Tod Burton

Deputy Dean; Department:Faculty of Environment and Technology

UWE Bristol

Prof. Ian Nabney

Head of School

School of Computer Science, Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Engineering Maths

University of Bristol

Prof. Arthur Richards

Co-Director, BRL

Professor of Robotics and Control,

University of Bristol

Prof. Manuel Giuliani

Co-Director, BRL

Professor in Embedded Cognitive AI for Robotics 

UWE Bristol

Manuel Giuliani

Three case studies on collaborations in autonomous systems: the T-B PHASE Prosperity Partnership on “Hybrid Autonomous Systems” with Thales, swarming drone networks with Toshiba, and structural inspections using drones at the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Prof. Arthur Richards

Co-Director, BRL

Professor of Robotics and Control,

University of Bristol

Artificial Evolution allows for robots to be designed not by people but automatically by an algorithm. 

At BRL, we are leading the development of the Robot Fabricator (RoboFab) which takes this one step further by using 3D printing and advanced robotics to automate the construction of physical copies of the resulting designs, allowing them to be built without human intervention and bringing artificial evolution from the simulator into the real world. 

Matt Hale

Research Associate - Autonomous Robot Evolution

UWE Bristol

New technologies, and the artefacts created using them, tend to have unintended consequences.  Robotics and AI are technologies with great disruptive power.  

How can we get the good stuff, and avoid the bad?

Dr. Matt Studley

Wallscourt Associate Professor in Technology Ethics

UWE Bristol

This talk provides an overview of the MSc Robotics programme and includes four short talks from current students. 

The MSc in Robotics will provide you with the ability to understand, design and implement modern robotic systems. 

Our programme is jointly awarded and jointly delivered by the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England and  draws on the combined expertise, facilities and resources of the two universities.

Dr Paul O'Dowd 

MSc Programme Director

University of Bristol

Prof. Chenguang (Charlie) Yang 

MSc Programme Director

UWE Bristol

Dr Hemma Philamore 

MSc Programme Co-Director

University of Bristol

MSc Students:

• Vijay Chandiramani ld19487@bristol.ac.uk

• Oqua Ika Oqua es20801@bristol.ac.uk

• Sanghyeop Lee sanghyeop.obito.2020@bristol.ac.uk

• Emanuel Nunez Sardinha (Student) Emanuel2.Nunezsardinha@live.uwe.ac.uk

What are the opportunities for SMEs to benefit from the fourth industrial revolution? Automation is no longer the preserve of the large organisation.

Mark Corderoy

Manager, BRL Hardware Incubator

UWE Bristol

Introducing robots with their own microbiome, capable of utilising organic matter as their energy source and operating autonomously in remote environments. 

The same MFC tech has been used for wastewater treatment, sanitation and biosensing; this presentation will focus on the tech development over ~20 years. 

Prof. Ioannis Ieropoulos

Professor of Bioenergy and Self-Sustainable Systems and Director of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre

UWE Bristol

SciRoc is an EU-H2020 funded project to demonstrate the state of the art in European Robotics through benchmarked competitions in the heart of Smart Cities (Milton Keynes, 2019 and Bologna, 2021).  

Our intention is to sustain this beyond the project’s end to help citizens ask, ‘What sort of future do we want’?

Dr. Matt Studley

Wallscourt Associate Professor in Technology Ethics

UWE Bristol

Paul Harper, FARSCOPE CDT Manager, provides an overview of FARSCOPE's industrial activities, outlining the benefits to both our Robotics PhD students and industry partners. New partners are welcomed! 

Paul Harper

Manager, FARSCOPE

University of Bristol

Robot accidents are inevitable. In this talk I will outline a draft framework for social robot accident investigation; a framework that proposes both the technology and processes that would allow social robot accidents to be investigated and lessons learned. 

I will position accident investigation within the practice of responsible robotics and argue that social robotics without accident investigation would be no less irresponsible than aviation without air accident investigation.

Prof. Alan Winfield

Professor of Robot Ethics

UWE Bristol

Soft robotics is a recently emerged field of robotics that has grown substantially in the last years. It extends the conventional robot design approach by using a wider range of new, often soft, materials including silicon, smart materials, polymers, hydrogels, and many others. 

The result is a highly interdisciplinary approach to robotic design with a substantial potential to provide novel robotic solutions for a wide range of industrial applications.

Prof. Helmut Hauser

Senior Lecturer, Department of Engineering Mathematics

University of Bristol

This talk will introduce our advance in the field of robot skill learning and human-robot shared control, and will also introduce our research on the topics of human-robot collaboration and skill generalization.

Prof. Chenguang (Charlie) Yang

Professor of Robotics

UWE Bristol

Reserach: Robot Teleoperation

Mid-air haptics creates “virtual touch,” allowing people to feel tactile sensations in the air. One method to produce mid-air haptics is by using ultrasonic arrays, which focus acoustic radiation pressure in space, deflecting the skin to induce tactile sensation. 

This talk discusses work related to developing an autonomous method for sensing mid-air haptics with a biomimetic tactile fingertip, to be used as an investigative tool for improving the performance of haptic displays.

Noor Alakhawand

‎PhD Student

FARSCOPE

This project looks at how we can increase a robots social awareness by breaking down what actually makes up an interaction, how these things are used together and how an understanding of such can be embedded into a robot. 

Nicola Webb

‎PhD Student

UWE Bristol

What if you could unbox a swarm of robots and immediately use them to power your organisation and transport needs? You could use them to organise the stock room of a small retail shop, or retrieve boxes in a pop-up distribution centre for school lunches, or a field warehouse.  

