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Ring attractors as the basis of a biomimetic navigation system (2023)
Journal Article
Knowles, T., Summerton, A., Whiting, J., & Pearson, M. J. (2023). Ring attractors as the basis of a biomimetic navigation system. Biomimetics, 8(5), Article 399. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8050399

The ability to navigate effectively in a rich and complex world is crucial for the survival of all animals. Specialist neural structures have evolved that are implicated in facilitating this ability, one such structure being the ring attractor networ... Read More about Ring attractors as the basis of a biomimetic navigation system.

A spiking neural network model of rodent head direction calibrated with landmark free learning (2022)
Journal Article
Stentiford, R., Knowles, T. C., & Pearson, M. J. (2022). A spiking neural network model of rodent head direction calibrated with landmark free learning. Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 16, -. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2022.867019

Maintaining a stable estimate of head direction requires both self-motion (idiothetic) information and environmental (allothetic) anchoring. In unfamiliar or dark environments idiothetic drive can maintain a rough estimate of heading but is subject t... Read More about A spiking neural network model of rodent head direction calibrated with landmark free learning.

Multimodal Representation Learning for Place Recognition Using Deep Hebbian Predictive Coding (2021)
Journal Article
Pearson, M. J., Dora, S., Struckmeier, O., Knowles, T. C., Mitchinson, B., Tiwari, K., …Pennartz, C. M. (2021). Multimodal Representation Learning for Place Recognition Using Deep Hebbian Predictive Coding. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 8, Article 732023. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.732023

Recognising familiar places is a competence required in many engineering applications that interact with the real world such as robot navigation. Combining information from different sensory sources promotes robustness and accuracy of place recogniti... Read More about Multimodal Representation Learning for Place Recognition Using Deep Hebbian Predictive Coding.

A multizone cerebellar chip for bioinspired adaptive robot control and sensorimotor processing (2021)
Journal Article
Wilson, E. D., Assaf, T., Rossiter, J. M., Dean, P., Porrill, J., Anderson, S. R., & Pearson, M. J. (2021). A multizone cerebellar chip for bioinspired adaptive robot control and sensorimotor processing. Interface, 18(174), https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2020.0750

The cerebellum is a neural structure essential for learning, which is connected via multiple zones to many different regions of the brain, and is thought to improve human performance in a large range of sensory, motor and even cognitive processing ta... Read More about A multizone cerebellar chip for bioinspired adaptive robot control and sensorimotor processing.

Fast, flexible closed-loop feedback: Tracking movement in “real-millisecond-time” (2019)
Journal Article
Sehara, K., Bahr, V., Mitchinson, B., Pearson, M. J., Larkum, M. E., & Sachdev, R. N. S. (2019). Fast, flexible closed-loop feedback: Tracking movement in “real-millisecond-time”. eNeuro, 6(6), https://doi.org/10.1523/eneuro.0147-19.2019

© 2019 Sehara et al. One of the principal functions of the brain is to control movement and rapidly adapt behavior to a changing external environment. Over the last decades our ability to monitor activity in the brain, manipulate it while also manipu... Read More about Fast, flexible closed-loop feedback: Tracking movement in “real-millisecond-time”.

Audio Localization for Robots Using Parallel Cerebellar Models (2018)
Journal Article
Baxendale, M., Pearson, M., Nibouche, M., Secco, E., & Pipe, T. (2018). Audio Localization for Robots Using Parallel Cerebellar Models. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 3(4), 3185-3192. https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2018.2850447

© 2016 IEEE. A robot audio localization system is presented that combines the outputs of multiple adaptive filter models of the Cerebellum to calibrate a robot's audio map for various acoustic environments. The system is inspired by the MOdular Selec... Read More about Audio Localization for Robots Using Parallel Cerebellar Models.

