Spotlight On: our Robotics Engineers
To mark National Engineering Day on 2 November, we’ve been chatting with a few members of the National Robotarium Engineering team to find out what it’s like to be a Robotics Engineer at the UK’s most advanced centre for robotics and artificial intelligence.
Jonatan Scharff-Wilners,
Senior Robotics Engineer
What does the role of Robotics Engineer involve?
The role is very varied. I am mainly focused on writing software for autonomy and path-planning, but get to join in on the design process for hardware as well as leading technical projects and going on lots of field trials. In addition, as I come from the academic side, I am still able to continue my research when projects we’re working on overlap with my field of interest.
What skills are required to be a good engineer?
Adaptability both to technology and to people. We work with a lot of different methods and technologies and need to quickly get up to speed on how to efficiently use them. The same goes for people; every person is unique and it is important to be able to adapt to who you’re working with. Every person is a vital player in the team and being able to motivate, acknowledge, respect, teach and learn from each other is the key to successful collaboration, particularly when working on large scale projects. A skill I learned from industry, and try to practise, is that ‘good enough is good enough’.
As engineers, we usually like our work to be completely perfect however this is not always necessary. Even though it is hard to leave something you feel that can be improved, it can often be the right choice.
How does engineering improve people’s lives?
Most of the things around us today, particularly those that remove tedious tasks and improve quality of life, are heavily engineered. In the case of the National Robotarium, our work is to remove humans from dangerous sites by allowing them to control remote robots more easily or to develop robots that can achieve tasks autonomously. The use of Autonomy, Robotics and AI will also play a key role in modernising our society, enabling it to adapt to environmental and societal challenges ahead, such as the transition to green and renewable energy.
Sean Katagiri,
Robotics Engineer
What does the role of Robotics Engineer involve?
It can range from being hands on with the latest robotic hardware, to working on developing the brains of the system in a virtual environment. I have a good mix of both when working with subsea robotics as it allows me to go on outdoor trials to test the autonomous systems we’ve developed. Promoting autonomous solutions to the public has also become a key responsibility for myself and the rest of the team at The National Robotarium.
What skills are required to be a good engineer?
Being flexible and willing to incorporate new ideas into your work is absolutely key for working in a team environment. Robotics covers such a wide range of fields when it comes to technical challenges, so opening up to others with more experience in a particular aspect of the autonomous system being developed is very important.
How does engineering improve people’s lives?
At the National Robotarium we are looking to improve both the public and industry’s image of robots as something that can be functional and a core part of our day-to-day lives. Any scenario wherein a human life is endangered due to harsh working conditions or dangerous environment would benefit greatly from an intelligent robotic system taking their place. Our team are currently working on projects in the offshore and construction sectors that are looking to remove humans from harm’s way in those fields.
Tomasz Lucynski,
Robotics Engineer
What does the role of Robotics Engineer involve?
Robotics is a science that encompasses many, previously separated, fields: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, but also often seemingly distant fields like cognitive sciences. This job is as much interesting as it also is challenging. Every project can bring something new, unexpected, but also fun! For example, after working on the robotic system supporting surgeons, you can move on to monitoring of the marine life. That’s very unique, quite unlike any other job.
What skills are required to be a good engineer?
A good engineer needs to be versatile and think out of the box, be a hacker of sorts, but most importantly, be just a little bit lazy! This is because the best solution to a problem is not solving it, it’s removing it altogether!
This is only possible if you can move freely between all aspects of the project, maybe a complex mechanical problem can be addressed in software, or a difficult software task can be eliminated by using different hardware. Finally, engineers are no longer solitary geniuses, the best results are achieved by well-coordinated team efforts so being a good team player is extremely important.
How does engineering improve people’s lives?
We’re surrounded by technology, so almost every aspect of our life can be improved with engineering. Technology can help with removing little hassles of the everyday life as well as to provide entertainment or be a life-changer for people in need. Boundaries of what’s possible are being moved every day.
Hari Lakshman,
Robot
What does the role of Robotics Engineer involve?
