Robot Talk Episode 139 – Advanced robot hearing, with Christine Evers - Robohub

In Robot Talk Episode 139, Claire interviews Christine Evers, Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Robotics at the University of Southampton, about advancing robot hearing capabilities. Evers’ research focuses on enabling robots to better understand their environment through sound by integrating insights from human auditory processes into deep-learning audio models. This bio-inspired approach aims to develop more compute-efficient and interpretable systems compared to traditional large-scale internet-trained models. The discussion highlights a shift toward embodied auditory intelligence, where robots gain a more nuanced and practical understanding of sound in real-world contexts. By embedding human auditory understanding into machine learning architectures, Evers’ work opens new possibilities for robots to interact with and interpret their surroundings more effectively. The episode is part of the Robot Talk podcast series, which covers developments in robotics, AI, and autonomous machines.