Seminar: Getting Comfortable around Humans: A Path for close and physical Human-Robot Collaboration, Luis Figueredo, University of Nottingham

Abstract

Recent advances in robotics technologies have narrowed the gap between humans and robots. Nonetheless, despite this progress, robots are still rarely thought of as being close to or physically engaging with humans. Indeed, integrating robots into human environments and assisting in manipulation tasks that require direct contact or collaboration remains one of the main challenges in robotics research. Achieving a human-like level of human-robot collaboration (HRC)  requires team members to understand, communicate and trust each other capabilities to complete tasks safely. This entails a robot that can effectively communicate with humans with a nuanced understanding of human physical capabilities, ergonomics, and a shared sense of embodiment. Such features must be deployed under a layer of responsive and reactive planning, and grounded on a layer of safety-certified control performance.  In this talk, I will outline the key features of this multi-layered holistic approach to human-robot collaboration, from safety to natural language communication and biomechanical embodiment.

Bio

Dr Luis Figueredo is a lecturer at the University of Nottingham. Dr Figueredo is currently focused on the many challenges involving human-centric robotics with a goal to build intelligent robots that help and assist humans in performing different tasks in a safe, efficient, natural, and comfortable manner. He worked as a senior researcher at the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Dr Figueredo completed his PhD at the University of Brasilia (UnB), Brazil, with an awarded thesis on (dual)quaternion algebraic tools to robotics modelling and control. During his PhD, he also worked at the CSAIL - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he received multiple awards for robotic demonstrations, e.g., IROS (Winner of the Rethink Robotics’ IROS Contest) and ICAPS (system demonstration award). Dr Figueredo also worked as a fixed-term lecturer at UnB, where he was honoured as a guest speaker for the Mechatronics-17 class. After his PhD, he also worked as a project manager for a GNSS-INS venture between UnB and Glonass, and as a postdoc at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). In 2018, Dr Figueredo was awarded the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions–Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF from Horizon2020), and moved to the University of Leeds, UK. During the MSCA-IF tenure, he organized the largest UK meeting on robotic manipulation (with over 32 institutions and over a hundred delegates) and headed collaborations with sensory-motor/biomechanics specialists to design muscular-informed and ergonomics-based planning strategies for pHRC.