Steven M. LaValle: Robotics Research, Virtual Reality, and Life in Finland | Andreas Orthey #2

Steve LaValle is one of the pioneers of robot motion planning. I got the rare opportunity to talk with him in my podcast series on robotics.Topics included his work on the Planning algorithms book, development of the rapidly-exploring random tree algorithm, minimal sufficient robot brains, doing motion planning research with his son, and his new life in Oulu, Finland. Please enjoy!Content00:40 Early Childhood04:59 Getting into University07:27 Life at University10:13 Symbolic vs Visual Mathematics11:11 Getting into Phd Program12:12 How to get into MIT for students13:09 Advice from Phd Advisor14:17 First Paper16:30 Options after Phd17:47 Advice to Phd Students19:19 Postdoc in California21:46 Demo for Bill Gates22:52 Becoming Professor at Iowa State23:34 Developing RRT26:21 Reason of longterm success of RRT28:34 Sampling-based vs. Randomized30:30 Could RoboticsGPT deprecate motion planning?31:53 Value of motion planning research33:07 Information spaces34:10 Minimal sufficient robot brains35:37 Writing "Planning algorithms"40:33 Managing and organizing references42:08 Deprecated parts of the book43:16 Challenges in writing more books44:19 Unpublished RRT book44:28 Reading and favorite books45:50 Reading Ayn Rand46:53 On joining Oculus VR50:51 Virtual reality research52:24 Killer application for VR52:54 Facebook buys Oculus53:31 Control over time is most important54:20 Meeting Brett Leonard55:30 Huawei57:16 On being successful59:30 H-Index as performance indicator01:00:16 Metrics for academic career01:01:36 Time allocation01:02:28 Tired phase of career01:03:26 Advice to younger researchers01:04:40 Fascination with Finland01:07:46 Learning Finnish01:08:12 What Steve misses about the US01:08:55 Benefits from Saunas01:10:18 Future aspirations of lab01:11:21 Research with Alexander LaValle01:13:15 Robotics applications for daily life01:14:04 Gardner hype cycle of deep learning01:15:18 Value of material science for robotics01:16:12 Closing commentsEpisode LinksSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1tuJ6w35CCIkyXjsviFTtc?si=tKfYa5MXQXKFmnUivc5C4gApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steven-m-lavalle-robotics-research-virtual-reality/id1812910570?i=1000706674834Podcast LinksYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/andreasortheyX/Twitter: https://x.com/andreas_ortheySpotify: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/andreasorthey/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aorthey/Support: https://buymeacoffee.com/aortheyPersonal Website: https://aorthey.comPodcast Website: https://aorthey.com/src/podcast

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