Sethu Vijayakumar, University of Edinburgh's highly esteemed professor of Robotics and Director of the Institute for Perception, Action and Behaviour at the School of Informatics, has been making headlines. The BBC has recruited him for the role of judge on Robot Wars. Having never heard of Robot Wars before taking part, Sethu said he landed his dream job in an interview with the Daily Record. He further reveals that his fascination stems from the the partnership between 'man and machine.' His role as a judge means he will see all the robot action whilst marking each robots for robot damage, aggression and control.
The rebooted show is being filmed in Glasgow, presented by Dara O'Brian and Angela Scanlon and will feature house robots Sir Killalot, Matilda, and, Shunt. Sethu hopes that it will encourage more interest in robotics in the younger generation and help address the shortage of people with skills to control this technology.
In the recent YouTube post from the Royal Society of Edinburgh's 'Quiz a Whiz' series, he discusses the future of robotics which he foresees as a myriad of revolutionary 'extreme form factors,' for example 3D printing an entire house. See below.
Watch this space and catch up on Robot Wars here.