Letting Robots Build Their Own Bodies And Make Their Own Minds

Letting Robots Build Their Own Bodies And Make Their Own Minds 

A 3 minutes presentation about my PhD research on the co-evolution of morphology and behavior in swarm robotics.

#robotics   #swarmrobotics   #swarms   #coevolution   #morphologicalcomputation      #3dprinting   #geneticalgorithms   #evolution   #artificialintelligence   #artificialevolution   #jessicameyer   #uwe   #brl   #bristol   #3mt   #epuck  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTx1itvOjKg&feature=share

Robot swarms, robot herds, robot flocks

Robot swarms, robot herds, robot flocks

I'm in the news again. =)

Have you ever seen a herd of robots? Or a shoal of robots? How about a robot flock? All of these collective nouns mean the same as ‘swarm,’ and swarm robotics is an entire field of research.

#robotics   #swarmrobotics   #biomimicry   #swarm   #robotsvsanimals   #jessicameyer  
http://robotsvsanimals.net/2015/03/05/robot-swarms-robot-herds-robot-flocks/

Bristol Bright Night

Bristol Bright Night

I am finding even more posts mentioning me. This one is related to the short talk I gave at the Bristol Bright Night 2014 and my supervisor's Robots vs. Animals talk at the same night.

How do ants build bridges? What can you teach a robot? Could a robot be more like a bee? Come along to see how studying the behaviour of swarms is inspiring engineers in state-of-the-art robotics. Prof. Alan Winfield from the University of the West of England and Ben Coleman from Bristol Zoo will demonstrate how swarming behaviour in the natural world is helping engineers to develop robots that can solve problems and work collaboratively.

We are also part of “Bite Size Research” with a short talk by Jessica Meyer on designing robots for swarm behaviours (7.30pm) and another by Shane Windsor on bird flight and aerial robotics, both in the Watershed.

#robotics   #swarmrobotics   #bristolbrightnight   #bristol   #brl   #uwe   #alanwinfield   #robotsvsanimals   #animals   #swarms   #jessicameyer   
http://robotsvsanimals.net/2014/09/23/bristol-bright-night-robots-vs-animals-talk/

I have just found this blog post from when I took part at the Festival of Nature.

I have just found this blog post from when I took part at the Festival of Nature.

Dave Naish from Bristol Zoo and Professor Alan Winfield from UWE demonstrated how swarms of animals interact  and work collaboratively, and how swarm intelligence is being used in robotics.

Dave explained how ants can achieve complex engineering feats such as building bridges by working collectively. Alan then showed how analysing the behaviour of groups of  insects was informing the design of innovative robots.

Using the idea of “swarm intelligence,” groups of robots can work collectively to collect information about their surroundings and interact with each other. Programming robots to perform such tasks helps to understand how swarms function in nature, and also develops new capacities for emerging robotics technologies.
 
The Robots vs. Animals project is a collaboration between the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Bristol Zoo and the UWE Science Communication Unit supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious Awards.

#robotics   #swarmrobotics   #festivalofnature   #bristol   #brl   #uwe   #alanwinfield   #robotsvsanimals   #animals   #bristolzoo   #jessicameyer  
http://robotsvsanimals.net/2014/06/26/roaches-vs-robots-at-the-festival-of-nature/

Robots vs. Animals

Robots vs. Animals

More on the news about my session on Swarm Robotics at the Robots vs. Animals project, with the official photos.

#robotics   #robotsvsanimals   #robots   #animals   #brl   #uwe   #bristolzoo   #bristol   #swarmrobotics   #evolution   #biomimicry   #jessicameyer  
http://robotsvsanimals.net/2014/12/02/bristol-zoo-school-sessions-a-great-success/

More on the news about my session on the Robots vs. Animals

More on the news about my session on the Robots vs. Animals

The students enjoyed a presentation on the evolution of certain animals and learnt how their behaviours have inspired robots being developed in BRL (Bristol Robotics Laboratory) before they got to see the robots at work. One behaviour demonstrated was ‘swarming’; just like birds, fish and insects that sense one another around them and  follow  the trail of others, the group saw robots performing the same action using sensors and cameras. Pupils got to handle cockroaches, a skink and observe rats communicating with one another through different methods.

#robotics   #robotsvsanimals   #robots   #animals   #brl   #uwe   #bristolzoo   #bristol   #bristolgrammarschool   #swarmrobotics   #evolution   #biomimicry     #jessicameyer  
http://www.bristolgrammarschool.co.uk/News/Behaving-like-animals.aspx

I have kick started the project Robots vs.

I have kick started the project Robots vs. Animals at the Bristol Zoo. Mine was the first session! The kids had great fun, and us too.

During the session, the students investigated human-robot interaction, learning about why engineers make robots yawn, dance and gesture like humans in order to make the robots more approachable and engaging. Students saw how evolution is shortening the legs of the blue-tongued skink. This helped them understand how robots are evolving – and one day might be able to change their shape rapidly like Transformers.

#robotics    #brl   #robotsvsanimals   #uwe   #bristol   #bristolzoo   #swarmintelligence   #swarmrobotics   #robots   #animals   #biomimicry     #jessicameyer  
http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/news.aspx?id=2988

That's my session on the Robots vs Animals project as part of the EU Robotics Week 2014.

That's my session on the Robots vs Animals project as part of the EU Robotics Week 2014. 

Description: What can animals do that robots can't? What can we try and learn from animals to improve robots? What can engineering insights teach us about how animals move and sense? These are just some of the questions we will develop in educational sessions at Bristol Zoo Gardens. The sessions are aimed at school groups in Key Stage 3 (11-14 year olds), and run on a selected number of days in 2014/15. Tuesday 25th November has been selected as an event date to coincide with EU Robotics Week.

