ECR Webinar – Control Technique in Human-Machine Intelligence
Date: 29th January 2025
Time: 14:00 – 16:55
Location: Online via this Zoom link
Registration: Register at this link
About the Seminar
This event aims to gather leading experts and ECRs in human-machine intelligence to explore critical challenges and opportunities in the evolution of robotics and control systems, driven by cutting-edge AI and interactive control techniques. It will feature prominent researchers and industry leaders working across diverse domains, including medical robotics, human-robot collaboration, and teleoperation. Industry representatives will share insights from real-world applications and the challenges faced in deploying advanced robotic systems. The ACE Network event will foster discussions on key topics, promote collaboration between academia and industry, and help shape future research directions and funding opportunities in human-machine intelligence.
Agenda
| Session 1 | Human-oriented Interactive Control | |
| 2:00 – 2:15pm | Theme lead of Ageing Society: Intro & Subject challenge release | Dr Ziwei Wang & Prof Mike Chappell |
| 2:15 – 2:40pm | Human interface/medical robotics | Prof. Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena, ICL |
| 2:40 – 2:55pm | Movement augmentation for robot-assisted surgery | Dr Yanpei Huang (ECR, Sussex) |
| 2:55 – 3:15pm | Meet the industry (Host: Ziwei Wang) | TWI, NquiringMinds Ltd |
| Break (10 min) | ||
| Session 2 | Machine intelligence in HRI | |
| 3:25 – 3:50pm | Understanding AI models using fuzzy logic | Dr HK Lam (KCL) |
| 3:50 – 4:05pm | Robot Manipulator Skill Learning and Generalising through Teleoperation | Dr Weiyong Si (ECR, Essex) |
| 4:05 – 4:25pm | Meet the industry (Host: Prof. Mike Chappell) | TG0, Quanser, Pinweld |
| 4:25 – 4:45pm | Poster showcase + video 4min each x5 | available in advance |
| 10 min close | Conclusion | Ziwei Wang & Mike Chappell |
About the Speakers
Professor Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena
Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena is Professor of Medical Robotics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College, where he leads the Mechatronics in Medicine Laboratory and the Applied Mechanics Division.
He has been the Engineering Co-Director of the Hamlyn Centre, which is part of the Institute of Global Health Innovation, since July 2020. He is a founding member and great advocate of the Imperial College Robotics Forum, now the first point of contact for roboticists at Imperial College.
His 20-strong team of staff and PhD students has a translational focus, though their work encompasses both “blue skies” research and “near-to-market” development. He is the Chair of the Programme Committee for the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery (CAOS International), CAOS UK, and the Hamlyn Symposium; He is also the founding Chair of the IET’s recently established Communities Committee for Technical Networks (CC TN), a Leverhulme Prize winner (engineering), a former ERC grant holder, and the coordinator of an €8.3M European project on robotic-assisted neurosurgical drug delivery (EDEN2020). He has published over 160 papers and secured in excess of £12M in research funding to date.
Dr Hak-Keung Lam
Hak-Keung Lam received the B.Eng. (Hons.) and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, in 1995 and 2000, respectively. During the period between 2000 and 2005, he worked with the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and a Research Fellow, respectively. He joined King’s College London in 2005 as a Lecturer and is currently a Reader. His current research interests include intelligent control systems, computational intelligence and machine learning. He is an IEEE Fellow.
He was named as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2018. Extracted from Web of Science, it states that “This list recognizes world-class researchers selected for their exceptional research performance, demonstrated by production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science. Of the world’s scientists and social scientists, Highly Cited Researchers truly are one in 1,000.”
Dr Yanpei Huang
Yanpei Huang is a lecturer at the Department of Engineering and Design, University of Sussex, UK. Before joining Sussex, she was a post-doctoral researcher in the Human Robotics Group at the Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, UK, where she investigated movement augmentation strategies in Virtual Reality. Yanpei Huang completed her Ph.D. study at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, with a focus on the development of intuitive human-machine interfaces for robotic surgery. Prior to the Ph.D. study, she received the M.Sc. degree in Manufacturing Systems & engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her current research interests include human-machine interaction and medical robotics.
Dr Weiyong Si
Dr Weiyong Si is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex. He previously worked as a Research Assistant and Associate Lecturer with the School of Engineering, University of the West of England, affiliated with the Bristol Robotics Lab, and received Ph.D degree in Robotics and Machine Learning. He has been working on robot learning, robot control, teleoperation, machine vision, and guidance and navigation of autonomous systems. His research interest lies in the intersection between AI and robotics. He currently focuses on robot learning and control, human-robot collaboration, mobile manipulation, and its applications in manufacturing, healthcare, and agriculture.
He is a member of the Robotics Group. He is an IEEE Member and reviewer for several top journals and conferences, including IEEE Transactions on Robotics, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, ICRA, IROS, etc. He is the co-organising chair and special session chair for the 25th IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT), the local organising Committee of the 27th International Conference on Automation and Computing (ICAC), and the session chair for ICRA2024. He is a guest editor for a special issue of Frontiers in Robotics and AI focused on exploring the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Computational Intelligence (CI) techniques to enhance advanced robotic systems.
Panel member
