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A novel mirror neuron inspired decision-making architecture for human–robot interaction (2023)
Journal Article
Sobhani, M., Smith, J., Pipe, A., & Peer, A. (in press). A novel mirror neuron inspired decision-making architecture for human–robot interaction. International Journal of Social Robotics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-00988-0

Inspired by the role of mirror neurons and the importance of predictions in joint action, a novel decision-making structure is proposed, designed and tested for both individual and dyadic action. The structure comprises models representing individual... Read More about A novel mirror neuron inspired decision-making architecture for human–robot interaction.

On determinism of game engines used for simulation-based autonomous vehicle verification (2022)
Journal Article
Chance, G., Ghobrial, A., McAreavey, K., Lemaignan, S., Pipe, T., & Eder, K. (2022). On determinism of game engines used for simulation-based autonomous vehicle verification. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 23(11), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2022.3177887

Game engines are increasingly used as simulation platforms by the autonomous vehicle community to develop vehicle control systems and test environments. A key requirement for simulation-based development and verification is determinism, since a deter... Read More about On determinism of game engines used for simulation-based autonomous vehicle verification.

Automated extraction of 3D printed parts from unfused PA12 powder using a one-shot 3D printed compliant gripper (2021)
Journal Article
Cormack, J., Fotouhi, M., Adams, G., & Pipe, T. (2021). Automated extraction of 3D printed parts from unfused PA12 powder using a one-shot 3D printed compliant gripper. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 6(4), 8655-8662. https://doi.org/10.1109/lra.2021.3113383

Automated individual part extraction from powder based 3D printers has the potential to save time and cost compared with fully manual part extraction, or part sorting following automated bulk separation of parts and unfused powder. This work details... Read More about Automated extraction of 3D printed parts from unfused PA12 powder using a one-shot 3D printed compliant gripper.

A connected autonomous vehicle testbed: Capabilities, experimental processes and lessons learned (2020)
Journal Article
Kent, T., Pipe, A., Richards, A., Hutchinson, J., & Schuster, W. (2020). A connected autonomous vehicle testbed: Capabilities, experimental processes and lessons learned. Automation, 1(1), 17-32. https://doi.org/10.3390/automation1010002

VENTURER was one of the first three UK government funded research and innovation projects on Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) and was conducted predominantly in the South West region of the country. A series of increasingly complex scenarios cond... Read More about A connected autonomous vehicle testbed: Capabilities, experimental processes and lessons learned.

A corroborative approach to verification and validation of human–robot teams (2019)
Journal Article
Webster, M., Western, D., Araiza-Illan, D., Dixon, C., Eder, K., Fisher, M., & Pipe, A. G. (2020). A corroborative approach to verification and validation of human–robot teams. International Journal of Robotics Research, 39(1), 73-99. https://doi.org/10.1177/0278364919883338

© The Author(s) 2019. We present an approach for the verification and validation (V&V) of robot assistants in the context of human–robot interactions, to demonstrate their trustworthiness through corroborative evidence of their safety and functional... Read More about A corroborative approach to verification and validation of human–robot teams.

Toward Bio-Inspired Tactile Sensing Capsule Endoscopy for Detection of Submucosal Tumors (2016)
Journal Article
Pipe, T., Winstone, B., Melhuish, C., Pipe, A. G., Callaway, M., & Dogramadzi, S. (2017). Toward Bio-Inspired Tactile Sensing Capsule Endoscopy for Detection of Submucosal Tumors. IEEE Sensors Journal, 17(3), 848-857. https://doi.org/10.1109/JSEN.2016.2627798

© 2016 IEEE. Here, we present a method for lump characterization using a bio-inspired remote tactile sensing capsule endoscopy system. While current capsule endoscopy utilizes cameras to diagnose lesions on the surface of the gastrointestinal tract l... Read More about Toward Bio-Inspired Tactile Sensing Capsule Endoscopy for Detection of Submucosal Tumors.

A Novel Design for a Robot Grappling Hook for use in a Nuclear Cave Environment (2016)
Journal Article
Bridgwater, T., Griffiths, G., Winfield, A., & Pipe, T. (2016). A Novel Design for a Robot Grappling Hook for use in a Nuclear Cave Environment. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 49(21), 288-293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2016.10.569

© 2016 Within the field of robotics there exist few designs for detachable grappling hooks. This paper focusses on the novel design of a detachable grappling hook for use within a nuclear cave environment. The design seeks to exploit the complex netw... Read More about A Novel Design for a Robot Grappling Hook for use in a Nuclear Cave Environment.

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.

