News

Researchers at Waterloo Engineering have developed new technology to automate bridge inspections for structural defects and deterioration.

The system uses autonomous robots, cameras and lidar to systematically collect data for detection and analysis, making mandatory safety inspections both cheaper and more reliable.

What makes a machine more than just a piece of hardware? Do we form relationships with our technology? How should we be teaching robots to act? And what are they teaching us?

These are just some of the questions that Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn is exploring as the Canada 150 Research Chair in Intelligent Robotics. Dautenhahn joined the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering in 2018 to establish the new Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Laboratory.

An international robotics expert from Germany is joining the University of Waterloo to lead a multidisciplinary research program backed by $10 million in funding from the federal government.

Katja Mombaur, now a professor at Heidelberg University, will take up the new post in March following her appointment to a prestigious Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Human-Centred Robotics and Machine Intelligence.

Professor Katja Mombaur, an engineer and mathematician based at Heidelberg University in Germany, is a renowned international expert in human-centred robotics who will be joining Waterloo Engineering in March of next year to lead a major research program. To help support this new research program, Mombaur will also be joining the RoboHub as a new member of our core research team.

The Ontario Advanced Manufacturing Consortium (AMC), a joint partnership between McMaster University, University of Waterloo, and Western University, is helping to accelerate industry adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies, which will create jobs and strengthen the province’s reputation as a leading manufacturing region.

Since AMC was launched in April 2017, nearly 100 companies have benefited from the advanced manufacturing experts and state-of-the-art facilities at Waterloo. 

Kerstin Dautenhahn, a cross-appointed professor of electrical and computer engineering and systems design engineering, was named an IEEE fellow for her contributions to social robotics and human-robot interaction.

An online magazine has recognized the University of Waterloo as one of the five most innovative universities in North America and South America in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.

Dana Kulić, RoboHub core research team member and associate professor, will now be joining Monash University to help lead the planning and establishment of a new robotics research facility. We wish her the best of luck in her new position. Below is a short article Monash Engineering published about her joining the university, see their website for the original article.

PAL Robotics, the robotics system supplier of our newest humanoid TALOS, wrote a post on their blog interviewing our team members about the RoboHub and plans for our TALOS. Visit their website for the original article.

Last week, the University of Waterloo inaugurated the E7 Engineering building, which has an impressive RoboHub with a big family of robots… Amongst which, you can find TALOS! The 32-DoF humanoid robot has joined the RoboHub family, and showed its manipulation skills during the Grand Opening.