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A variable compliance, soft gripper (2013)
Journal Article
Giannaccini, M. E., Georgilas, I., Horsfield, I., Peiris, B. H. P. M., Lenz, A., Pipe, A. G., & Dogramadzi, S. (2014). A variable compliance, soft gripper. Autonomous Robots, 36(1-2), 93-107. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-013-9374-8

Autonomous grasping is an important but challenging task and has therefore been intensively addressed by the robotics community. One of the important issues is the ability of the grasping device to accommodate varying object shapes in order to form a... Read More about A variable compliance, soft gripper.

Bootstrapping a robot's kinematic model (2013)
Journal Article
Broun, A., Beck, C., Pipe, T., Mirmehdi, M., & Melhuish, C. (2014). Bootstrapping a robot's kinematic model. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 62(3), 330-339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2013.09.011

We present a system that is able to autonomously build a 3D model of a robot's hand, along with a kinematic model of the robot's arm, beginning with very little information. The system starts by using exploratory motions to locate and centre the robo... Read More about Bootstrapping a robot's kinematic model.

Simultaneous localisation and mapping on a multi-degree of freedom biomimetic whiskered robot (2013)
Conference Proceeding
Pearson, M., Fox, C. W., Sullivan, J. C., Prescott, T. J., Pipe, T., & Mitchinson, B. (2013). Simultaneous localisation and mapping on a multi-degree of freedom biomimetic whiskered robot. In L. E. Parker (Ed.), 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (586-592). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630633

A biomimetic mobile robot called 'Shrewbot' has been built as part of a neuroethological study of the mammalian facial whisker sensory system. This platform has been used to further evaluate the problem space of whisker based tactile Simultaneous Loc... Read More about Simultaneous localisation and mapping on a multi-degree of freedom biomimetic whiskered robot.

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.

Perception of own and robot engagement in human-robot interactions and their dependence on robotics knowledge (2013)
Journal Article
Hall, J., Tritton, T., Rowe, A., Pipe, A., Melhuish, C., & Leonards, U. (2014). Perception of own and robot engagement in human-robot interactions and their dependence on robotics knowledge. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 62(3), 392-399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2013.09.012

Communication between socially assistive robots and humans might be facilitated by intuitively understandable mechanisms. To investigate the effects of some key nonverbal gestures on a human's own engagement and robot engagement experienced by humans... Read More about Perception of own and robot engagement in human-robot interactions and their dependence on robotics knowledge.

SABRE: A bio-inspired fault-tolerant electronic architecture (2013)
Journal Article
Pipe, A. G., Dragffy, G., Samie, M., Liu, Y., Bremner, P., Bremner, P., …Tyrrell, A. M. (2013). SABRE: A bio-inspired fault-tolerant electronic architecture. Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, 8(1), https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3182/8/1/016003

As electronic devices become increasingly complex, ensuring their reliable, fault-free operation is becoming correspondingly more challenging. It can be observed that, in spite of their complexity, biological systems are highly reliable and fault tol... Read More about SABRE: A bio-inspired fault-tolerant electronic architecture.

TACTIP - Tactile fingertip device, texture analysis through optical tracking of skin features (2013)
Conference Proceeding
Rossiter, J., Winstone, B., Griffiths, G., Pipe, T., & Melhuish, C. (2013). TACTIP - Tactile fingertip device, texture analysis through optical tracking of skin features. In N. Lepora, A. Mura, H. Krapp, P. Verschure, & T. Prescott (Eds.), Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems (323-334). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39802-5_28

In this paper we present texture analysis results for TACTIP, a versatile tactile sensor and artificial fingertip which exploits compliant materials and optical tracking. In comparison to previous MEMS sensors, the TACTIP device is especially suited... Read More about TACTIP - Tactile fingertip device, texture analysis through optical tracking of skin features.

Bioinspired control of electro-active polymers for next generation soft robots (2012)
Conference Proceeding
Wilson, E., Anderson, S. R., Assaf, T., Pearson, M., Walters, P., Prescott, T. J., …Porrill, J. (2012). Bioinspired control of electro-active polymers for next generation soft robots. In G. Herrmann, M. Studley, M. Pearson, A. Conn, C. Melhuish, M. Witkowski, …J. H. Kim (Eds.), Advances in Autonomous Robotics: Joint Proceedings of the 13th Annual TAROS Conference and the 15th Annual FIRA RoboWorld Congress, Bristol, UK, August 20-23, 2012, Proceedings (424-425). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32527-4_42

The emerging field of soft robotics offers the prospect of replacing existing hard actuator technologies with new soft-smart materials [7]. Such materials have the potential to form a key component of safer, more compliant and light-weight robots. So... Read More about Bioinspired control of electro-active polymers for next generation soft robots.

