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We present an ongoing project that aims to develop a social robot to help children cope with painful and distressing medical procedures in a clinical setting. Our approach uses automated planning as a core component for action selection in…
In evolutionary robotics, jointly optimising the design and the controller of robots is a challenging task due to the huge complexity of the solution space formed by the possible combinations of body and controller. We focus on the…
The capacity to adapt can greatly influence the success of systems that need to compensate for damaged parts, learn how to achieve robust performance in new environments, or exploit novel opportunities that originate from new technological…
While assistive robots have much potential to help older people with frailty-related needs, there are few in use. There is a gap between what is developed in laboratories and what would be viable in real-world contexts. Through a series of…
Human factors research has long focused on optimizing environments, tools, and systems to account for human performance. Yet, as humanoid robots begin to share our workplaces, homes, and public spaces, the design challenge expands. We must…
A contemporary procedure to grow artificial tissue is to seed cells onto a porous biomaterial scaffold and culture it within a perfusion bioreactor to facilitate the transport of nutrients to growing cells. Typical models of cell growth for…
The work introduces a bio-inspired leader-follower system based on an innovative mechanism proposed as software latching that aims to improve collaboration and coordination between a leader agent and the associated autonomous followers. The…
The accumulation of adaptations in an open-ended manner during lifetime learning is a holy grail in reinforcement learning, intrinsic motivation, artificial curiosity, and developmental robotics. We present a specification for a cognitive…
What happens when your walls begin to move? This paper explores the design of human-robot interaction for architectural-scale, shape-changing environments. We present findings from two studies: (1) a series of speculative design workshops…
Robots are notoriously difficult to design because of complex interdependencies between their physical structure, sensory and motor layouts, and behavior. Despite this, almost every detail of every robot built to date has been manually…
The vision of adaptive architecture proposes that robotic technologies could enable interior spaces to physically transform in a bidirectional interaction with occupants. Yet, it is still unknown how this interaction could unfold in an…
It is hard to imagine with the progress in robotics that current approaches are lacking somewhere, yet they will not be applicable to the majority of robots in the near future. We are on the verge of two new transitions that will transform…
Nature provides us with abundant examples of how large numbers of individuals can make decisions without the coordination of a central authority. Social insects, birds, fishes, and many other living collectives, rely on simple interaction…
Increasingly, high value industrial markets are driving trends for improved functionality and resilience from resident autonomous systems. This led to an increase in multi-robot fleets that aim to leverage the complementary attributes of…
Degraded rangelands undergo continual shifts in the appearance and distribution of plant life. The nature of these changes however is subtle: between seasons seedlings sprout up and some flourish while others perish, meanwhile, over…
Automating biological experimentation remains challenging due to the need for millimeter-scale precision, long and multi-step experiments, and the dynamic nature of living systems. Current liquid handlers only partially automate workflows,…
Industrial robots can solve very complex tasks in controlled environments, but modern applications require robots able to operate in unpredictable surroundings as well. An increasingly popular reactive policy architecture in robotics is…
This research presents a novel, robotic pollination system designed for targeted pollination of apple flowers in modern fruiting wall orchards. Developed in response to the challenges of global colony collapse disorder, climate change, and…
Indoor gardening within sustainable buildings offers a transformative solution to urban food security and environmental sustainability. By 2030, urban farming, including Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and vertical farming, is…
The underlying physiological mechanisms of generating conscious states are still unknown. To make progress on the problem of consciousness, we will need to experimentally design a system that evolves in a similar way our brains do. Recent…