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All Outputs (114)

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.

On the evolution of behaviors through embodied imitation (2015)
Journal Article
Erbas, M. D., Bull, L., & Winfield, A. F. (2015). On the evolution of behaviors through embodied imitation. Artificial Life, 21(2), 141-165. https://doi.org/10.1162/ARTL_a_00164

© 2015 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Abstract This article describes research in which embodied imitation and behavioral adaptation are investigated in collective robotics. We model social learning in artificial agents with real robots. The... Read More about On the evolution of behaviors through embodied imitation.

Towards verifiably ethical robot behaviour (2015)
Presentation / Conference
Dennis, L. A., Fisher, M., & Winfield, A. F. (2015, January). Towards verifiably ethical robot behaviour. Presented at Twenty-Ninth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Texas, USA

Ensuring that autonomous systems work ethically is both complex and difficult. However, the idea of having an additional ‘governor’ that assesses options the system has, and prunes them to select the most ethical choices is well understood. Recent wo... Read More about Towards verifiably ethical robot behaviour.

Editorial: Special issue on ground robots operating in dynamic, unstructured and large-scale outdoor environments (2015)
Journal Article
Winfield, A., Lacroix, S., Schneider, F., Wildermuth, D., & Winfield, A. F. (2015). Editorial: Special issue on ground robots operating in dynamic, unstructured and large-scale outdoor environments. Journal of Field Robotics, 32(4), 445-446. https://doi.org/10.1002/rob.21604

Real-world outdoor applications of ground robots have, to date, been limited primarily to remote inspection of suspected explosive devices and, with less success, to the broader domain of remote survey and inspection in hazardous environments. Such r... Read More about Editorial: Special issue on ground robots operating in dynamic, unstructured and large-scale outdoor environments.

An artificial immune system for self-healing in swarm robotic systems (2015)
Journal Article
Winfield, A., Bjerknes, J. D., Ismail, A. R., Bjerknes, J. D., Timmis, J., & Winfield, A. F. (2015). An artificial immune system for self-healing in swarm robotic systems. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 9303, 61-74. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23108-2_6

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. Swarm robotics is concerned with the decentralised coordination of multiple robots having only limited communication and interaction abilities. Although fault tolerance and robustness to individua... Read More about An artificial immune system for self-healing in swarm robotic systems.

Robots with internal models: A route to self-aware and hence safer robots (2014)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F. (2014). Robots with internal models: A route to self-aware and hence safer robots. In J. Pitt (Ed.), The Computer After Me: Awareness And Self-Awareness In Autonomic Systems (237-252). London: Imperial College Press

The aim of this chapter is to set out the case for building robots with internal models as a possible route toward achieving a level of functional self-awareness that would usefully extend the capabilities of autonomous robots. The chapter argues tha... Read More about Robots with internal models: A route to self-aware and hence safer robots.

A low-cost real-time tracking infrastructure for ground-based robot swarms (2014)
Book Chapter
Millard, A., Hilder, J., Timmis, J., & Winfield, A. F. (2014). A low-cost real-time tracking infrastructure for ground-based robot swarms. In C. Solnon, T. Stützle, M. Birattari, S. Garnier, H. Hamann, M. Montes de Oca, & M. Dorigo (Eds.), Swarm Intelligence, 9th International Conference, ANTS 2014 (278-279). Springer

A tracking infrastructure is a useful tool for swarm robotics research, and has many potential applications. Unfortunately, for many research laboratories, constructing one may be prohibitively expensive. In this paper we present a low-cost tracking... Read More about A low-cost real-time tracking infrastructure for ground-based robot swarms.

Estimating the energy cost of (artificial) evolution (2014)
Presentation / Conference
Winfield, A. F. (2014, July). Estimating the energy cost of (artificial) evolution. Paper presented at Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, New York

This short discussion paper sets out to explore the question: what is the energy cost of evolving complex artificial life? The paper takes an unconventional approach by first estimating the energy cost of natural evolution and, in particular, the spe... Read More about Estimating the energy cost of (artificial) evolution.

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

Towards exogenous fault detection in swarm robotic systems (2014)
Book Chapter
Millard, A. G., Timmis, J., & Winfield, A. F. (2014). Towards exogenous fault detection in swarm robotic systems. In C. Melhuish, M. Witkowski, A. Natraj, & S. Cameron (Eds.), Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (429-430). Springer Berlin Heidelberg

It has long been assumed that swarm systems are robust, in the sense that the failure of individual robots will have little detrimental effect on a swarm’s overall collective behaviour. However, Bjerknes and Winfield [1] have recently shown that this... Read More about Towards exogenous fault detection in swarm robotic systems.

Mapping the hinterland: Data issues in open science (2014)
Journal Article
Grand, A., Wilkinson, C., Bultitude, K., & Winfield, A. F. (2014). Mapping the hinterland: Data issues in open science. Public Understanding of Science, 25(1), 88-103. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662514530374

© The Author(s) 2014. Open science is a practice in which the scientific process is shared completely and in real time. It offers the potential to support information flow, collaboration and dialogue among professional and non-professional participan... Read More about Mapping the hinterland: Data issues in open science.

euRathlon Outdoor Robotics Challenge: Year 1 Report (2014)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F., Palau Franco, M., Brueggemann, B., Castro, A., Djapic, V., Ferri, G., …Viguria, A. (2014). euRathlon Outdoor Robotics Challenge: Year 1 Report. In M. Mistry, A. Leonardis, M. Witkowski, & C. Melhuish (Eds.), Advances in Autonomous Robotics Systems: 15th Annual Conference, TAROS 2014, Birmingham, UK, September 1-3, 2014. Proceedings (267-268). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10401-0

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.

The triangle of life: Evolving robots in real-time and real-space (2013)
Presentation / Conference
Eiben, A. E., Bredeche, N., Hoogendoorn, M., Stradner, J., Timmis, J., Tyrrell, A., & Winfield, A. F. (2013, September). The triangle of life: Evolving robots in real-time and real-space. Paper presented at European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL) 2013, Taormina, Italy

Evolutionary robotics is heading towards fully embodied evolution in real-time and real-space. In this paper we introduce the Triangle of Life, a generic conceptual framework for such systems in which robots can actually reproduce. This framework can... Read More about The triangle of life: Evolving robots in real-time and real-space.

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.

Distributed autonomous morphogenesis in a self-assembling robotic system (2012)
Book Chapter
Liu, W., & Winfield, A. F. (2012). Distributed autonomous morphogenesis in a self-assembling robotic system. In R. Doursat, H. Sayama, & O. Michel (Eds.), Morphogenetic Engineering: Understanding Complex Systems (89-113). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33902-8_4

We present distributed morphogenesis control strategies in a swarm of robots able to autonomously assemble into 3D symbiotic organisms to perform specific tasks. Each robot in such a system can work autonomously, while teams of robots can self-assemb... Read More about Distributed autonomous morphogenesis in a self-assembling robotic system.

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.