Cerebellar-inspired algorithm for adaptive control of nonlinear dielectric elastomerbased artificial muscle (2016)
Journal Article
Pearson, M. J., Wilson, E. D., Assaf, T., Pearson, M., Rossiter, J. M., Anderson, S. R., …Dean, P. (2016). Cerebellar-inspired algorithm for adaptive control of nonlinear dielectric elastomerbased artificial muscle. Interface, 13(122), https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2016.0547

© 2016 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Electroactive polymer actuators are important for soft robotics, but can be difficult to control because of compliance, creep and nonlinearities. Because biological control mec... Read More about Cerebellar-inspired algorithm for adaptive control of nonlinear dielectric elastomerbased artificial muscle.

Visual-tactile sensory map calibration of a biomimetic whiskered robot (2016)
Journal Article
Assaf, T., Wilson, E. D., Anderson, S., Dean, P., Porrill, J., & Pearson, M. J. (2016). Visual-tactile sensory map calibration of a biomimetic whiskered robot. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2016-June, 967-972. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2016.7487228

© 2016 IEEE. We present an adaptive filter model of cerebellar function applied to the calibration of a tactile sensory map to improve the accuracy of directed movements of a robotic manipulator. This is demonstrated using a platform called Bellabot... Read More about Visual-tactile sensory map calibration of a biomimetic whiskered robot.

Measuring the local viscosity and velocity of fluids using a biomimetic tactile whisker (2015)
Journal Article
Pipe, T., Rooney, T., Pearson, M. J., & Pipe, A. G. (2015). Measuring the local viscosity and velocity of fluids using a biomimetic tactile whisker. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 9222, 75-85. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22979-9_7

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. A novel technique for determining the relative visco-density of fluids using an actuated flexible beam inspired by the tactile whiskers of marine mammals is presented. This was developed for the i... Read More about Measuring the local viscosity and velocity of fluids using a biomimetic tactile whisker.

Biohybrid control of general linear systems using the adaptive filter model of cerebellum (2015)
Journal Article
Wilson, E. D., Assaf, T., Pearson, M. J., Rossiter, J. M., Dean, P., Anderson, S. R., & Porrill, J. (2015). Biohybrid control of general linear systems using the adaptive filter model of cerebellum. Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 9(JUL), https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2015.00005

© 2015 Wilson, Assaf, Pearson, Rossiter, Dean, Anderson and Porrill. The adaptive filter model of the cerebellar microcircuit has been successfully applied to biological motor control problems, such as the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), and to sensor... Read More about Biohybrid control of general linear systems using the adaptive filter model of cerebellum.

High speed switched, multi-channel drive for high voltage dielectric actuation of a biomimetic sensory array (2014)
Journal Article
Pearson, M., & Assaf, T. (2014). High speed switched, multi-channel drive for high voltage dielectric actuation of a biomimetic sensory array. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 8608 LNAI, 414-416. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09435-9_47

Electro-Active Polymers (EAP) have been described as artificial muscles due to their composition andmuscle-like dynamics [1]. Consequently they have attracted a lot of attention from the biomimetic robotics research community and heralded as a potent... Read More about High speed switched, multi-channel drive for high voltage dielectric actuation of a biomimetic sensory array.

Artificial vibrissae DEA-based module (2014)
Journal Article
Assaf, T., Conn, A., Rossiter, J., Walters, P., & Pearson, M. (2014). Artificial vibrissae DEA-based module. Proceedings of SPIE, 9056, https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2044763

The article presents a working whisker structure based on dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). This preliminary work aims to exploit the features of the dielectric elastomer technology for use in an effective and reliable robotic application whilst... Read More about Artificial vibrissae DEA-based module.

Biomimetic tactile target acquisition, tracking and capture (2013)
Journal Article
Prescott, T. J., Pearson, M. J., Mitchinson, B., Pearson, M., Pipe, A. G., & Prescott, T. (2014). Biomimetic tactile target acquisition, tracking and capture. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 62(3), 366-375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2013.08.013

Good performance in unstructured/uncertain environments is an ongoing problem in robotics; in biology, it is an everyday observation. Here, we model a particular biological system - hunting in the Etruscan shrew - as a case study in biomimetic robot... Read More about Biomimetic tactile target acquisition, tracking and capture.