An anthropomorphic design for a minimally invasive surgical system based on a survey of surgical technologies, techniques and training (2014)
Journal Article
Tzemanaki, A., Walters, P., Pipe, A. G., Melhuish, C., & Dogramadzi, S. (2014). An anthropomorphic design for a minimally invasive surgical system based on a survey of surgical technologies, techniques and training. International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, 10(3), 368-378. https://doi.org/10.1002/rcs.1544

© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Background: Over the past century, abdominal surgery has seen a rapid transition from open procedures to less invasive methods, such as robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This study aimed to investigate... Read More about An anthropomorphic design for a minimally invasive surgical system based on a survey of surgical technologies, techniques and training.

Remotely deployable aerial inspection using tactile sensors (2014)
Journal Article
Macleod, C. N., Cao, J., Pierce, S. G., Sullivan, J. C., Pipe, A. G., Dobie, G., & Summan, R. (2014). Remotely deployable aerial inspection using tactile sensors. AIP Conference Proceedings, 1581, 1873-1880. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4865052

For structural monitoring applications, the use of remotely deployable Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) inspection platforms offer many advantages, including improved accessibility, greater safety and reduced cost, when compared to traditional manual... Read More about Remotely deployable aerial inspection using tactile sensors.

Seeing by touch: Evaluation of a soft biologically-inspired artificial fingertip in real-time active touch (2014)
Journal Article
Assaf, T., Roke, C., Rossiter, J., Pipe, T., & Melhuish, C. (2014). Seeing by touch: Evaluation of a soft biologically-inspired artificial fingertip in real-time active touch. Sensors, 14(2), 2561-2577. https://doi.org/10.3390/s140202561

Effective tactile sensing for artificial platforms remains an open issue in robotics. This study investigates the performance of a soft biologically-inspired artificial fingertip in active exploration tasks. The fingertip sensor replicates the mechan... Read More about Seeing by touch: Evaluation of a soft biologically-inspired artificial fingertip in real-time active touch.

Hardware architecture of the protein processing associative memory and the effects of dimensionality and quantisation on performance (2014)
Journal Article
Qadir, O., Lenz, A., Tempesti, G., Timmis, J., Pipe, T., & Tyrrell, A. (2014). Hardware architecture of the protein processing associative memory and the effects of dimensionality and quantisation on performance. Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, 15(3), 245-274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10710-014-9217-1

The Protein Processor Associative Memory (PPAM) is a novel hardware architecture for a distributed, decentralised, robust and scalable, bidirectional, hetero-associative memory, that can adapt online to changes in the training data. The PPAM uses the... Read More about Hardware architecture of the protein processing associative memory and the effects of dimensionality and quantisation on performance.

Compliance control and human-Robot interaction: Part 1-survey (2014)
Journal Article
Khan, S. G., Herrmann, G., Grafi, M. A., Pipe, T., & Melhuish, C. (2014). Compliance control and human-Robot interaction: Part 1-survey. International Journal of Humanoid Robotics, 11(03), 1430001. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219843614300013

© World Scientific Publishing Company. Compliance control is highly relevant to human safety in human-robot interaction (HRI). This paper presents a review of various compliance control techniques. The paper is aimed to provide a good background know... Read More about Compliance control and human-Robot interaction: Part 1-survey.

A novel bio-inspired tactile tumour detection concept for capsule endoscopy (2014)
Journal Article
Pipe, T., Winstone, B., Melhuish, C., Dogramadzi, S., Pipe, A. G., & Callaway, M. (2014). A novel bio-inspired tactile tumour detection concept for capsule endoscopy. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 8608 LNAI, 442-445. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09435-9_56

Examination of the gastrointestinal(GI) tract has traditionally been performed using endoscopy tools that allow a surgeon to see the inside of the lining of the digestive tract. Endoscopes are rigid or flexible tubes that use fibre-optics or cameras... Read More about A novel bio-inspired tactile tumour detection concept for capsule endoscopy.

