Good Golf Robots Can Sink a Putt Better Than Humans

Aude Billard, Head of the LASA Laboratory in the School of Engineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, shows how robots in her lab have learned to model complex human movement.

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From its past, largely industrial focus, the field of robotics is now rapidly expanding into the human realm. This shift was brought on in part by advances in technologies that make human-centered applications possible. A new generation of robots can now interact, explore, and work with humans. And this robotic boom is sure to directly touch people's lives at home, at work, and within communities, not to mention provide support in education and health care.

Hear from speakers at the forefront of research on robot-human interactions as they discuss the standards and requirements that need to be taken into consideration when developing new robots. To be functional in everyday life, for instance, they must be safe and quick to respond to changes in their environment.

Aude Billard is Associate Professor and Head of the LASA Laboratory in the School of Engineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). She received her M.Sc. in physics from EPFL and a MSc. in knowledge-base systems as well as a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to joining EPFL in 2006, she was an assistant professor of computer sciences at the University of Southern California. She was elected a member of the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. She was the recipient of several best paper awards at ICRA, IROS, ROMAN, of the best IEEE reviewer award and she served as general chair for HRI and Humanoids conference.