Fantastic Voyage: Your Medical Micro-Robot Is Ready – With Brad Nelson

Insect-like Drones That Sense, Learn and Swarm – With Guido de Croon

Insect-like drones that tend crops, perform aircraft inspections and find gas leaks are here ... and they’re only the beginning!  Today I’m diving into the future of bio-inspired drones with the one and only Professor Guido de Croon [https://www.tudelft.nl/en/staff/g.c.h.e.decroon/], head of the Micro-Air Vehicle Lab [https://mavlab.tudelft.nl/] at Delft Technical University [https://www.tudelft.nl/] in The Netherlands. Guido shares the latest insect-inspired research developments in vision-systems, energy-efficient intelligence, height-sensing, autonomous navigation, swarming, energy-harvesting and speedy decision-making. We discuss early commercial applications and spinout companies, and how the MAVLab team is building on it’s victory in the 2025 autonomous drone racing championship [https://a2rl.io/autonomous-drone-race] in Abu Dhabi to take agility to a whole new level. It’s the stuff of sci-fi, except … it isn’t. MAVLab creations now flap their wings like birds and dragonflies, carry sensors that process information and facilitate ‘event-based’ decisions much like eyes, ears and brains do in the natural world. They emulate the navigation ‘algorithms’ of bees and ants. They swarm to accomplish collective goals based on how insects do it. Will robot insects one day harvest energy from their environment, thereby extending their missions indefinitely? You’ll have to listen to find out! As you’ll hear, I’m thrilled to be catching-up with Guido. He’s one of my favorite scientists. He’s happy, positive, and bursting with ideas to help industry -- and it's infectious! Ever since we first connected in 2021 I’ve enjoyed featuring MAVLab creations in my presentations. Why? Because these tiny drones ‘push the limits’ of what’s possible by drawing inspiration from nature, an approach that will continue to unlock new opportunities for decades, and because (despite being tiny) they inspire audiences think BIGGER about the future! Thank you Guido, for your passionate, joy-filled insights on the future of tiny drones. ======   As always, you'll find additional commentary and takeaways and the full transcript on the Future Bites page [https://www.brucemccabe.com/futurebites] soon. More on my work as a Futurist Speaker, and why I do what I do, at www.brucemccabe.com [https://www.brucemccabe.com/] I podcast my conversations with future-makers so more people can find pathways to a better future. If you enjoy these insights, help spread the word by liking, subscribing and sharing with others!

Collaborative Housing: Pathway to a Better Future? – With Darinka Czischke

Vancouver, Dublin, Los Angeles, Sydney – in so many cities I visit, skyrocketing rents and prices are making housing a struggle for ordinary people. For younger people especially, it is a generational challenge that limits their future prosperity.  But all over Europe communities are using collaborative housing to pool capital and enjoy a host of shared financial and social benefits in return. Is this a better way? In this episode, I'm in The Netherlands exploring collaborative housing with Darinka Czischke [https://co-lab-research.net/], Professor of Housing and Social Sustainability at the Delft University of Technology [https://www.tudelft.nl/] (TU Delft). Darinka debunks a few myths associated with the oft-repeated phrase ‘housing crisis’ before diving into the motivations behind these communities and the shared benefits that transcend affordability. She details where and why collaborative housing projects thrive, the importance of scale, how scale has already been achieved in places like Zurich, and the national and cultural factors that support collaborative housing. We discuss multi-generational approaches, and how community-based options unlock more benefits than “aging-in-place” strategies. City governments are identified as key enablers, and Darinka shares what policymakers can do to help. My favorite part? Darinka’s first-hand observations from collaborative housing projects she has stayed in. There’s something for everyone in this conversation. Darinka is a passionate advocate for a better future; her insights are practical, universal, and VERY topical. ======   As always, additional commentary and takeaways and the full transcript will be on the Future Bites page [https://www.brucemccabe.com/futurebites] soon. More on my work as a Futurist Speaker, and why I do what I do, at www.brucemccabe.com [https://www.brucemccabe.com/] If you enjoyed this episode, why not share it with friends and colleagues? Getting more people aware of real projects for equitable and socially sustainable housing has to be one way to contribute to a better future!

