One of the most familiar types of robot are drones – we've seen them replace fireworks at Olympic opening ceremonies and you might have even seen people flying their own. But this is one method of locomotion we haven't yet covered on Robot Talk, so for episode 14 we're taking to the skies to find out more about the challenges and opportunities of aerial robotics. I'll be chatting to two roboticists: Dr Stephen Prior (University of Southampton) and Dr. Jinya Su (University of Essex). Stephen Prior gained a BEng Mechanical Engineering degree and a PhD in Robotics from Middlesex University. He is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, Corporate Member of the IMechE and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His research interests are in Aeronautics, Autonomous Unmanned Systems, Robotics and Design Engineering. He was Project Lead for the MoD Grand Challenge i-Spy team in 2008 and led Team HALO, winner of the DARPA UAVForge Competition 2012. He is non-executive director of Tethered Drone Systems Ltd and CEO of Hybrid Drones Ltd. Jinya Su is a Lecturer in Computer Science and AI in the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering at University of Essex. He has published more than 50 journal and conference papers in Control Engineering, AI/UAV and their applications in industrial inspection. He has been working at the University of Essex since 2019 on several projects on UAV for agriculture and solar inspection.

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