Chris Melhuish's Outputs (52)

A review on the techniques used in prostate brachytherapy (2022)
Journal Article

Prostate brachytherapy is a validated treatment for prostate cancer. During the procedure, the accuracy of needle placement is critical to the treatment’s effectiveness. However, the inserted needle could deflect from the preset trajectory because of... Read More about A review on the techniques used in prostate brachytherapy.

On the impact of different types of errors on trust in human-robot interaction: Are laboratory-based HRI experiments trustworthy? (2019)
Journal Article

© John Benjamins Publishing Company Trust is a key dimension of human-robot interaction (HRI), and has often been studied in the HRI community. A common challenge arises from the difficulty of assessing trust levels in ecologically invalid environmen... Read More about On the impact of different types of errors on trust in human-robot interaction: Are laboratory-based HRI experiments trustworthy?.

Estimation of tool-tissue forces in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery using neural networks (2019)
Journal Article

A new algorithm is proposed to estimate the tool-tissue force interaction in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery which does not require the use of external force sensing. The proposed method utilizes the current of the motors of the surgical in... Read More about Estimation of tool-tissue forces in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery using neural networks.

A Cilia-inspired Closed-loop Sensor-actuator Array (2018)
Journal Article

© 2018, Jilin University. Cilia are finger-like cell-surface organelles that are used by certain varieties of aquatic unicellular organisms for motility, sensing and object manipulation. Initiated by internal generators and external mechanical and ch... Read More about A Cilia-inspired Closed-loop Sensor-actuator Array.

Improved power and long term performance of microbial fuel cell with Fe-N-C catalyst in air-breathing cathode (2017)
Journal Article

© 2017 Power output limitation is one of the main challenges that needs to be addressed for full-scale applications of the Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology. Previous studies have examined electrochemical performance of different cathode electrode... Read More about Improved power and long term performance of microbial fuel cell with Fe-N-C catalyst in air-breathing cathode.

Autonomous energy harvesting and prevention of cell reversal in MFC stacks (2016)
Journal Article

© The Author(s) 2016. This study presents a novel method for avoiding cell reversal whilst optimising energy harvesting from stacked Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) by dynamically reconfiguring the electrical connections between them. The sequential chan... Read More about Autonomous energy harvesting and prevention of cell reversal in MFC stacks.

Toward Bio-Inspired Tactile Sensing Capsule Endoscopy for Detection of Submucosal Tumors (2016)
Journal Article

© 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.

Microbial fuel cell – A novel self-powered wastewater electrolyser for electrocoagulation of heavy metals (2016)
Journal Article

© 2016 The Authors This paper describes the suitability of the Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) for generation of electrical power with a simultaneous synthesis of active catholyte in the form of caustic solution. The active solution formed inside a terraco... Read More about Microbial fuel cell – A novel self-powered wastewater electrolyser for electrocoagulation of heavy metals.

Electricity and disinfectant production from wastewater: Microbial Fuel Cell as a self-powered electrolyser (2016)
Journal Article

This study presents a simple and sustainable Microbial Fuel Cell as a standalone, self-powered reactor for in situ wastewater electrolysis, recovering nitrogen from wastewater. A process is proposed whereby the MFC electrical performance drives the e... Read More about Electricity and disinfectant production from wastewater: Microbial Fuel Cell as a self-powered electrolyser.

Microbial Fuel Cell-driven caustic potash production from wastewater for carbon sequestration (2016)
Journal Article

© 2016 The Authors. This work reports on the novel formation of caustic potash (KOH) directly on the MFC cathode locking carbon dioxide into potassium bicarbonate salt (kalicinite) while producing, instead of consuming electrical power. Using potassi... Read More about Microbial Fuel Cell-driven caustic potash production from wastewater for carbon sequestration.

Self sufficient wireless transmitter powered by foot-pumped urine operating wearable MFC (2015)
Journal Article

© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd. The first self-sufficient system, powered by a wearable energy generator based on microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology is introduced. MFCs made from compliant material were developed in the frame of a pair of socks, which w... Read More about Self sufficient wireless transmitter powered by foot-pumped urine operating wearable MFC.

