Episode 165: Robots behind the research - Kushant Patel

Robot Talk · 9 Oct 2026 · 19m · Episode 165

What this episode covers

Kushant Patel, an instrumentation and controls engineer at Brookhaven National Laboratory, explains how robots support scientific experiments at the NSLS-2 synchrotron. He details the deployment of Staubli and Universal Robots for automated sample exchange in complex materials scattering and biology beamlines. Patel discusses overcoming challenges like tight physical spaces, high-value detectors, and network latency from the secure RHEL operating system to achieve a standardized, mostly autonomous robotic stack.

Mentioned

Companies
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Products
Staubli, Universal Robots, Boston Dynamics Spot
Tools
ROS 2, MoveIt
Also
NSLS-2, RHEL

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