Joint conferences - TAROS 2012 and FIRA 2012 (2013)
Journal Article
Pearson, M., Conn, A., & Herrmann, G. (2014). Joint conferences - TAROS 2012 and FIRA 2012. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 62(3), 281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2013.09.008

This special issue contains ten extended, peer-reviewed papers specially selected from 36 full papers [1] and presented at the joint conferences of TAROS 2012 (Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems 2012) and FIRA 2012 (the Robot World Congress of the F... Read More about Joint conferences - TAROS 2012 and FIRA 2012.

Involving patients and the public in healthcare operational research-The challenges and opportunities (2013)
Journal Article
Pearson, M., Monks, T., Gibson, A., Allen, M., Komashie, A., Fordyce, A., …Stein, K. (2013). Involving patients and the public in healthcare operational research-The challenges and opportunities. Operations Research for Health Care, 2(4), 86-89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orhc.2013.09.001

Interest is growing internationally in the potential benefits of patient and public involvement (PPI) in research. In the United Kingdom (UK) health and social care services are now committed to involving patients and service users in the planning, d... Read More about Involving patients and the public in healthcare operational research-The challenges and opportunities.

The effect of whisker movement on radial distance estimation: A case study in comparative robotics (2013)
Journal Article
estimation: A case study in comparative robotics. Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 6(12), https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2012.00012

Whisker movement has been shown to be under active control in certain specialist animals such as rats and mice. Though this whisker movement is well characterized, the role and effect of this movement on subsequent sensing is poorly understood. One... Read More about The effect of whisker movement on radial distance estimation: A case study in comparative robotics.

Towards hierarchical blackboard mapping on a whiskered robot (2012)
Journal Article
Prescott, T. J., Pearson, M. J., Evans, M. H., Fox, C. W., Fox, C. W., Evans, M., …Prescott, T. J. (2012). Towards hierarchical blackboard mapping on a whiskered robot. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 60(11), 1356-1366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2012.03.005

The paradigm case for robotic mapping assumes large quantities of sensory information which allow the use of relatively weak priors. In contrast, the present study considers the mapping problem for a mobile robot, CrunchBot, where only sparse, local... Read More about Towards hierarchical blackboard mapping on a whiskered robot.

An internal model architecture for novelty detection: Implications for cerebellar and collicular roles in sensory processing (2012)
Journal Article
Anderson, S. R., Porrill, J., Pearson, M., Pipe, A. G., Prescott, T. J., & Dean, P. (2012). An internal model architecture for novelty detection: Implications for cerebellar and collicular roles in sensory processing. PLoS ONE, 7(9), Article e44560. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044560

The cerebellum is thought to implement internal models for sensory prediction, but details of the underlying circuitry are currently obscure. We therefore investigated a specific example of internal-model based sensory prediction, namely detection of... Read More about An internal model architecture for novelty detection: Implications for cerebellar and collicular roles in sensory processing.

Towards tactile sensing applied to underwater autonomous vehicles for near shore survey and de-mining (2012)
Journal Article
Rooney, T., Pipe, A. G., Dogramadzi, S., & Pearson, M. (2012). Towards tactile sensing applied to underwater autonomous vehicles for near shore survey and de-mining. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 7429 LNAI, 463-464. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32527-4_60

Artificial tactile whisker sensors demonstrate an approach to localisation [1] that is robust to harsh environmental disturbances, endowing autonomous systems with the ability to operate effectively in confined, noisy and visually occluded spaces, su... Read More about Towards tactile sensing applied to underwater autonomous vehicles for near shore survey and de-mining.

Tactile discrimination using active whisker sensors (2012)
Journal Article
Fox, C. W., Lepora, N. F., Sullivan, J. C., Mitchinson, B., Pearson, M., Evans, M., …Prescott, T. J. (2012). Tactile discrimination using active whisker sensors. IEEE Sensors Journal, 12(2), 350-362. https://doi.org/10.1109/JSEN.2011.2148114

We describe a novel, biomimetic tactile sensing system modeled on the facial whiskers (vibrissae) of animals such as rats and mice. The "BIOTACT Sensor" consists of a conical array of modular, actuated hair-like elements, each instrumented at the bas... Read More about Tactile discrimination using active whisker sensors.