Dr Vijay Kumar spoke to approximately 50 members of the DC Area Drone User Group and DC Robotics Group on March 12 at iStrategy Labs. Dr. Kumar's talk focused on the evolution of technology surrounding flying robots. Some points from the talk include:
- As people who work with and embrace technology, we as a community need to be vocal advocates of the potential for UAVs and other robots to have a positive impact in people's lives. This is especially important because there are many in our society that are apprehensive about the role robots will play in our future.
- In the past, people focused on how robots would replace human labor. Now the focus is on how robots can work with humans.
- As we see dramatic population growth over the coming decades, indoor farming with robots can be a crucial part of the puzzle for how we will produce enough food to feed billions of new people.
- Dr. Kumar is a strong believer in open source as a driver of innovation and uses open source tools like Open CV in his research. However, he finds that open source projects are often operating at a different tier of cost and precision than much academic research so there is still a role for traditional academic approaches to driving science and innovation.
DC DUG and the DC Robotics Group would like to thank Dr. Kumar for generously taking the time to speak with us and answer so many of our questions. We are excited to continue following his research and other work as he continues to shape the future of robotics and technology.
Comments