Ruzena Bajcsy is likely one of the founders of the trendy subject of robotics. With an training in electrical engineering in Slovakia, adopted by a Ph.D. at Stanford, Bajcsy was the primary girl to hitch the engineering college on the College of Pennsylvania. She was the primary, she says, as a result of “in these days, good women didn’t fiddle with screwdrivers.” Bajcsy, now 91, spoke with IEEE Spectrumon the 40th anniversary celebration of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Ruzena Bajcsy
Ruzena Bajcsy’s 50-plus years in robotics spanned time at Stanford, the College of Pennsylvania, the Nationwide Science Basis, and the College of California, Berkeley. Bajcsy retired in 2021.
What was the robotics subject like on the time of the primary ICRA convention in 1984?
Ruzena Bajcsy: There was a number of enthusiasm at the moment—it was like a dream; we felt like we might do one thing dramatic. However that is typical, and whenever you transfer into a brand new space and also you begin to construct there, you discover that the issue is tougher than you thought.
What makes robotics onerous?
Bajcsy: Robotics was maybe the primary topic which actually required an interdisciplinary method. To start with of the twentieth century, there was physics and chemistry and arithmetic and biology and psychology, all with brick partitions between them. The physicists had been rather more targeted on measurement, and understanding how issues interacted with one another. Through the struggle, there was a select group of men who didn’t suppose that mortal folks might do that. They had been so filled with themselves. I don’t know when you noticed the Oppenheimer film, however I knew a few of these males—my husband was a type of physicists!
And the way are roboticists totally different?
Bajcsy: We’re engineers. For physicists, it’s the matter of discovery, finished. We, alternatively, to be able to perceive issues, we now have to construct them. It takes effort and time, and ceaselessly we’re inhibited—after I began, there have been no digital cameras, so I needed to construct one. I constructed a number of different issues like that in my profession, not as a discovery, however as a necessity.
How can robotics be useful?
Bajcsy: As an aged particular person, I exploit this cane. However after I’m with my youngsters, I maintain their arms and it helps tremendously. So as to hold your stability, you’re taking all of the vectors of your torso and your legs so that you’re steady. You and I collectively can create a configuration of our legs and physique in order that the sum is steady.
One quite simple helpful machine for an older particular person can be to have a cane with a number of joints that may modify relying on the way in which I transfer, to compensate for my motion. Individuals are making progress on this space, as a result of many individuals live longer than earlier than. There are all types of different locations the place the know-how derived from robotics may also help like this.
What are you most happy with?
Bajcsy: At this stage of my life, individuals are asking, and I’m asking, what’s my legacy? And I inform you, my legacy is my college students. They labored onerous, however they felt they had been appreciated, and there was a way of camaraderie and help for one another. I didn’t do it consciously, however I suppose it got here from my motherly instincts. And I’m nonetheless involved with a lot of them—I fear about their youngsters, the same old grandma!
This text seems within the December 2024 challenge as “5 Questions for Ruzena Bajcsy.”
From Your Web site Articles
Associated Articles Across the Internet