<![CDATA[Galen had an idea]]> https://rss.com/podcasts/galen-had-an-idea Robotics has had my attention since I studied it at university and went to work in engineering. I want to understand where it is actually heading, and I was going to have these conversations anyway, so I am recording them. Each episode I sit down with someone at the cutting edge: a founder, a researcher, an engineer, maybe an investor. We cover what works, the different directions the field is taking, and the problems standing between it and real progress. This is me learning in public, one conversation at a time.

]]> RSS.com 2026.428.112250 Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:30:47 GMT en eb9d7277-932e-516e-bdec-079a2a5f92a2 https://media.rss.com/galen-had-an-idea/podcast_cover_20260603_110637_afe77ed6278cd2ab630d7652d5985a9b.png Galen had an idea https://rss.com/podcasts/galen-had-an-idea no Galen Korosec 2026 Galen Korosec Galen Korosec false episodic podcast false <![CDATA[Robotics in Harsh Environments: A Conversation with Dr. Mark Post]]> Host Galen Korosec sits down with Dr. Mark Post, Senior Lecturer in Robotics and Autonomous Systems at the University of York, to talk about where robotics stands today and where it's headed. The two first worked together on Galen's undergraduate modular robotics project, so the episode doubles as a catch-up between former supervisor and student.

Mark's work centres on robots that can adapt and survive in harsh, unpredictable environments such as space, underwater, nuclear sites, and increasingly farms, all with minimal human intervention. The conversation moves from his current space-warehouse project to the deeper challenge of building machines that can reason, handle uncertainty, and earn human trust.

Guest

Dr. Mark Post, Senior Lecturer in Robotics and Autonomous Systems, University of York (UK), researching modular, reconfigurable, and self-managing robotic systems for space and other extreme environments.

What's covered

  • (03:06) How "new space" has pushed modularity, interoperability, and standard interfaces to the forefront
  • (04:00) Project StarFab, a ground demonstrator for an autonomous in-orbit "space warehouse" that could store, assemble, service, and refurbish satellites without human hands
  • (07:19) Distributed decision-making, ROS 2, and why software and intelligence remain the missing pieces
  • (10:13) Why large language models fall short for safety-critical space work, and the case for fact-based AI
  • (13:15) Mark's research into semantics, ontologies, and probabilistic reasoning for real-world uncertainty
  • (19:00) The shift from "perfect" machines to probabilistic ones, and the human trust that comes with it
  • (24:46) Why space is an ideal proving ground for autonomy that later benefits warehouses and farms
  • (28:35) The biggest challenge ahead: the "mental inertia" of designers and decades-old computing paradigms
  • (34:19) The coming value of verified facts and "chains of trust" for autonomous systems

Key takeaways

  • Space is moving from one-off, single-purpose builds toward modular, serviceable systems that can be reconfigured in orbit.
  • For safety-critical autonomy, Mark argues we need a new kind of AI built on verifiable facts rather than language-model associations.
  • Progress depends less on raw technology and more on a willingness to break old paradigms.

"Please try to push new things forward and don't keep relying on old technologies all the time, because otherwise we'll never make progress." — Dr. Mark Post

Further reading

For the technical detail behind the space-warehouse concept, see Mark's co-authored StarFab paper from the 2024 International Astronautical Congress, on the York Research Database: https://pure.york.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/starfab-concept-of-operations-and-preliminary-system-definition-f/

]]> https://rss.com/podcasts/galen-had-an-idea/2882201 8cd05a3e-d001-4896-8ced-1cefd92dceb9 2432 full false Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:30:34 GMT false Greater London, England, United Kingdom