Stability and reliability of anodic biofilms under different feedstock conditions: Towards microbial fuel cell sensors (2015)
Journal Article

© 2015 The Authors. Stability and reliability of microbial fuel cell anodic biofilms, consisting of mixed cultures, were investigated in a continuously fed system. Two groups of anodic biofilm matured with different substrates, acetate and casein for... Read More about Stability and reliability of anodic biofilms under different feedstock conditions: Towards microbial fuel cell sensors.

Electro-osmotic-based catholyte production by Microbial Fuel Cells for carbon capture (2015)
Journal Article

© 2015 The Authors. In Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs), the recovery of water can be achieved with the help of both active (electro-osmosis), and passive (osmosis) transport pathways of electrolyte through the semi-permeable selective separator. The elec... Read More about Electro-osmotic-based catholyte production by Microbial Fuel Cells for carbon capture.

Self-sustainable electricity production from algae grown in a microbial fuel cell system (2015)
Journal Article

© 2015 The Authors. This paper describes the potential for algal biomass production in conjunction with wastewater treatment and power generation within a fully biotic Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC). The anaerobic biofilm in the anodic half-cell is genera... Read More about Self-sustainable electricity production from algae grown in a microbial fuel cell system.

Simultaneous electricity generation and microbially-assisted electrosynthesis in ceramic MFCs (2015)
Journal Article

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. To date, the development of microbially assisted synthesis in Bioelectrochemical Systems (BESs) has focused on mechanisms that consume energy in order to drive the electrosynthesis process. This work reports - for the first time... Read More about Simultaneous electricity generation and microbially-assisted electrosynthesis in ceramic MFCs.

A novel small scale Microbial Fuel Cell design for increased electricity generation and waste water treatment (2015)
Journal Article

© 2015 Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) are a sustainable energy technology with minimal carbon footprint, which is promising for wastewater remediation and generation of u... Read More about A novel small scale Microbial Fuel Cell design for increased electricity generation and waste water treatment.

Dynamic electrical reconfiguration for improved capacitor charging in microbial fuel cell stacks (2014)
Journal Article

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a bioelectrochemical device that uses anaerobic bacteria to convert chemical energy locked in biomass into small amounts of electricity. One viable way of increasing energy extraction is by stacking multiple MFC units a... Read More about Dynamic electrical reconfiguration for improved capacitor charging in microbial fuel cell stacks.

Robotic hand posture and compliant grasping control using operational space and integral sliding mode control (2014)
Journal Article

© 2014 Cambridge University Press. This paper establishes a novel approach of robotic hand posture and grasping control. For this purpose, the control uses the operational space approach. This permits the consideration of the shape of the object to b... Read More about Robotic hand posture and compliant grasping control using operational space and integral sliding mode control.

Electricity generation and struvite recovery from human urine using microbial fuel cells (2014)
Journal Article

BACKGROUND: Urine is an abundant waste product which requires energy intensive treatment processes in modern wastewater treatment plants. However urine can be utilised as fertiliser in the form of struvite. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a promising... Read More about Electricity generation and struvite recovery from human urine using microbial fuel cells.

High-Performance, Totally Flexible, Tubular Microbial Fuel Cell (2014)
Journal Article

© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. The current study addresses the development of a flexible microbial fuel cell (MFC) in a tubular configuration. Nafion tubing is employed as a one-compartment MFC and is used as the membrane and th... Read More about High-Performance, Totally Flexible, Tubular Microbial Fuel Cell.

Algal 'lagoon' effect for oxygenating MFC cathodes (2014)
Journal Article

© 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This paper describes the active oxygenation performed by photosynthetic organisms in the cathode of a two-chamber Microbial Fuel Cell system. The algal biomass... Read More about Algal 'lagoon' effect for oxygenating MFC cathodes.

Water formation at the cathode and sodium recovery using Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) (2014)
Journal Article

Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) utilise biodegradable carbon compounds in organic waste to generate electric current. The aim of this work was to enhance MFC performance by using low cost and catalyst (platinum)-free cathode materials. The results showed... Read More about Water formation at the cathode and sodium recovery using Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs).

Small-scale microbial fuel cells utilising uric salts (2014)
Journal Article

With exhausting fossil fuels and increasing greenhouse gas emissions, numerous attempts, to overcome future energy challenges, are being pursued. In this study, small-scale microbial fuel cells (MFCs, 0.7mL anodic chamber volume) were built to invest... Read More about Small-scale microbial fuel cells utilising uric salts.

Compliance control and human-Robot interaction: Part 1-survey (2014)
Journal Article

© 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.

