from orthopedic and neurological injury through advanced robotic devices. We study the mechanisms by which these injuries impair normal motion and coordination, and target interventions to encourage recovery and/or provide biomechanical assistance. Our work primarily addresses impairments affecting walking, running, and standing.

In this interview, Audrow Nash interviews Marco Hutter, Assistant Professor for Robotic Systems at ETH Zürich, about a quadrupedal robot designed for autonomous operation in challenging environments, called ANYmal. Here is a video showing some of the highlights of ANYmal at the ARGOS Challenge. Here is a video that shows some of the motions ANYmal is capable of. Marco Hutter is assistant professor for Robotic Systems at ETH Zürich since 2015 and Branco Weiss Fellow since 2014. Before this, he was deputy director and group leader in the field of legged robotics at the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zürich.

Kumar discusses the guiding ideas behind his research on micro unmanned aerial vehicles, gives his thoughts on the future of robotics in the lab and field, and speaks about setting realistic expectations for robotics technology. Vijay Kumar is the Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering with appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Computer and Information Science, and Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kumar received his Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 1987. He has been on the Faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics with a secondary appointment in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania since 1987. In his time at the university, Dr. Kumar has held numerous positions including director of the GRASP Laboratory, Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, and Deputy Dean for Education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

The idea is to make vehicles safer, as Gerdes says, he wants to "develop vehicles that could avoid any accident that can be avoided within the laws of physics." In this interview, Gerdes discusses developing a model for high-performance control of a vehicle; their autonomous race car, an Audi TTS named'Shelley,' and how its autonomous performance compares to ameteur and professional race car drivers; and an autonomous, drifting Delorean named'MARTY.' Chris Gerdes is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, Director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS) and Director of the Revs Program at Stanford. His laboratory studies how cars move, how humans drive cars and how to design future cars that work cooperatively with the driver or drive themselves. When not teaching on campus, he can often be found at the racetrack with students, instrumenting historic race cars or trying out their latest prototypes for the future.

In this episode, Audrow Nash interviews Ayanna Howard, Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, about her work to help children with the movement disorder cerebral palsy. Howard discusses how robots and tablet can be used to "gamify" pediatric therapy. The idea is that if therapy is fun and engaging children are more likely to do it, and thus, they are more likely to see the long-term benefits of the therapy. Howard discusses how therapy is "gamified," how a small humanoid robot is used to coach children, and how they work with pediatricians. Ayanna Howard, Ph.D. is Professor and Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Endowed Chair in Bioengineering in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.