Tech Times Exclusives #22: King's College London's Dr. Oya Celiktutan Talks About Robotics

For this episode, Tech Times tackles more about robotics with King's College London's key researcher, Dr. Oya Celiktutan.

According to her profile from the official website of KCL, her research subject areas mainly revolve around engineering. Currently, she is working as an Engineering lecturer in the said institution.

Get to know more about her research interests and other things about our featured figure for this day.

Who is Oya Celiktutan

According to a recent interview with Tech Times, Dr. Celiktutan is currently an assistant professor in the United Kingdom. In particular, she works as a lecturer in the Engineering department of King's College London.

Before diving into the details of her work, she said that she completed his Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree in Turkey, specifically in Bogazici University.

From there, she has become a postdoctoral researcher at some UK universities, including Queen Mary University, Imperial College London, and the University of Cambridge, before going to KCL.

Oya said that her research interests include smart algorithm development, which enables robotic systems. In addition, her team also aims to understand human behavior and interact with them autonomously and efficiently.

Celiktutan and Her Research Group

Celiktutan told Tech Times that she had developed her research group called the Social AI and robotics laboratory. She added that her team's vision includes building socially aware and responsible robotics platforms that will assist people in public and homework spaces.

At the time of writing, her team was focused on tackling machine learning theory, human behavior modeling, and human-robotic traction.

Home Service Robots

Seeing robots accompany humans has been an integral part of daily living. Oya sees this interaction as beneficial, especially for humans who want to make their life easier. Since 2019, her robotics platform has aimed to construct a reliable and safe algorithm regarding HSI navigation. This discusses robots' participation in human environments such as airports and museums.

Celiktutan said they are also studying how their robots could detect people through their sensors. Robotics programming will also be able to help humans in the future. Oya and her team believe they could achieve their mission by continuously exploring the evolution of this technology.

However, the King's College London's lecturer stressed that they could encounter some challenges in this venture. For instance, she said that before robots adapt to the environment, her team should first consider users' trust and acceptance. This means that people should know the capabilities of robots before accepting them in society.

Tech Times likened Oya's inventions to "Irobot" which imitates the exact tasks of the humans in the emotional level, such as making an apology. Celiktutan knows that before this happens, her team should consider the societal and ethical issues for the prospective recipients. She said they should handle the transparency and privacy issues for these robots.

UK Trial About Robots

When Tech Times mentioned Anthony Walsh, who participated in the U.K. trial, Oya said it would not be easy to bring robots to a different location. She added that the research directors should develop effective algorithms to enhance this technology.

Oya assured that the robots would enhance the quality of life for humans and their carriers and offer independence for them.

Celiktutan said that the robot was remotely controlled by one of her students regarding the trial. The team is working on allowing robots to generate gestures when people speak non-verbal clues.

Highest Level of Robotics

For Oya, the technology will achieve its highest level when it reaches the autonomous interaction with human behaviors. After the trial,

"For participating in this trial was very exciting for us and with the video, it received positive feedback. I have been approached by people with motor neuron disease and their relatives and friends and family members,"

Oya said they would focus more on introducing assistive technologies through these machines.

For more #TechTimesExclusives, read our interview about Eagle Genomics CEO Anthony Finbow and Pleo CEO Jeppe Rindom.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry