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All Outputs (45)

Variable autonomy through responsible robotics: Design guidelines and research agenda (2024)
Journal Article
Reinmund, T., Salvini, P., Kunze, L., Jirotka, M., & Winfield, A. F. T. (2024). Variable autonomy through responsible robotics: Design guidelines and research agenda. Communications of the ACM, 13(1), 1-36. https://doi.org/10.1145/3636432

Physically embodied artificial agents, or robots, are being incorporated into various practical and social contexts, from self-driving cars for personal transportation to assistive robotics in social care. To enable these systems to better perform un... Read More about Variable autonomy through responsible robotics: Design guidelines and research agenda.

Evaluation of frameworks that combine evolution and learning to design robots in complex morphological spaces (2023)
Journal Article
Li, W., Buchanan, E., Goff, L. K. L., Hart, E., Hale, M. F., Wei, B., …Tyrrell, A. M. (in press). Evaluation of frameworks that combine evolution and learning to design robots in complex morphological spaces. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, https://doi.org/10.1109/tevc.2023.3316363

Jointly optimising both the body and brain of a robot is known to be a challenging task, especially when attempting to evolve designs in simulation that will subsequently be built in the real world. To address this, it is increasingly common to combi... Read More about Evaluation of frameworks that combine evolution and learning to design robots in complex morphological spaces.

Practical hardware for evolvable robots (2023)
Journal Article
Angus, M., Buchanan, E., Le Goff, L. K., Hart, E., Eiben, A. E., De Carlo, M., …Tyrrell, A. M. (2023). Practical hardware for evolvable robots. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 10, Article 1206055. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2023.1206055

The evolutionary robotics field offers the possibility of autonomously generating robots that are adapted to desired tasks by iteratively optimising across successive generations of robots with varying configurations until a high-performing candidate... Read More about Practical hardware for evolvable robots.

Morpho-evolution with learning using a controller archive as an inheritance mechanism (2022)
Journal Article
Le Goff, L. K., Buchanan, E., Hart, E., Eiben, A. E., Li, W., De Carlo, M., …Tyrrell, A. M. (2023). Morpho-evolution with learning using a controller archive as an inheritance mechanism. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems, 15(2), 507 - 517. https://doi.org/10.1109/tcds.2022.3148543

Most work in evolutionary robotics centres on evolving a controller for a fixed body-plan. However, previous studies suggest that simultaneously evolving both controller and body-plan could open up many interesting possibilities. However, the joint o... Read More about Morpho-evolution with learning using a controller archive as an inheritance mechanism.

Experiments in artificial culture: from noisy imitation to storytelling robots (2021)
Journal Article
Winfield, A. F. T., & Blackmore, S. (2021). Experiments in artificial culture: from noisy imitation to storytelling robots. Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences, 377, Article 20200323. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020-0323

This paper presents a series of experiments in collective social robotics, spanning more than 10 years, with the long-term aim of building embodied models of (aspects) of cultural evolution. Initial experiments demonstrated the emergence of behaviour... Read More about Experiments in artificial culture: from noisy imitation to storytelling robots.

A new perspective on robot ethics through investigating human–robot interactions with older adults (2021)
Journal Article
van Maris, A., Zook, N., Dogramadzi, S., Studley, M., Winfield, A., & Caleb-Solly, P. (2021). A new perspective on robot ethics through investigating human–robot interactions with older adults. Applied Sciences, 11(21), Article 10136. https://doi.org/10.3390/app112110136

This work explored the use of human–robot interaction research to investigate robot ethics. A longitudinal human–robot interaction study was conducted with self-reported healthy older adults to determine whether expression of artificial emotions by a... Read More about A new perspective on robot ethics through investigating human–robot interactions with older adults.

IEEE P7001: A proposed standard on transparency (2021)
Journal Article
Winfield, A. F. T., Booth, S., Dennis, L. A., Egawa, T., Hastie, H., Jacobs, N., …Watson, E. (2021). IEEE P7001: A proposed standard on transparency. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 8, Article 665729. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.665729

This paper describes IEEE P7001, a new draft standard on transparency of autonomous systems. In the paper, we outline the development and structure of the draft standard. We present the rationale for transparency as a measurable, testable property. W... Read More about IEEE P7001: A proposed standard on transparency.

Governing AI safety through independent audits (2021)
Journal Article
Falco, G., Shneiderman, B., Badger, J., Carrier, R., Dahbura, A., Danks, D., …Yeong, Z. K. (2021). Governing AI safety through independent audits. Nature Machine Intelligence, 3(7), 566-571. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-021-00370-7

Highly automated systems are becoming omnipresent. They range in function from self-driving vehicles to advanced medical diagnostics and afford many benefits. However, there are assurance challenges that have become increasingly visible in high-profi... Read More about Governing AI safety through independent audits.

Role-play as responsible robotics: The virtual witness testimony role-play interview for investigating hazardous human-robot interactions (2021)
Journal Article
Webb, H., Dumitru, M., van Maris, A., Winkle, K., Jirotka, M., & Winfield, A. (2021). Role-play as responsible robotics: The virtual witness testimony role-play interview for investigating hazardous human-robot interactions. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 8, Article 644336. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.644336

The development of responsible robotics requires paying attention to responsibility within the research process in addition to responsibility as the outcome of research. This paper describes the preparation and application of a novel method to explor... Read More about Role-play as responsible robotics: The virtual witness testimony role-play interview for investigating hazardous human-robot interactions.