In each one-hour session, students will learn how animals are the inspiration for new technologies – biomimetics and bio-inspiration. Incorporated into each session will be the chance to interact with live animals and state-of-the-art robots from the BRL – from touch sensors based on rodent whiskers to electricity production inspired by digestion processes.

Students will gain first-hand insight into the scientific processes of research, developing prototypes and experimentation. The sessions will be co-led by BRL robotics engineers and Zoo education officers. Together, they will bring to life the connections between diverse scientific disciplines. They can show students how robotics research is being applied to solve real-world problems such as finding clean energy sources and better surgical tools.

This project is a collaboration between the Bristol Robotics Lab, UWE Science Communication Unit and Bristol Zoo Gardens.

#robotics   #animals   #brl   #bristolzoo   #eurobotics   #euroboticsweek   #roboticsweek   #bristol   #uwe   #europeanunion  
http://www.eu-robotics.net/cms/index.php?idart=3064

Co-Evolution of Morphology and Behavior in Self-Organized Robotic Swarms

Co-Evolution of Morphology and Behavior in Self-Organized Robotic Swarms 

My first very spontaneous attempt at a 3 Minutes Thesis Presentation, where we only have 3 minutes and 1 slide to describe our PhD Thesis for a non-specialist audience. 

Synopsis: The idea of the research is to co-evolve both shape and controller of a robotic swarm, in order for them to work better as a whole. Small robots are not so powerful individually, but when cooperating with each other, by physically hooking together forming a larger organism for example, they become able to solve more complex tasks in robust ways. The shape each robot has influences the way they physically interact with each other; and taking advantage of the morphological computation phenomena, it is believed that a more complex shape can spare the complexity of the controller. Therefore, simultaneously evolving both morphology and behavior should accomplish the highest benefits for the swarm. In order to reach this goal, I am evolving the shape of arm-like structures for the robots’ bodies and, further on, their controllers as well.

#phd   #robotics   #swarmrobotics   #evolution   #3dprinting   #3MT   #3minutesthesis   #video   #uwe   #brl   #geneticalgorithms   #coevolution   #artificialintelligence   #epuck     #jessicameyer  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ9W3M0K0xo&feature=share

BBC news will broadcast from UWE in Bristol tonight

BBC news will broadcast from UWE in Bristol tonight

BBC is filming live from my lab tonight at 6 pm, check it out if you want to know more about the Bristol Robotics Lab. 

BBC anchors will be stepping out from behind their news desks to broadcast from the Bristol Robotics Lab (BRL) at UWE this evening.

The special report, which will feature on the BBC News at Six, is the last in a three-part series of pre-budget features on hi-tech innovation - fronted by BBC News at Six anchor, George Alagiah and chief economics correspondent Hugh Pym.

BRL, which is the largest multi-disciplinary lab in the UK and a shared facility between UWE and the University of Bristol, was approached by BBC News at Six producers who decided UWE would be the ideal location to film the feature about developments in technology.


#bbc   #brl   #robotics   #uwe   #bristol   #bbcnews
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/BBC-news-broadcast-UWE-Bristol-tonight/story-20799406-detail/story.html#null

My previous project ;)

My previous project ;)

#swarmrobotics   #symbrion  

Originally shared by Lacerant Plainer

Swarm robotics

Swarm robotics is a technological technique of using multiple simple robots to work as a team and follow instructions. This technology has been greatly inspired by the nature. There are many animals, insects and fishes which live in a swarm.

If you've ever seen a trail of ants streaming up a wall or over a counter, you'd be forgiven for thinking they were working in strict, militant harmony. Not so. A robotic test bed developed at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark shows that this apparent order can emerge in artificial bodies following just a few simple rules.

Symbrion (Symbiotic Evolutionary Robot Organisms) is a project funded by European Commissions to develop a framework in which a homogeneous swarm of miniature interdependent robots can co-assemble into a larger robotic organism to gain problem-solving momentum. One of the key-aspects of Symbrion is inspired by the biological world: an artificial genome that allows to store and evolve (sub)optimal configurations in order to achieve an increased speed of adaptation.

Dr Roderich Gross, head of the Natural Robotics Lab, in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield, says swarming robots could have important roles to play in the future of micromedicine, as 'nanobots' are developed for non-invasive treatment of humans. On a larger scale, they could play a part in military, or search and rescue operations, acting together in areas where it would be too dangerous or impractical for humans to go. In industry too, robot swarms could be put to use, improving manufacturing processes and workplace safety.

Sources: Wikipedia. Symbrion.eu, Newscientist, Phys.org

Further reading: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-swarming-robots-servants-future-video.html

Alicebots on NewScientist: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2013/03/swarming-alice-bots.html

Reference : http://www.symbrion.eu/tiki-index.php

#science #scienceeveryday #robots #robotics #swarm #swarming #artificialintelligence  

The Symbrion EU project in the beginning. This is the project that I'm currently working on :)

The Symbrion EU project in the beginning. This is the project that I'm currently working on :)

The aim of the ‘Symbiotic Evolutionary Robot Organisms’ project, or ‘Symbrion’, is to understand the principles that govern how robots can form themselves into a single artificial organism. The technique enables them to interact collectively with the physical world, and might ultimately be applied to real-world tasks such as rescuing earthquake victims.

‘Multi-robot organisms’ are made up of large swarms of individual robots, each slightly larger than a sugar cube, which work together to form a single artificial life-form. The organisms are able to share information and energy with one another, and to manage their own hardware and software.

#robotics   #symbrion   #replicator   #uwe   #brl   #swarmintelligence   #swarmrobotics   
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/symbrion_and_replicator_swarm_robot_projects