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