Towards a Platform-Independent Cooperative Human Robot Interaction System: III. An Architecture for Learning and Executing Actions and Shared Plans (2012)
Journal Article
Lallée, S., Pattacini, U., Lemaignan, S., Lenz, A., Melhuish, C., Natale, L., …Dominey, P. F. (2012). Towards a Platform-Independent Cooperative Human Robot Interaction System: III. An Architecture for Learning and Executing Actions and Shared Plans. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, 4(3), 239-253. https://doi.org/10.1109/TAMD.2012.2199754

Robots should be capable of interacting in a cooperative and adaptive manner with their human counterparts in open-ended tasks that can change in real-time. An important aspect of the robot behavior will be the ability to acquire new knowledge of the... Read More about Towards a Platform-Independent Cooperative Human Robot Interaction System: III. An Architecture for Learning and Executing Actions and Shared Plans.

Lump localisation through a deformation-based tactile feedback system using a biologically inspired finger sensor (2012)
Journal Article
Pipe, T., Roke, C., Melhuish, C., Pipe, A. G., Drury, D., & Chorley, C. (2012). Lump localisation through a deformation-based tactile feedback system using a biologically inspired finger sensor. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 60(11), 1442-1448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2012.05.002

The ability to localise harder areas in soft tissues is often desired during robot-assisted surgical operations. A deformation-based tactile feedback system was tested for the detection of objects within soft tissues, after being chosen over common p... Read More about Lump localisation through a deformation-based tactile feedback system using a biologically inspired finger sensor.

Towards a variable compliance hydrostatic skeleton inspired gripper (2012)
Journal Article
Zheng, Y., Giannaccini, M. E., Dogramadzi, S., & Pipe, A. G. (2012). Towards a variable compliance hydrostatic skeleton inspired gripper. Proceedings of the ... IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics. IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, 246-251. https://doi.org/10.1109/BioRob.2012.6290885

Variable compliance is a subject of great interest in the robotics community, particularly in the area of HumanRobot interaction. In this work, variable compliance is achieved in a novel grasping device inspired by the hydrostatic skeletons of invert... Read More about Towards a variable compliance hydrostatic skeleton inspired gripper.

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 an anthropomorphic design of minimally invasive instrumentation for soft tissue robotic surgery (2012)
Journal Article
Pipe, T., Tzemanaki, A., Dogramadzi, S., Pipe, A. G., & Melhuish, C. (2012). Towards an anthropomorphic design of minimally invasive instrumentation for soft tissue robotic surgery. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 7429 LNAI, 455-456. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32527-4_56

Minimally invasive procedures, such as laparoscopy, have significantly decreased blood loss, postoperative morbidity and length of hospital stay. Robot-assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) has offered refined accuracy and more ergonomic instrume... Read More about Towards an anthropomorphic design of minimally invasive instrumentation for soft tissue robotic surgery.

Predictive prey pursuit in a whiskered robot (2012)
Presentation / Conference
Mitchinson, B., Pearson, M., Pipe, A. G., & Prescott, T. J. (2012, August). Predictive prey pursuit in a whiskered robot. Paper presented at FIRA-TAROS congress, Bristol, UK

Highly active small mammals need to capture prey rapidly and with a high success rate if they are to survive. We consider the case of the Etruscan shrew, which hunts prey including crickets almost as large as itself, and relies on its whiskers (vibri... Read More about Predictive prey pursuit in a whiskered robot.

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.

The emergence of action sequences from spatial attention: Insight from rodent-like robots (2012)
Presentation / Conference
attention: Insight from rodent-like robots. Paper presented at Living Machines 2012, Barcelona, Spain

Animal behaviour is rich, varied, and smoothly integrated. One plausible model of its generation is that behavioural sub-systems compete to command effectors. In small terrestrial mammals, many behaviours are underpinned by foveation, since important... Read More about The emergence of action sequences from spatial attention: Insight from rodent-like robots.

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, 463-464. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32527-4_60

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

The effects of robot performed co-verbal gestures on listener behaviour (2011)
Presentation / Conference
Bremner, P., Pipe, A. G., Melhuish, C., Fraser, M., & Subramanian, S. (2011, October). The effects of robot performed co-verbal gestures on listener behaviour. Paper presented at 11th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, Bled, Slovenia