Grijze cellen: Robots

Free, subject to reservations

These debate evenings follow a fixed schedule: first, two top scientists from the Netherlands and Flanders give a 20-minute lecture, followed by a discussion led by a science journalist.

>> Go to the site of deburen for an overview of all episodes with videos of the lectures and conversations.

ROBOT DEBATE

Robots are advancing. Not only in the production of goods, robots also provide a helping hand or take over human tasks in traffic and logistics. They help the surgeon, explore Mars, watch our children and perform supporting tasks in elderly care.

How do robots change our lives now and in the future? During this Gray Cells we will discuss about smart design, inquisitive and empathetic robots and ethical issues.

SPEAKERS

• professor of robotics Bram Vanderborght ( VUB)
• professor of vision based robotics Pieter Jonker (TU Delft and Robot Robots Company)
• followed by a discussion led by Dominique Deckmyn (De Standaard).

Bram Vanderborght (1980) is a professor robotics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He focuses on smart design and the development of a new generation of robots that assist humans physically and socially, such as prostheses, rehabilitation robots, assistive walking aids and social robots for children with autism, for example.

He works with psychologists for this purpose. , physiotherapists and ethicists. He also organizes RoboCup Junior, an annual robot competition to get children interested in science and technology.

Pieter Jonker is a professor vision based robotics at the Delft Biorobotics Lab at TU Delft. In this lab, human-inspired research is conducted into humanoid walking robots and autonomous service robots for (home) care.

Jonker conducts research into learner robots that can perform all kinds of tasks autonomously in complex environments. His current research line concerns real-time embedded vision systems and artificial intelligence for robotics, surveillance and augmented reality.

Jonker is also co-director of Robot Robots Company, a company that makes security and care robots in close collaboration with TU Delft. At the beginning of this year, the company secured a multi-million investment for further development and market introduction in Europe.