Fantastic Voyage: Your Medical Micro-Robot Is Ready – With Brad Nelson

Microscale robots will be conducting medical procedures inside our bodies sooner than you think. That’s the big takeaway from this fascinating conversation with Prof. Bradley Nelson [https://mavt.ethz.ch/people/person-detail.nelson.html], head of the Multi-Scale Robotics Lab [https://msrl.ethz.ch/] at ETH Zürich, and for those of us who grew up watching Fantastic Voyage, that's a stunning statement! Brad walks us through the lab’s tiny bio-inspired prototypes and associated innovations in propulsion, power-delivery, external control and biocompatibility. He discusses the special challenges of fabricating and operating robots at micro- and nano-scales, and how all these developments are now converging into tiny robots capable of performing real-world procedures such as thrombectomies and precision drug deliveries to tumors inside the brain. He also explores targets for first procedures, future aspirations, the regulatory approvals journey and the ‘democratization of surgery’ benefits that will be unlocked by adding telesurgery and more autonomy. Prof. Brad Nelson has spent more than 40 years researching and building robots and has won numerous awards in robotics, nanotechnology, and biomedicine. He was named to the "Scientific American 50" list for outstanding acts of leadership in science and technology. His lab is undefeated international champion in Robocup's Nanogram Soccer League and he is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the "Most Advanced Mini Robot for Medical Use! My special thanks to him for hosting me and sharing his insights, and also to Oliver Brinkman, who took time away from his blood vessel navigation experiments(!) to show me around the lab. It’s an inspiring journey into the near future of medicine. Enjoy! ======   As always, additional commentary and takeaways and the full transcript will be on the Future Bites page [https://www.brucemccabe.com/futurebites] soon. More on my work as a Futurist Speaker, and why I do what I do, at www.brucemccabe.com [https://www.brucemccabe.com/] If you enjoyed these insights, why not subscribe so you don’t miss out on what’s next, and help us spread the word by sharing this episode with colleagues!

Will A.I. Boil The Planet? – With Vlad Coroama

Will A.I. use up the worlds electricity? Or will A.I. contribute more upside than downside by helping us solve the world’s sustainability problems?  In an era of ‘exponential AI,’ the answers have huge implications for our future, but they are far from clear, because ICTs contribute in many complex ways to energy savings AND use.  I meet with IT & sustainability guru Dr Vlad Coroama for an in-depth look at both sides of the ledger.  After exploring direct impacts, Vlad takes the discussion up a level by exploring indirect secondary effects (detrimental and beneficial) to get me thinking MUCH bigger about the dynamics shaping our future. We have a lot of coffee-fuelled fun going back and forth over his ideas! And of course Vlad draws on his meticulous research to offer some overall assessments of where we are today and where we are going in future with respect to AI, data centers and energy. Vlad Coroama heads the Roegen Centre for Sustainability [https://www.roegen.ch/] (RC4S) where he assists governments in using digital technologies to save energy and emissions, and in reducing the direct footprint of digitalisation. Much of his work focuses on the rapidly increasing energy/carbon footprint of AI and data centers. He has researched the complex relationships between computing and sustainability for 20 years in Switzerland (ETH Zurich, Empa), Brazil (University of São Paulo), Portugal (Instituto Superior Técnico, Coimbra University), Sweden (KTH Stockholm), and Germany (TU Berlin).  You will enjoy Vlad's company. He is a BIG thinker, he builds his arguments thoughtfully, based on careful analysis, and he has a way of cutting through complexity using simple, powerful examples. The world needs 10,000 more like him! ======   As always, additional commentary and takeaways and the full transcript will be up on the Future Bites page [https://www.brucemccabe.com/futurebites] soon. More on my work as a Futurist Speaker, and why I do what I do, at www.brucemccabe.com [https://www.brucemccabe.com/] Enjoy the insights? Follow, share, and leave a review to help more curious listeners find the show :-)

Multi-Sensory Surgical Robots – With Philipp Fürnstahl

First generation surgical robots, such as the Da Vinci set new benchmarks for precision and accuracy. With A.I. and robotics developments racing ahead at breakneck speed, what new capabilities are in the pipeline? How might next-generation surgical robots impact the future of healthcare? I visit Prof. Philipp Fürnstahl [https://rocs.balgrist.ch/en/prof-dr-philipp-fuernstahl/], a global leader in this field, to unpack how his robots are going beyond vision to listen and feel and apply other senses as they operate. He compares orthopaedic and soft-tissue systems, explains why preop plans must be supplemented by real-time context, dives into spinal surgery as an early use-case for his next-gen robots, and explains the systems challenges of integrating the new innovations with teams, operating room workflows, telemedicine and training. And as you will hear, Philipp gets me thinking much bigger about which patients will benefit and why. With procedure demand rising and surgeons in short supply, the opportunity is more than safer and more precise surgery, it's scaleable surgery. Prof. Fürnstahl has authored more than 150 publications in computer-assisted surgery. As well as heading the lab at Balgrist, he is Professor for Research in Orthopedic Computer Science [https://rocs.balgrist.ch/en/] (ROCS) at the University of Zürich. He invited me to visit him at the Computer-Aided Surgery Lab [https://www.balgrist.ch/en/research/research-units/research-orthopaedics/faros/] at Balgrist University Hospital [https://www.balgrist.ch/en/]where we toured the full-scale surgical theatre [https://or-x.ch/en/core-facilities/] used to test the robots.  My thanks to Philipp and his colleagues for so generously sharing their insights and answering all my questions. ======   As always, additional commentary and takeaways and the full transcript will be on the Future Bites page [https://www.brucemccabe.com/futurebites] soon. More on my work as a Futurist Speaker, and why I do what I do, at www.brucemccabe.com [https://www.brucemccabe.com/] If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a review to help more listeners find FutureBites.