Negative updating applied to the best-of-n problem with noisy qualities (2021)
Journal Article
Lee, C., Lawry, J., & Winfield, A. F. (2021). Negative updating applied to the best-of-n problem with noisy qualities. Swarm Intelligence, 15, 111-143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11721-021-00188-4

The ability to perform well in the presence of noise is an important consideration when evaluating the effectiveness of a collective decision-making framework. Any system deployed for real-world applications will have to perform well in complex and u... Read More about Negative updating applied to the best-of-n problem with noisy qualities.

Bootstrapping artificial evolution to design robots for autonomous fabrication (2020)
Journal Article
Buchanan, E., Le Goff, L. K., Li, W., Hart, E., Eiben, A. E., De Carlo, M., …Tyrrell, A. M. (2020). Bootstrapping artificial evolution to design robots for autonomous fabrication. Robotics, 9(4), Article 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics9040106

A long-term vision of evolutionary robotics is a technology enabling the evolution of entire autonomous robotic ecosystems that live and work for long periods in challenging and dynamic environments without the need for direct human oversight. Evolut... Read More about Bootstrapping artificial evolution to design robots for autonomous fabrication.

Mutual shaping in swarm robotics: User studies in fire and rescue, storage organization, and bridge inspection (2020)
Journal Article
Carrillo-Zapata, D., Milner, E., Hird, J., Tzoumas, G., Vardanega, P. J., Sooriyabandara, M., …Hauert, S. (2020). Mutual shaping in swarm robotics: User studies in fire and rescue, storage organization, and bridge inspection. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 7, Article 53. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2020.00053

Many real-world applications have been suggested in the swarm robotics literature. However, there is a general lack of understanding of what needs to be done for robot swarms to be useful and trusted by users in reality. This paper aims to investigat... Read More about Mutual shaping in swarm robotics: User studies in fire and rescue, storage organization, and bridge inspection.

Designing ethical social robots - A longitudinal field study with older adults (2020)
Journal Article
van Maris, A., Zook, N., Caleb-Solly, P., Studley, M., Winfield, A., & Dogramadzi, S. (2020). Designing ethical social robots - A longitudinal field study with older adults. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 7(1), https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2020.00001

Emotional deception and emotional attachment are regarded as ethical concerns in human robot interaction. Considering these concerns is essential, particularly as little is known about longitudinal effects of interactions with social robots. We ran a... Read More about Designing ethical social robots - A longitudinal field study with older adults.

Toward controllable morphogenesis in large robot swarms (2019)
Journal Article
Carrillo-Zapata, D., Sharpe, J., Winfield, A. F. T., Giuggioli, L., & Hauert, S. (2019). Toward controllable morphogenesis in large robot swarms. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 4(4), 3386-3393. https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2019.2926961

Morphogenetic engineering aims to achieve functional, self-organized but controllable structures in human-designed systems. Controlling the structures is crucial if they are to be used for real-world applications. Building on previous work on morphog... Read More about Toward controllable morphogenesis in large robot swarms.

Machine ethics: The design and governance of ethical AI and autonomous systems (2019)
Journal Article
Winfield, A. F., Michael, K., Pitt, J., & Evers, V. (2019). Machine ethics: The design and governance of ethical AI and autonomous systems. Proceedings of the IEEE, 107(3), 509-517. https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2019.2900622

© 1963-2012 IEEE. The so-called fourth industrial revolution and its economic and societal implications are no longer solely an academic concern, but a matter for political as well as public debate. Characterized as the convergence of robotics, AI, a... Read More about Machine ethics: The design and governance of ethical AI and autonomous systems.

On proactive, transparent and verifiable ethical reasoning for robots (2019)
Journal Article
Bremner, P., Dennis, L. A., Fisher, M., & Winfield, A. F. (2019). On proactive, transparent and verifiable ethical reasoning for robots. Proceedings of the IEEE, 107(3), 541-561. https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2019.2898267

Previous work on ethical machine reasoning has largely been theoretical, and where such systems have been implemented it has in general been only initial proofs of principle. Here we address the question of desirable attributes for such systems to im... Read More about On proactive, transparent and verifiable ethical reasoning for robots.

Ethical standards in Robotics and AI (2019)
Journal Article
Winfield, A. F. (2019). Ethical standards in Robotics and AI. Nature Electronics, 2(2), 46-48

A new generation of ethical standards in robotics and artificial intelligence is emerging as a direct response to a growing awareness of the ethical, legal and societal impact of the fields. But what exactly are these ethical standards and how do the... Read More about Ethical standards in Robotics and AI.

Ethical governance is essential to building trust in robotics and artificial intelligence systems (2018)
Journal Article
Winfield, A. F., & Jirotka, M. (2018). Ethical governance is essential to building trust in robotics and artificial intelligence systems. Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 376(2133), https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0085

© 2018 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. This paper explores the question of ethical governance for robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. We outline a roadmap-which links a number of elements, including e... Read More about Ethical governance is essential to building trust in robotics and artificial intelligence systems.

Simulation-based internal models for safer robots (2018)
Journal Article
Blum, C., Winfield, A. F., & Hafner, V. V. (2018). Simulation-based internal models for safer robots. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 4(74), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2017.00074

In this paper, we explore the potential of mobile robots with simulation-based internal models for safety in highly dynamic environments. We propose a robot with a simulation of itself, other dynamic actors and its environment, inside itself. Operati... Read More about Simulation-based internal models for safer robots.

Experiments in artificial theory of mind: From safety to story-telling (2018)
Journal Article
Winfield, A. F. (2018). Experiments in artificial theory of mind: From safety to story-telling. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5(JUN), https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2018.00075

© 2018 Winfield. Theory of mind is the term given by philosophers and psychologists for the ability to form a predictive model of self and others. In this paper we focus on synthetic models of theory of mind. We contend firstly that such models-espec... Read More about Experiments in artificial theory of mind: From safety to story-telling.