Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

All Outputs (22)

Ethical risk assessment for social robots: Case studies in smart robot toys (2022)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F. T., van Maris, A., Winkle, K., Jirotka, M., Salvini, P., Webb, H., …Theofanopoulou, N. (2022). Ethical risk assessment for social robots: Case studies in smart robot toys. In M. Isabel, A. Ferreira, & M. Osman Tokhi (Eds.), Towards Trustworthy Artificial Intelligent Systems (61-76). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09823-9_4

Risk Assessment is a well known and powerful method for discovering and mitigating risks, and hence improving safety. Ethical Risk Assessment uses the same approach, but extends the scope of risk to cover ethical risks in addition to safety risks. In... Read More about Ethical risk assessment for social robots: Case studies in smart robot toys.

Robot narratives (2021)
Book Chapter
Orell, M. S., Bown, J., Stepney, S., Walsh, R., & Winfield, A. F. T. (2021). Robot narratives. In A. Adamatzky (Ed.), Handbook of Unconventional Computing Volume 1: Theory (221-246). World Scientific. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811235726_0006

There is evidence that humans understand how the world goes through narrative. We discuss what it might mean for embodied robots to understand the world, and communicate that understanding, in a similar manner. We suggest an architecture for adding n... Read More about Robot narratives.

Towards autonomous robot evolution (2020)
Book Chapter
Eiben, A. E., Hart, E., Timmis, J., Tyrrell, A. M., & Winfield, A. F. (2021). Towards autonomous robot evolution. In A. Cavalcanti, B. Dongol, R. Hierons, J. Timmis, & J. Woodcock (Eds.), Software Engineering for Robotics (29-51). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66494-7_2

We outline a perspective on the future of evolutionary robotics and discuss a long-term vision regarding robots that evolve in the real world. We argue that such systems offer significant potential for advancing both science and engineering. For scie... Read More about Towards autonomous robot evolution.

Robot accident investigation: A case study in responsible robotics (2020)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F. T., Winkle, K., Webb, H., Lyngs, U., Jirotka, M., & Macrae, C. (2021). Robot accident investigation: A case study in responsible robotics. In A. Cavalcanti, B. Dongol, R. Hierons, J. Timmis, & J. Woodcock (Eds.), Software Engineering for Robotics (165-187). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66494-7_6

Robot accidents are inevitable. Although rare, they have been happening since assembly line robots were first introduced in the 1960s. But a new generation of social robots is now becoming commonplace. Equipped with sophisticated embedded artificial... Read More about Robot accident investigation: A case study in responsible robotics.

On the simulation (and energy costs) of human intelligence, the singularity and simulationism (2019)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F. T. (2019). On the simulation (and energy costs) of human intelligence, the singularity and simulationism. In A. Adamatzky, & V. Kendon (Eds.), From Astrophysics to Unconventional Computation (397-407). Springer Nature Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15792-0_16

For many the Holy Grail of robotics and AI is the creation of artificial persons: artefacts with equivalent general competencies as humans. Such artefacts would literally be simulations of humans. With the theme of simulation this essay reflects on b... Read More about On the simulation (and energy costs) of human intelligence, the singularity and simulationism.

Anticipation in robotics (2018)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F., & Hafner, V. V. (2018). Anticipation in robotics. In R. Poli (Ed.), Handbook of Anticipation: Theoretical and Applied Aspects of the Use of Future in Decision Making. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_73-1

In this chapter, we introduce anticipatory robotic systems. We show how intelligent robots can anticipate the future, by outlining two broad approaches: the first shows how robots can use anticipation to learn how to control their own bodies and the... Read More about Anticipation in robotics.

The case for an ethical black box (2017)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F., & Jirotka, M. (2017). The case for an ethical black box. In Y. Gao (Ed.), Towards Autonomous Robot Systems (1-12). Springer

This paper proposes that robots and autonomous systems should be equipped with the equivalent of a Flight Data Recorder to continuously record sensor and relevant internal status data. We call this an ethical black box. We argue that an ethical black... Read More about The case for an ethical black box.

When robots tell each other stories: The emergence of artificial fiction (2017)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F. (2017). When robots tell each other stories: The emergence of artificial fiction. In S. Stepney, & R. Walsh (Eds.), Narrating Complexity. Springer

This essay outlines a proposal for an embodied computational model of storytelling, using robots. If it could be built, the model would open the possibility for experimental demonstration and investigation of how simple narrative might emerge from in... Read More about When robots tell each other stories: The emergence of artificial fiction.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

It feels like the right thing to do: Ethical perspectives of open science (2012)
Book Chapter
Grand, A., Wilkinson, C., Bultitude, K., & Winfield, A. F. (2012). It feels like the right thing to do: Ethical perspectives of open science. In B. Trench, & M. Bucchi (Eds.), Quality, Honesty and Beauty in Science and Technology Communication PCST 2012 Book of Papers (315-318). Observa Science in Society

Emergent swarm morphology control of wireless networked mobile robots (2012)
Book Chapter
Winfield, A. F., & Nembrini, J. (2012). Emergent swarm morphology control of wireless networked mobile robots. In R. Doursat, H. Sayama, & O. Michel (Eds.), Morphogenetic Engineering (239-271). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33902-8_10

We describe a new class of decentralised control algorithms that link local wireless connectivity to low-level robot motion control in order to maintain both swarm aggregation and connectivity, which we term “coherence”, in unbounded space. We invest... Read More about Emergent swarm morphology control of wireless networked mobile robots.

Towards accelerated distributed evolution for adaptive behaviours in swarm robotics (2010)
Book Chapter
O'Dowd, P., Winfield, A. F., & Studley, M. (2010). Towards accelerated distributed evolution for adaptive behaviours in swarm robotics. In T. Belpaeme, G. Bugmann, C. Melhuish, & M. Witkowski (Eds.), Proceedings of Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems 2010 (169-175). University of Plymouth

The major problem facing swarm robotics is that of design. A recent promising approach is the application of evolutionary algorithms to solve the problem of decomposing group behaviour to that of interacting individual behaviours. This paper presents... Read More about Towards accelerated distributed evolution for adaptive behaviours in swarm robotics.