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Towards an ethical robot: Internal models, consequences and ethical action selection (2014)
Journal Article
Winfield, A. F., Blum, C., & Liu, W. (2014). Towards an ethical robot: Internal models, consequences and ethical action selection. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 8717 LNAI, 85-96. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10401-0_8

If robots are to be trusted, especially when interacting with humans, then they will need to be more than just safe. This paper explores the potential of robots capable of modelling and therefore predicting the consequences of both their own actions,... Read More about Towards an ethical robot: Internal models, consequences and ethical action selection.

The distributed co-evolution of an on-board simulator and controller for swarm robot behaviours (2014)
Journal Article
O'Dowd, P., Studley, M., & Winfield, A. F. (2014). The distributed co-evolution of an on-board simulator and controller for swarm robot behaviours. Evolutionary Intelligence, 7(2), 95-106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12065-014-0112-8

We investigate the reality gap, specifically the environmental correspondence of an on-board simulator. We describe a novel distributed co-evolutionary approach to improve the transference of controllers that co-evolve with an on-board simulator. A n... Read More about The distributed co-evolution of an on-board simulator and controller for swarm robot behaviours.

Embodied imitation-enhanced reinforcement learning in multi-agent systems (2013)
Journal Article
Erbas, M. D., Winfield, A. F., & Bull, L. (2014). Embodied imitation-enhanced reinforcement learning in multi-agent systems. Adaptive Behavior, 22(1), 31-50. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059712313500503

Imitation is an example of social learning in which an individual observes and copies another's actions. This paper presents a new method for using imitation as a way of enhancing the learning speed of individual agents that employ a well-known reinf... Read More about Embodied imitation-enhanced reinforcement learning in multi-agent systems.

On fault tolerance and scalability of swarm robotic systems (2012)
Journal Article
Bjerknes, J. D., & Winfield, A. F. (2012). On fault tolerance and scalability of swarm robotic systems. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32723-0_31

This paper challenges the common assumption that swarm robotic systems are robust and scalable by default. We present an analysis based on both reliability modelling and experimental trials of a case study swarm performing team work, in which failure... Read More about On fault tolerance and scalability of swarm robotic systems.

Towards temporal verification of swarm robotic systems (2012)
Journal Article
Dixon, C., Winfield, A. F., Fisher, M., & Zeng, C. (2012). Towards temporal verification of swarm robotic systems. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 60(11), 1429-1441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2012.03.003

A robot swarm is a collection of simple robots designed to work together to carry out some task. Such swarms rely on the simplicity of the individual robots; the fault tolerance inherent in having a large population of identical robots; and the self-... Read More about Towards temporal verification of swarm robotic systems.

Building safer robots: Safety driven control (2012)
Journal Article
Harper, C., Woodman, R., Winfield, A. F., Harper, C., & Fraser, M. (2012). Building safer robots: Safety driven control. International Journal of Robotics Research, 31(13), 1603-1626. https://doi.org/10.1177/0278364912459665

In recent years there has been a concerted effort to address many of the safety issues associated with physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). However, a number of challenges remain. For personal robots, and those intended to operate in unstructured... Read More about Building safer robots: Safety driven control.

Open Science: A New "Trust Technology"? (2012)
Journal Article
Grand, A., Wilkinson, C., Bultitude, K., & Winfield, A. F. (2012). Open Science: A New "Trust Technology"?. Science Communication, 34(5), 679-689. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547012443021

The emerging practice of open science, which makes the entire process of a scientific investigation available, could extend membership of the research community to new, public audiences, who do not have access to science's long-established trust mech... Read More about Open Science: A New "Trust Technology"?.

Environment-driven distributed evolutionary adaptation in a population of autonomous robotic agents (2012)
Journal Article
Bredeche, N., Montanier, J. M., Liu, W., & Winfield, A. F. (2012). Environment-driven distributed evolutionary adaptation in a population of autonomous robotic agents. Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems, 18(1), 101-129. https://doi.org/10.1080/13873954.2011.601425

This article is concerned with a fixed-size population of autonomous agents facing unknown, possibly changing, environments. The motivation is to design an embodied evolutionary algorithm that can cope with the implicit fitness function hidden in the... Read More about Environment-driven distributed evolutionary adaptation in a population of autonomous robotic agents.