Compliance control and human-robot interaction: Part II-experimental examples (2014)
Journal Article
Pipe, T., Khan, S. G., Herrmann, G., Lenz, A., Grafi, M. A., Pipe, A. G., & Melhuish, C. (2014). Compliance control and human-robot interaction: Part II-experimental examples. International Journal of Humanoid Robotics, 11(03), 1430002. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219843614300025

© World Scientific Publishing Company. Compliance control is highly relevant to human safety in human-robot interaction (HRI). This paper presents multi-dimensional compliance control of a humanoid robot arm. A dynamic model-free adaptive controller... Read More about Compliance control and human-robot interaction: Part II-experimental examples.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Safe adaptive compliance control of a humanoid robotic arm with anti-windup compensation and posture control (2010)
Journal Article
Spiers, A., Pipe, T., Khan, S. G., Herrmann, G., Pipe, A. G., & Melhuish, C. (2010). Safe adaptive compliance control of a humanoid robotic arm with anti-windup compensation and posture control. International Journal of Social Robotics, 2(3), 305-319. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-010-0058-7

Safety is very important for physical human-robot interaction. Compliance control can solve an important aspect of the safety problem by dealing with impact and other forces arising during close contact between humans and robots. An adaptive complian... Read More about Safe adaptive compliance control of a humanoid robotic arm with anti-windup compensation and posture control.

Whisking with robots: From rat vibrissae to biomimetic technology for active touch (2009)
Journal Article
Prescott, T. J., Pearson, M., Mitchinson, B., Sullivan, J. C. W., & Pipe, A. G. (2009). Whisking with robots: From rat vibrissae to biomimetic technology for active touch. IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, 16(3), 42-50. https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2009.933624

This article summarizes some of the key features of the rat vibrissal system, including the actively controlled sweeping movements of the vibrissae known as whisking, and reviews the past and ongoing research aimed at replicating some of this functio... Read More about Whisking with robots: From rat vibrissae to biomimetic technology for active touch.

Engineless unmanned aerial vehicle propulsion by dynamic soaring (2009)
Journal Article
Deittert, M., Toomer, C., Richards, A., & Pipe, A. (2009). Engineless unmanned aerial vehicle propulsion by dynamic soaring. Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 32(5), 1446-1457. https://doi.org/10.2514/1.43270

Dynamic soaring is a flight technique which extracts energy from wind gradients with the potential to power small unmanned aerial vehicles in maritime applications. Wind gradients of the required magnitude naturally occur at the air-sea interface due... Read More about Engineless unmanned aerial vehicle propulsion by dynamic soaring.

Contact type dependency of texture classification in a whiskered mobile robot (2009)
Journal Article
Fox, C. W., Mitchinson, B., Pearson, M., Pipe, A. G., & Prescott, T. J. (2009). Contact type dependency of texture classification in a whiskered mobile robot. Autonomous Robots, 26(4), 223-239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-009-9109-z

Actuated artificial whiskers modeled on rat macrovibrissae can provide effective tactile sensor systems for autonomous robots. This article focuses on texture classification using artificial whiskers and addresses a limitation of previous studies, na... Read More about Contact type dependency of texture classification in a whiskered mobile robot.

Cerebellar-inspired adaptive control of a robot eye actuated by pneumatic artificial Muscles (2009)
Journal Article
Anderson, S. R., Lenz, A., Anderson, S. A., Pipe, A. G., Melhuish, C., Dean, P., & Porrill, J. (2009). Cerebellar-inspired adaptive control of a robot eye actuated by pneumatic artificial Muscles. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B: Cybernetics, 39(6), 1420-1433. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSMCB.2009.2018138

In this paper, a model of cerebellar function is implemented and evaluated in the control of a robot eye actuated by pneumatic artificial muscles. The investigated control problem is stabilization of the visual image in response to disturbances. This... Read More about Cerebellar-inspired adaptive control of a robot eye actuated by pneumatic artificial Muscles.

An adaptive gaze stabilization controller inspired by the vestibulo-ocular reflex (2008)
Journal Article
Lenz, A., Balakrishnan, T., Pipe, A. G., & Melhuish, C. (2008). An adaptive gaze stabilization controller inspired by the vestibulo-ocular reflex. Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, 3(3), https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3182/3/3/035001

The vestibulo-ocular reflex stabilizes vision in many vertebrates. It integrates inertial and visual information to drive the eyes in the opposite direction to head movement and thereby stabilizes the image on the retina. Its adaptive nature guarante... Read More about An adaptive gaze stabilization controller inspired by the vestibulo-ocular reflex.

Application of Multi-Agent Technology to Fault Diagnosis of Power Distribution Systems (2005)
Journal Article
Yang, J., Montakhab, M., Pipe, A. G., Carse, B., & Davies, T. S. (2005). Application of Multi-Agent Technology to Fault Diagnosis of Power Distribution Systems. International Journal of Intelligent Information Technologies, 1(2), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.4018/jiit.2005040101

When a fault occurs in a power system, the protective relays detect the fault and trip appropriate circuit breakers, which isolate the affected equipment from the rest of the power system. Fault diagnosis of power systems is the process of identifyin... Read More about Application of Multi-Agent Technology to Fault Diagnosis of Power Distribution Systems.