Robert Ambrose

In this interview, Matt Mason discusses his career in robotics, in particular in compliant motion, force control, and fine motion planning. Outlining his involvement in projects at IBM, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon, he provides insight into the state and evolution of robotics at the time. Describing his current work on manipulation and robotic hands, he comments on the future of robotics at CMU and of the field as a whole.

Brian Gerkey is co-founder and CEO of Open Robotics, which drives the development and adoption of open software and hardware for robotics. Prior to Open Robotics, Brian was a postdoc in the Stanford AI Lab, a Computer Scientist in the SRI AI Center, and Director of Open Source Development at Willow Garage.

In this interview, Rolf Pfeifer discusses his work in robotics, focusing on artificial intelligence and locomotion. Describing the influence of human psychology and intelligence on his research, he outlines his early work with cognitive robots and AI and his later work in bio-robotics. He discusses the challenges and breakthroughs of his work and of bio-robotics as a whole, as well as the evolution of robotics throughout his career and its future applications and goals.

In this interview, Illah Nourbakhsh discusses his work in robotics, focusing on artificial intelligence and planning, and the challenges and future of the field. Describing his involvement in projects, such as the Book Store Project and the automated highway system project, he outlines the state of robotics at Stanford, the start of his company (Blue Pumpkin Software), and his arrival and work at Carnegie Mellon. Additionally he discusses his work on educational projects, such as the Dinosaur Hall, and at NASA, and comments on the potential for robotics in education and space exploration.

In this interview, Hagita discusses his work in robotics, with a focus on human-robot interaction, agent systems and networked robots, visual perception, and pattern recognition and learning. He recounts his robotics work at various research laboratories, such as Steven Palmer's lab at UC Berkeley, and his time and contributions at NTT and ATR. He reflects on the influences and successes of his career, his involvement in creating the IRC and Media Information Lab at ATR, and the collaborations on various projects (such as Robovie and RFID tags). Additionally he comments on the evolution and difficulties of robotics, and provides advice to young people interested in the field.

In this interview, Richard Murray discusses his career in robotics, in particular his work on manipulation and grasping, non-holonomic motion planning, and locomotion. He describes the state of robotics at CalTech and his contribution to robotics projects there, as well as the challenges of his research. Moving into work with UAV/UAS, he outlines his involvement with the Grand Challenge and his eventual involvement with bio-molecular feedback. Additionally he comments on human-robot interaction and the challenges and problems facing robotics.