Martin Pearson's Outputs (50)

High speed switched, multi-channel drive for high voltage dielectric actuation of a biomimetic sensory array (2014)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

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.

Simultaneous localisation and mapping on a multi-degree of freedom biomimetic whiskered robot (2013)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

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)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

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

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

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

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.

Bioinspired control of electro-active polymers for next generation soft robots (2012)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

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 hierarchical blackboard mapping on a whiskered robot (2012)
Journal Article

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.

Whisker texture classification with uncertain contact pose geometry (2012)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Tactile sensing can be an important source of
information for robots, and texture discrimination in partic-
ular is useful in object recognition and terrain identification.
Whisker based tactile sensing has recently been shown to be
a promising a... Read More about Whisker texture classification with uncertain contact pose geometry.

An internal model architecture for novelty detection: Implications for cerebellar and collicular roles in sensory processing (2012)
Journal Article

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)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

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.

Predictive prey pursuit in a whiskered robot (2012)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

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.

The emergence of action sequences from spatial attention: Insight from rodent-like robots (2012)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

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.

Tactile SLAM with a biomimetic whiskered robot (2012)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Future robots may need to navigate where visual sensors fail. Touch sensors provide an alternative modality, largely unexplored in the context of robotic map building. We present the first results in grid based simultaneous localisation and mapping (... Read More about Tactile SLAM with a biomimetic whiskered robot.

Brain-inspired Bayesian perception for biomimetic robot touch (2012)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Studies of decision making in animals suggest
a neural mechanism of evidence accumulation for competing
percepts according to Bayesian sequential analysis. This model
of perception is embodied in a biomimetic tactile sensing
robot based on the ro... Read More about Brain-inspired Bayesian perception for biomimetic robot touch.

Tactile discrimination using active whisker sensors (2012)
Journal Article

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.

Towards tactile sensing applied to underwater autonomous vehicles for near shore survey and de-mining (2012)
Journal Article

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.

Artificial active whiskers for guiding underwater autonomous walking robots (2011)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

A low-cost, biologically inspired underwater walking robot (see Fig. 1) has been designed and built to covertly explore the seabed and to determine properties of submerged objects in obscure and inaccessible underwater locations. This paper focuses o... Read More about Artificial active whiskers for guiding underwater autonomous walking robots.

Object localisation using active whiskers on underwater autonomous walking robot (2011)
Book Chapter

A low-cost, biologically inspired underwater walking robot (see Fig. 1) has been designed and built to covertly explore the seabed and to determine properties of submerged objects in obscure and inaccessible underwater locations. This paper focuses o... Read More about Object localisation using active whiskers on underwater autonomous walking robot.

Biomimetic vibrissal sensing for robots (2011)
Journal Article

Active vibrissal touch can be used to replace or to supplement sensory systems such as computer vision and, therefore, improve the sensory capacity of mobile robots. This paper describes how arrays of whisker-like touch sensors have been incorporated... Read More about Biomimetic vibrissal sensing for robots.