On embodied memetic evolution and the emergence of behavioural traditions in Robots (2011)
Journal Article
Winfield, A. F., & Erbas, M. D. (2011). On embodied memetic evolution and the emergence of behavioural traditions in Robots. Memetic Computing, 3(4), 261-270. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12293-011-0063-x

This paper describes ideas and initial experiments in embodied imitation using e-puck robots, developed as part of a project whose aim is to demonstrate the emergence of artificial culture in collective robot systems. Imitated behaviours (memes) will... Read More about On embodied memetic evolution and the emergence of behavioural traditions in Robots.

Interactive robots in experimental biology (2011)
Journal Article
Krause, J., Winfield, A. F., & Deneubourg, J. L. (2011). Interactive robots in experimental biology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 26(7), 369-375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2011.03.015

Interactive robots have the potential to revolutionise the study of social behaviour because they provide several methodological advances. In interactions with live animals, the behaviour of robots can be standardised, morphology and behaviour can be... Read More about Interactive robots in experimental biology.

Open-hardware e-puck Linux extension board for experimental swarm robotics research (2011)
Journal Article
Liu, W., & Winfield, A. F. (2011). Open-hardware e-puck Linux extension board for experimental swarm robotics research. Microprocessors and Microsystems, 35(1), 60-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micpro.2010.08.002

In this paper we describe the implementation of a Linux extension board for the e-puck educational mobile robot, designed to enhance the computation, memory and networking performance of the robot at very low cost. The extension board is based on a 3... Read More about Open-hardware e-puck Linux extension board for experimental swarm robotics research.

Autonomous morphogenesis in self-assembling robots using IR-based sensing and local communications (2010)
Journal Article
Liu, W., & Winfield, A. F. (2010). Autonomous morphogenesis in self-assembling robots using IR-based sensing and local communications. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 6234 LNCS, 107-118. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15461-4_10

This paper presents a simple decentralised morphology control mechanism for a swarm of self-assembling robots. Each robot in the system is fully autonomous and controlled using a behaviour-based approach with only infrared-based local sensing and com... Read More about Autonomous morphogenesis in self-assembling robots using IR-based sensing and local communications.

Modeling and optimization of adaptive foraging in swarm robotic systems (2010)
Journal Article
Liu, W., & Winfield, A. F. (2010). Modeling and optimization of adaptive foraging in swarm robotic systems. International Journal of Robotics Research, 29(14), 1743-1760. https://doi.org/10.1177/0278364910375139

Understanding the effect of individual parameters on the collective performance of swarm robotic systems in order to design and optimize individual robot behaviors is a significant challenge. In this paper we present a macroscopic probabilistic model... Read More about Modeling and optimization of adaptive foraging in swarm robotic systems.

Modelling a wireless connected swarm of mobile robots (2008)
Journal Article
Winfield, A. F., Liu, W., Nembrini, J., & Martinoli, A. (2008). Modelling a wireless connected swarm of mobile robots. Swarm Intelligence, 2(2-4), 241-266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11721-008-0018-0

It is a characteristic of swarm robotics that modelling the overall swarm behaviour in terms of the low-level behaviours of individual robots is very difficult. Yet if swarm robotics is to make the transition from the laboratory to real-world enginee... Read More about Modelling a wireless connected swarm of mobile robots.

Towards energy optimization: Emergent task allocation in a swarm of foraging robots (2007)
Journal Article
Liu, W., Winfield, A. F., Sa, J., Chen, J., & Dou, L. (2007). Towards energy optimization: Emergent task allocation in a swarm of foraging robots. Adaptive Behavior, 15(3), 289-305. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059712307082088

This article presents a simple adaptation mechanism to automatically adjust the ratio of foragers to resters (division of labor) in a swarm of foraging robots and hence maximize the net energy income to the swarm. Three adaptation rules are introduce... Read More about Towards energy optimization: Emergent task allocation in a swarm of foraging robots.

A methodology for provably stable behaviour-based intelligent control (2006)
Journal Article
Harper, C. J., & Winfield, A. F. (2006). A methodology for provably stable behaviour-based intelligent control. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 54(1), 52-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2005.09.014

This paper presents a design methodology for a class of behaviour-based control systems, arguing its potential for application to safety critical systems. We propose a formal basis for subsumption architecture design based on two extensions to Lyapun... Read More about A methodology for provably stable behaviour-based intelligent control.