Dec 18 2014
As part of a recent showcase briefing and networking event for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) in Horizon 2020, scientists from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), UCL and MIT gave a presentation on multi-scale robotic teleoperation to the Rt Hon Greg Clark, Minister for Universities and Science.
Prof Srinivasan (MIT/UCL) discusses applications of teleoperation and haptics with the Rt Hon Greg Clark, Minister for Universities and Science (image courtesy of BIS)
The presentation follows the launch of a strategic partnership between the institutions, building upon expertise at UCL and MIT in robotics and haptics in micro- and nano environments and expertise at NPL in bioimaging, bioengineering and synthetic biology. The partnership was selected to present their work along with six other leading groups from academia and industry to showcase the strength and diversity of the UK in RAS.
Prof Mandayam Srinivasan, co-founder of the field of haptics who leads the work at MIT and UCL TouchLabs, started with an overview of teleoperation and haptics at multiple scales from industrial engineering to human scale applications, including robot assisted and remote surgery. NPL's Mike Shaw then described the use of robotics for manipulation and measurement in biological systems at the micro- and nanoscales, with particular emphasis on exciting applications of the technology in bioengineering and synthetic biology. The minister was also able to try a hands-on demonstration of micromanipulation with haptic (force) feedback developed by Dr Vijay Pawar and Prof Srinivasan.