Alan Winfield's Outputs (14)

Adaptive foraging for simulated and real robotic swarms: The dynamical response threshold approach (2016)
Journal Article

Developing self-organised swarm systems capable of adapting to environmental changes as well as to dynamic situations is a complex challenge. An efficient labour division model, with the ability to regulate the distribution of work among swarm robots... Read More about Adaptive foraging for simulated and real robotic swarms: The dynamical response threshold approach.

On the evolution of behaviors through embodied imitation (2015)
Journal Article

© 2015 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Abstract This article describes research in which embodied imitation and behavioral adaptation are investigated in collective robotics. We model social learning in artificial agents with real robots. The... Read More about On the evolution of behaviors through embodied imitation.

Editorial: Special issue on ground robots operating in dynamic, unstructured and large-scale outdoor environments (2015)
Journal Article

Real-world outdoor applications of ground robots have, to date, been limited primarily to remote inspection of suspected explosive devices and, with less success, to the broader domain of remote survey and inspection in hazardous environments. Such r... Read More about Editorial: Special issue on ground robots operating in dynamic, unstructured and large-scale outdoor environments.

Robots with internal models: A route to self-aware and hence safer robots (2014)
Book Chapter

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

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.

Towards exogenous fault detection in swarm robotic systems (2014)
Book Chapter

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.

The triangle of life: Evolving robots in real-time and real-space (2013)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Evolutionary robotics is heading towards fully embodied evolution in real-time and real-space. In this paper we introduce the Triangle of Life, a generic conceptual framework for such systems in which robots can actually reproduce. This framework can... Read More about The triangle of life: Evolving robots in real-time and real-space.

Embodied imitation-enhanced reinforcement learning in multi-agent systems (2013)
Journal Article

Imitation is an example of social learning in which an individual observes and copies another's actions. This paper presents a new method for using imitation as a way of enhancing the learning speed of individual agents that employ a well-known reinf... Read More about Embodied imitation-enhanced reinforcement learning in multi-agent systems.

Towards temporal verification of swarm robotic systems (2012)
Journal Article

A robot swarm is a collection of simple robots designed to work together to carry out some task. Such swarms rely on the simplicity of the individual robots; the fault tolerance inherent in having a large population of identical robots; and the self-... Read More about Towards temporal verification of swarm robotic systems.

The distributed co-evolution of an embodied simulator and controller for swarm robot behaviours (2011)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Embodied fitness assessment of robotic controllers is slow but grounded, while assessment in a simulated environment is fast but can run foul of the ‘reality gap’. We present a distributed co-evolutionary method to adapt the environmental model of an... Read More about The distributed co-evolution of an embodied simulator and controller for swarm robot behaviours.

Open-hardware e-puck Linux extension board for experimental swarm robotics research (2011)
Journal Article

In this paper we describe the implementation of a Linux extension board for the e-puck educational mobile robot, designed to enhance the computation, memory and networking performance of the robot at very low cost. The extension board is based on a 3... Read More about Open-hardware e-puck Linux extension board for experimental swarm robotics research.

Towards energy optimization: Emergent task allocation in a swarm of foraging robots (2007)
Journal Article

This article presents a simple adaptation mechanism to automatically adjust the ratio of foragers to resters (division of labor) in a swarm of foraging robots and hence maximize the net energy income to the swarm. Three adaptation rules are introduce... Read More about Towards energy optimization: Emergent task allocation in a swarm of foraging robots.

On formal specification of emergent behaviours in swarm robotic systems (2005)
Journal Article

Robot thought (2005)
Exhibition / Performance

Robot Thought is a performance piece designed to promote discusion amongst 5 -11 year old children and their families of the role that robots already play and might play in society. It was first performed at Explore, Bristol's interactive science cen... Read More about Robot thought.