Autonomous mobility devices, such as transport, cleaning, and delivery robots, hold a massive economic and social benefit. However, their deployment should not endanger bystanders, particularly vulnerable populations such as children and older adults who are inherently smaller and fragile. At Digitalize in Stockholm 2022, Professor Aude Billard, EPFL & Vice President for Publication Activities, IEEE, held an interesting keynote speech on this topic.
– Digitalize in Stockholm proved that hybrid conferences could be wonderful events too, on par with on-site ones. Quality of broadcast and exchanges with the audience was excellent, says Aude Billard.
In her talk Cobots deployment – data in support of the design of new guidelines to minimizing risks, Billard reports on a recent study that compared the risks faced by different pedestrian categories and determined risks through crash testing involving a service robot hitting an adult and a child dummy. She discusses how these findings may influence the design of controllers, sensing awareness, and assessment methods for robots and small vehicle standardization, as well as policymaking and regulations for the speed, design, and usage of these devices in populated areas.
Aude Billard is a full professor and head of the LASA laboratory at the School of Engineering at the Swiss Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and the Director of the Swiss National Theme Innovation Booster Network in Robotics. She has been elected President of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society after serving in several roles in the administrative and executive committees of the society. Dr Billard holds a B.Sc and M.Sc. in Physics from EPFL (1995) and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence (1998) from the University of Edinburgh. Dr Billard is an IEEE Fellow and recipient of the Intel Corporation Teaching award, the Swiss National Science Foundation career award, the Outstanding Young Person in Science and Innovation from the Swiss Chamber of Commerce, the IEEE RAS Distinguished Award and the IEEE-RAS Best Reviewer Award. Her research spans the fields of machine learning and robotics with a particular emphasis on fast and reactive control and human-robot interaction. This research received best paper awards from IEEE T-RO, RSS, ICRA, IROS, Humanoids and ROMAN and was featured in premier venues (BBC, IEEE Spectrum, Wired).
Link to talk on Youtube: https://youtu.be/xgOTzqz0wiw
Link to LASA laboratory: http://lasa.epfl.ch