Compliance control and human-robot interaction: Part II-experimental examples (2014)
Journal Article

© 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.

Waste to real energy: The first MFC powered mobile phone (2013)
Journal Article

This communication reports for the first time the charging of a commercially available mobile phone, using Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) fed with real neat urine. The membrane-less MFCs were made out of ceramic material and employed plain carbon based... Read More about Waste to real energy: The first MFC powered mobile phone.

Towards a Platform-Independent Cooperative Human Robot Interaction System: III. An Architecture for Learning and Executing Actions and Shared Plans (2012)
Journal Article

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.

Lump localisation through a deformation-based tactile feedback system using a biologically inspired finger sensor (2012)
Journal Article

The ability to localise harder areas in soft tissues is often desired during robot-assisted surgical operations. A deformation-based tactile feedback system was tested for the detection of objects within soft tissues, after being chosen over common p... Read More about Lump localisation through a deformation-based tactile feedback system using a biologically inspired finger sensor.

Underactuated fingers controlled by robust and adaptive trajectory following methods (2012)
Journal Article

Choosing an appropriate control scheme to alleviate nonlinearities and uncertainties is not a trivial task, especially when models are not easily available and practical evaluation provides the only means for actual performance assessment. Various fa... Read More about Underactuated fingers controlled by robust and adaptive trajectory following methods.

Urine utilisation by microbial fuel cells; Energy fuel for the future (2012)
Journal Article

This communication reports for the first time the direct utilisation of urine in MFCs for the production of electricity. Different conversion efficiencies were recorded, depending on the amount treated. Elements such as N, P, K can be locked into new... Read More about Urine utilisation by microbial fuel cells; Energy fuel for the future.

Towards an intelligent distributed conveyor (2012)
Journal Article

Manipulation, orientation and handling of components, subparts and finished products is an essential element of any industrial process, which attracts substantial portion of resources and infrastructure. A classic manipulation, e.g. robot arms, is no... Read More about Towards an intelligent distributed conveyor.

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.

Improved single- and multi-contact life-time testing of dental restorative materials using key characteristics of the human masticatory system and a force/position-controlled robotic dental wear simulator (2012)
Journal Article

This paper presents a new in vitro wear simulator based on spatial parallel kinematics and a biologically inspired implicit force/position hybrid controller to replicate chewing movements and dental wear formations on dental components, such as crown... Read More about Improved single- and multi-contact life-time testing of dental restorative materials using key characteristics of the human masticatory system and a force/position-controlled robotic dental wear simulator.

Power for robotic artificial muscles (2011)
Journal Article

Artificial muscles based on the dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) are an attractive technology for autonomous robotic systems. We are currently exploring their use on EcoBot (Ecological roBot), an autonomous robot being developed by Bristol Robotic... Read More about Power for robotic artificial muscles.

Safe adaptive compliance control of a humanoid robotic arm with anti-windup compensation and posture control (2010)
Journal Article

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.

Improved energy output levels from small-scale Microbial Fuel Cells (2010)
Journal Article

This study reports on the findings from the investigation into small-scale (6.25mL) MFCs, connected together as a network of multiple units. The MFCs contained unmodified (no catalyst) carbon fibre electrodes and for initial and later experiments, a... Read More about Improved energy output levels from small-scale Microbial Fuel Cells.

High survivability of a large colony through a small-world relationship (2009)
Journal Article

In this article, energy trophallaxis, i.e., distributed autonomous energy management methodology inspired by social insects and bat behavior, and its advantages, are shown by a series of computer simulations to address the survivability of organized... Read More about High survivability of a large colony through a small-world relationship.

Cerebellar-inspired adaptive control of a robot eye actuated by pneumatic artificial Muscles (2009)
Journal Article

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.

Facial behaviour mapping-From video footage to a robot head (2008)
Journal Article

As autonomous robotic systems advance, they will be required and designed for interaction with humans in order to exchange information, which is essential for fulfilling their tasks. It is well established that human-machine interactions are more bel... Read More about Facial behaviour mapping-From video footage to a robot head.

Biological computing using perfusion anodophile biofilm electrodes (PABE) (2008)
Journal Article

This paper presents a theoretical approach to biological computing, using biofilm electrodes by illustrating a simplified Pavlovian learning model. The theory behind this approach was based on empirical data produced from a prototype version of these... Read More about Biological computing using perfusion anodophile biofilm electrodes (PABE).

