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Outputs (17)

Ethical risk assessment for social robots: Case studies in smart robot toys (2022)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F. T., van Maris, A., Winkle, K., Jirotka, M., Salvini, P., Webb, H., …Theofanopoulou, N. (2022). Ethical risk assessment for social robots: Case studies in smart robot toys. In M. Isabel, A. Ferreira, & M. Osman Tokhi (Eds.), Towards Trustworthy Artificial Intelligent Systems (61-76). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09823-9_4

Risk Assessment is a well known and powerful method for discovering and mitigating risks, and hence improving safety. Ethical Risk Assessment uses the same approach, but extends the scope of risk to cover ethical risks in addition to safety risks. In... Read More about Ethical risk assessment for social robots: Case studies in smart robot toys.

Robot narratives (2021)
Book Chapter
Orell, M. S., Bown, J., Stepney, S., Walsh, R., & Winfield, A. F. T. (2021). Robot narratives. In A. Adamatzky (Ed.), Handbook of Unconventional Computing Volume 1: Theory (221-246). World Scientific. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811235726_0006

There is evidence that humans understand how the world goes through narrative. We discuss what it might mean for embodied robots to understand the world, and communicate that understanding, in a similar manner. We suggest an architecture for adding n... Read More about Robot narratives.

Towards autonomous robot evolution (2020)
Book Chapter
Eiben, A. E., Hart, E., Timmis, J., Tyrrell, A. M., & Winfield, A. F. (2021). Towards autonomous robot evolution. In A. Cavalcanti, B. Dongol, R. Hierons, J. Timmis, & J. Woodcock (Eds.), Software Engineering for Robotics (29-51). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66494-7_2

We outline a perspective on the future of evolutionary robotics and discuss a long-term vision regarding robots that evolve in the real world. We argue that such systems offer significant potential for advancing both science and engineering. For scie... Read More about Towards autonomous robot evolution.

Robot accident investigation: A case study in responsible robotics (2020)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F. T., Winkle, K., Webb, H., Lyngs, U., Jirotka, M., & Macrae, C. (2021). Robot accident investigation: A case study in responsible robotics. In A. Cavalcanti, B. Dongol, R. Hierons, J. Timmis, & J. Woodcock (Eds.), Software Engineering for Robotics (165-187). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66494-7_6

Robot accidents are inevitable. Although rare, they have been happening since assembly line robots were first introduced in the 1960s. But a new generation of social robots is now becoming commonplace. Equipped with sophisticated embedded artificial... Read More about Robot accident investigation: A case study in responsible robotics.

On the simulation (and energy costs) of human intelligence, the singularity and simulationism (2019)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F. T. (2019). On the simulation (and energy costs) of human intelligence, the singularity and simulationism. In A. Adamatzky, & V. Kendon (Eds.), From Astrophysics to Unconventional Computation (397-407). Springer Nature Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15792-0_16

For many the Holy Grail of robotics and AI is the creation of artificial persons: artefacts with equivalent general competencies as humans. Such artefacts would literally be simulations of humans. With the theme of simulation this essay reflects on b... Read More about On the simulation (and energy costs) of human intelligence, the singularity and simulationism.

Anticipation in robotics (2018)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F., & Hafner, V. V. (2018). Anticipation in robotics. In R. Poli (Ed.), Handbook of Anticipation: Theoretical and Applied Aspects of the Use of Future in Decision Making. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_73-1

In this chapter, we introduce anticipatory robotic systems. We show how intelligent robots can anticipate the future, by outlining two broad approaches: the first shows how robots can use anticipation to learn how to control their own bodies and the... Read More about Anticipation in robotics.

The case for an ethical black box (2017)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F., & Jirotka, M. (2017). The case for an ethical black box. In Y. Gao (Ed.), Towards Autonomous Robot Systems (1-12). Springer

This paper proposes that robots and autonomous systems should be equipped with the equivalent of a Flight Data Recorder to continuously record sensor and relevant internal status data. We call this an ethical black box. We argue that an ethical black... Read More about The case for an ethical black box.

When robots tell each other stories: The emergence of artificial fiction (2017)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F. (2017). When robots tell each other stories: The emergence of artificial fiction. In S. Stepney, & R. Walsh (Eds.), Narrating Complexity. Springer

This essay outlines a proposal for an embodied computational model of storytelling, using robots. If it could be built, the model would open the possibility for experimental demonstration and investigation of how simple narrative might emerge from in... Read More about When robots tell each other stories: The emergence of artificial fiction.

Evolvable robot hardware (2015)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F., & Timmis, J. (2015). Evolvable robot hardware. In M. A. Trefzer, & A. M. Tyrrell (Eds.), Evolvable Hardware (331-348). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44616-4_13

While the theory and practice of evolutionary robotics is well established, most work to date has been concerned with evolving a robot’s control system – it’s software. This chapter is concerned instead with the more difficult problem of how to evolv... Read More about Evolvable robot hardware.

The next big thing(s) in robotics (2014)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F. (2014). The next big thing(s) in robotics. In S. Westlake (Ed.), Our Work Here is Done: Visions of a Robot Economy (38-44). London: NESTA