Robotics engineers involve themselves in various fields of engineering. It is always a big learning curve, sometimes building robots feels like creating a human child. We have knowledge in coding, software development, and designing prototypes, which involves an extensive understanding of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and control systems. We try and implement cutting-edge machine learning and AI algorithms to make the robot more intelligent and more efficient. For me, I’m still learning lots and lots to become a fine-tuned robotics engineer.
At the end of the day, the only goal we try to achieve is to make the world a safe and sound place for everything that lives on it.
What skills are required to be a good engineer?
Important skills that any robotics engineer should have are critical and design thinking skills, sufficient programming skills, active learning, teamwork, safety skills and leadership quality are some very necessary skills set needed for a good engineer.
How does engineering improve people’s lives?
Engineering helps to improve people’s life in every possible way: economically, ethically, it helps to improve quality of life, solve societal problems, to fight against climate change and more.
At the National Robotarium we use our engineering skills to build robots that can help people with physically or mentally challenging tasks, and to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness. There are advanced projects that we have been involved in that can tackle environmental issues such as the energy crisis and food security, as well as using robotics and AI to advance medical applications
Alix Partridge.
Soft Robotics Engineer
Alex (far left) with teammate Thomas McGravie
What does the role of Robotics Engineer involve?
For me, the role of robotics engineer is about combining creativity and logical thinking to come up with novel solutions to complex challenges. My specific role within the team is soft robotics engineer, so most of my time is spent playing with interesting materials and structures to create compliant and often bio-inspired mechanisms that provide adequate sensing or actuation to solve a challenge.
What skills are required to be a good engineer?
I don’t think there is a limit to the skills required to be an engineer, nor do I think you can have the wrong skills. I am a great collector of hobbies, from textiles to cooking, pottery to music and I feel that with each new skill I collect I have a better approach to my work as an engineer. There is such a range of engineering on offer now that you can always find a use for the most bizarre of skills! That said, I would advise practising patience as it often takes a lot of failure before a solution is found.
How does engineering improve people’s lives?
During my PhD at the BRL in Bristol, I had many opportunities to interact with the community – either through talks, conferences or studies – and I loved hearing their feedback about the work my lab was conducting. What I found most inspiring was when we presented to older generations, or those with disabilities and heard how excited they were about technologies we were creating to tackle the problems they faced in their lives. To see their eyes light up as we presented novel technologies that could aid them with getting around the house or performing the simple tasks that some of us take for granted was incredible and something that drives me forwards in my work.
Rahul R. Ramakrishnan,
Robotics Engineer
What does the role of Robotics Engineer involve?
Robotics is an interdisciplinary field and because of that robotics engineer’s role depends on one’s engineering background be it mechanical, electrical and electronics, computer science, sociology or applied physics and mathematics among others. For example, a robotics engineer with a degree in Mechanical Engineering would work on design and modelling robot mechanics whereas one with a background in electrical and electronics engineering would work on developing the robot’s battery management system and its sensors and actuators.
I have a background in mechatronics engineering and robotics research so I work on robotics systems design and development, both on the hardware and software level.
What skills are required to be a good engineer?
I believe that to be a good engineer the number one skill is to be able to understand the need for an engineering solution to any given problem. It’s not the “what” and “how” but the “why” that comes first. Be curious, take inspiration from nature and question EVERYTHING! Analytical thinking is very important for anyone to be a good engineer and the ability to communicate effectively in a collaborative environment. It is good to have an engineering degree, but it is not always necessary if you have the right knowledge and practical skills.
How does engineering improve people’s lives?
We live in a world where everything we see has been engineered for us to live a better life, especially in today’s modern digital world where everything is data-driven. We now have self-driving cars and text-to-speech solutions such as Okay Google, Alexa and Siri which enable us to make calls and play songs using voice commands.
At the National Robotarium, we are developing unmanned underwater robots to address various problems such as inspection of offshore turbines, which is currently undertaken by experienced deep-sea scuba divers. We are conducting research and development of various robotic solutions for assisted living for elderly and disabled people. We are also improving the quality of life for many people who are doing repetitive tasks in factories by developing solutions for factory automation, which will enable people to safely undertake less repetitive and more skilled tasks side-by-side with robots.