Microbial fuel cells based on carbon veil electrodes: Stack configuration and scalability (2008)
Journal Article

The aim of this study was to compare the performance of three different sizes of microbial fuel cell (MFC) when operated under continuous flow conditions using acetate as the fuel substrate and show how small-scale multiple units may be best configur... Read More about Microbial fuel cells based on carbon veil electrodes: Stack configuration and scalability.

An adaptive gaze stabilization controller inspired by the vestibulo-ocular reflex (2008)
Journal Article

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.

Implementing spiking neural networks for real-time signal-processing and control applications: A model-validated FPGA approach (2007)
Journal Article

In this paper, we present two versions of a hardware processing architecture for modeling large networks of leaky-integrate-and-fire (LIF) neurons; the second version provides performance enhancing features relative to the first. Both versions of the... Read More about Implementing spiking neural networks for real-time signal-processing and control applications: A model-validated FPGA approach.

Whiskerbot: A robotic active touch system modeled on the rat whisker sensory system (2007)
Journal Article

The Whiskerbot project is a collaborative project between robotics engineers, computational neuroscientists and ethologists, aiming to build a biologically inspired robotic implementation of the rodent whisker sensory system. The morphology and mech... Read More about Whiskerbot: A robotic active touch system modeled on the rat whisker sensory system.

Energetically autonomous robots: Food for thought (2006)
Journal Article

This paper reports on the robot EcoBot-II, which is designed to power itself solely by converting unrefined insect biomass into useful energy using on-board microbial fuel cells with oxygen cathodes. In bench experiments different 'fuels' (sugar, fru... Read More about Energetically autonomous robots: Food for thought.

Hierarchical fuzzy rule based systems using an information theoretic approach (2006)
Journal Article

This paper proposes a novel anytime algorithm for the construction of a Hierarchical Fuzzy Rule Based System using an information theoretic approach to specialise rules that do not effectively model the decision space. The amount of uncertainty toler... Read More about Hierarchical fuzzy rule based systems using an information theoretic approach.

EcoBot-II: An artificial agent with a natural metabolism (2005)
Journal Article

In this paper we report the development of the robot EcoBot-II, which exhibits a primitive form of artificial symbiosis. Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) were used as the onboard energy supply, which consisted of bacterial cultures from sewage sludge and... Read More about EcoBot-II: An artificial agent with a natural metabolism.

Empirically inspired simulated electro-mechanical model of the rat mystacial follicle-sinus complex (2004)
Journal Article

In whiskered animals, activity is evoked in the primary sensory afferent cells (trigeminal nerve) by mechanical stimulation of the whiskers. In some cell populations this activity is correlated well with continuous stimulus parameters such as whisker... Read More about Empirically inspired simulated electro-mechanical model of the rat mystacial follicle-sinus complex.

Algorithms for building annular structures with minimalist robots inspired by brood sorting in ant colonies (2004)
Journal Article

This study shows that a task as complicated as multi-object 'ant-like annular sorting' can be accomplished with 'minimalist' solutions employing simple mechanisms and minimal hardware. It provides an alternative to 'patch sorting' for multi-object so... Read More about Algorithms for building annular structures with minimalist robots inspired by brood sorting in ant colonies.

Experimental implementation of mobile robot taxis with onboard Belousov-Zhabotinsky chemical medium (2004)
Journal Article

We discuss the first-ever experimental realization of the onboard excitable chemical controller for stimulus-guided navigation of mobile robots. We demonstrate that the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction in the form of an onboard thin layer chemical... Read More about Experimental implementation of mobile robot taxis with onboard Belousov-Zhabotinsky chemical medium.

Experimental reaction-diffusion chemical processors for robot path planning (2003)
Journal Article

In this paper we discuss the experimental implementation of a chemical reaction-diffusion processor for robot motion planning in terms of finding the shortest collision-free path for a robot moving in an arena with obstacles. These reaction-diffusion... Read More about Experimental reaction-diffusion chemical processors for robot path planning.

ZCS and TCS learning classifier system controllers on real robots (2002)
Journal Article

To date there has only been one implementation of Holland's Learning Classifier System (LCS) on real robots. In this paper the use of Wilson's ZCS system is described for an obstacle avoidance task. Although the task is simple it does present some ad... Read More about ZCS and TCS learning classifier system controllers on real robots.