The Robot Studio

Rob Knight is a pioneer in the design and prototyping of highly specialised, bio-inspired robots.

He has created animal, humanoid and combat robots for commercial display, academic research and TV shows for over two decades and is fortunate to have enjoyed a series of collaborations with technology leaders in both industry and academia.

Founder and Robot Hardware Director

The development and test deployment of a sim-to-real tool chain that links the worlds of CAD design for manufacture and physics-based simulation for the application of Machine Learning and AI techniques. Bridging these two worlds will disrupt the design and control possibilities for service robots by offering a powerful optimisation tool to tackle complex robotic tasks in the real world.

Sim-to Real Toolchain - Partner: Nvidia

An open source, introductory level project that aims to stimulate growth at the intersection of robot hardware and “AI-at-the-edge” embedded computers. The result of the project is a human-like 3D printed hand with embedded camera that uses AI techniques to recognise and mimic hand gestures.

Robot Nano Hand - Partners: Silicon Highway, CodeThink

The “Robots” tour was a major temporary exhibition curated by the London Science Museum that brought together a truly diverse collection of robots from research and entertainment. It toured internationally for five years and was seen by almost 1 million people. For the first time, all his humanoid robots were reunited and displayed in sequence to show their progression in scope and complexity with ROSA (Rob’s Open Source Android) forming the centrepiece of one of the main halls.

Robots Tour - Partner: London Science Museum

Selected from over 150 companies, The Robot Studio worked closely with maxonmotors at all levels of development and marketing. During this period several robots were prototyped exclusively using maxonmotor technology and displayed at dozens of industrial fairs.

Technical Collaboration - Partner: maxonmotors

The ultimate test of the anthropomimetic approach to building robots by copying the human anatomy saw the creation of a 250lbs humanoid combat robot, the Obwalden Overlord, to enter BattleBots, the competition at the pinnacle of robot combat.

It remains the first and only complex humanoid robot to compete in the history of robot combat.

BattleBots

European Commission funded project to investigate Emerging Cognition (in a) Compliantly Engineered Robot. Produced a series of four robots which were used by the academic partners in experiments to probe the relationship between physical interactions with an environment and the emergence of intelligence that can operate within such an environment.

ECCERobot Consortium - Partners: Universities of Essex, Zürich, Munich & Belgrade 

UK funded project to develop “anthropomimetic” robots, built by closely copying the mechanical anatomy of the human body. The aim was to shed light on the role morphology and interaction with the environment might play in the development of an artificial phenomenal consciousness.

CRONOS robot - Partner: University of Essex

University of Essex

Developed the biomechanics and outer appearance for the world’s first commercially displayed robot fish which launched to global press coverage at the London Aquarium in 2005.

Robot Fish - Postgraduate team, University of Essex

20+ years robotics pioneer | World-class design prototyper of biologically inspired robots | Consultant | Founder of HOPE - the Humanoid Open Robot Project to develop an open global humanoid robot building community.

Founder, robot hardware designer and team leader with over two decades of cutting-edge R&D experience. Expert at rapid robot development now moving into commercialisation of AI integrated hardware.

Team leader on the world's first commercially displayed robot fish and the world's most anatomically accurate humanoid robots.

My robots have featured as centre pieces in major exhibitions (Robots - London Science Museum now touring worldwide) and the front cover of international design magazines (Wallpaper).

Taplio

Rob Knight's Linkedin Analytics

Rob Knight

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?