Our DOTS (Distributed Organisation and Transport Systems) don’t rely on maps or any complex infrastructure, making them versatile and adaptable. In this presentation we’ll tell you about our latest industrial robot swarm testbed and next steps towards integrating them with digital twins.

Associate Prof. Sabine Hauert

Associate Professor of Swarm Engineering University of Bristol

David Lennard

Head of Business and Operations

Bristol Robotics Laboratory

An overview & discussion of the Prometheus project. The Prometheus project aims to build a borehole deployed aerial robot that autonomously explores the underground voids, reducing the costs associated with the extensive drilling required to map complex spaces from the surface and minimising the need for manned entry.

Robert Clarke

Research Associate, Department of Aerospace Engineering

University of Bristol

Multi-robot systems are often assumed to be reliable and redundant by default - but this is not necessarily true. 

I present my work on how to maximise a probabilistic guarantee of the completion of a multi-drone building inspection mission in the face of failure-prone drones through generating overlapping robot path plans

Mickey Li

‎PhD Student

FARSCOPE

This research investigates the use of an active inference framework for controlling a tactile sensing system. This control mechanism operates by inferring future states of the world under different decision making policies, and then selecting actions that will result in reaching favourable end states. 

This talk presents an overview of the active inference framework as well as the results from an active localisation task, highlighting the behavioural trends demonstrated by the system.

Pernilla Craig

‎PhD Student

FARSCOPE

CMV Case Studies

More to follow.

Prof. Mel Smith

Professor of Machine Vision and Director of the Centre for Machine Vision (CMV)

UWE Bristol

Prof. Lyndon Smith

Professor in Computer Simulation and Machine Vision

UWE Bristol

Ensuring operational safety of a physically assistive robot represents a major barrier limiting commercial deployment. Also is vital to ensure that RAS technologies don’t compromise or undermine human values and ethics at the heart of care. 

This talk will provide a review of health and care regulations, as well as safety-related standards and care regulations which need to be considered in determining safe design and performance requirements for physically assistive robots

Prof. Praminda Caleb-Solly

Professor of Assistive Robotics and Intelligent Health Technologies 

UWE Bristol

I will be presenting my PhD research, where I investigated whether emotional deception and emotional attachment occurred during interactions between a social robot and older adults. I will explain these ethical concerns in more detail and present the user studies I conducted to determine whether emotional deception and emotional attachment occurred. 

Finally, I’ll discuss the findings and insights from this work and their implications for future work.

Dr. Anouk Van Maris

 Research Associate Responsible Robotics

UWE Bristol

I would like to improve the overall interaction quality in Human Robot Interaction by focusing on the two elements of the interaction that stick with a person, the beginning and the ending. As such I am building towards a system that can observe and recognize human body language and initiate and terminate interactions accordingly.

Luc Wijnen

‎PhD Student

FARSCOPE

Validation of planning domain models is a key challenge in Knowledge Engineering in Planning and Scheduling (KEPS). Among other tasks, this activity is concerned with validating the functional equivalence of planning domain models. This is the problem of formally confirming that two planning domain models can be used to solve the same set of problems.

This talk introduces the concept of functional equivalence betweenplanning domain models, and highlights some of its applications. 

Furthermore, it showcases the progress made to date of developing an automatic tool to validate the functional equivalence between planning domain models.

Anas Shrinah

‎PhD Student

UOB

Prof. Arthur Richards

Co-Director, BRL

Professor of Robotics and Control,

University of Bristol

Prof. Manuel Giuliani

Co-Director, BRL

Professor in Embedded Cognitive AI for Robotics 

UWE Bristol

Prof. Praminda Caleb-Solly

Professor of Assistive Robotics and Intelligent Health Technologies 

UWE Bristol

Associate Prof. Sabine Hauert

Associate Professor of Swarm Engineering 

University of Bristol

Mark Corderoy

Manager, BRL Hardware Incubator

UWE Bristol

Sammy Payne MBE

Chief Operating Officer

Open Bionics

Assoc. Prof. Farid Dailami

Associate Professor for Knowledge Exchange in Manufacturing  and RIFBristol Director

UWE Bristol

Arthur Keeling

Co-Founder

Indus Four

This talk describes progress in using a combination of technologies that will be needed for machines to reach human-like dexterity, including soft robotic hands, high-resolution tactile sensing and AI to link the sensing to control and planning.

Prof. Nathan Lepora

Professor of Robotics and AI

University of Bristol

Centre for Machine Vision

More to follow.

Prof. Mel Smith

Professor of Machine Vision and Director of the Centre for Machine Vision (CMV)

UWE Bristol

Prof. Lyndon Smith

Professor in Computer Simulation and Machine Vision

UWE Bristol

The UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Node in Functionality involves a team of social scientists, ethicists, computer scientists and engineers. We are exploring methods for designing autonomous systems with the ability to adapt how they function in response to changes in the world around them. This includes investigating issues related to trust, ethics and regulation and how to design systems with these in mind. 

We work with 13 project partners from a range of industries and welcome discussions on future collaborations.

Dr. Shane Windsor

Senior Lecturer in Aerodynamics/Aeroelasticity

University of Bristol

The B:Ionic glove is a sensory feedback device for upper limb prostheses that provides mechanotactile stimulation on the user’s arm relative to the pressure experienced at the fingertips of the prosthetic hand. 

This talk will go through the motivation behind this research, before going into detail of the different components that make up the device and how we characterised them, before finally showcasing the device as a whole with a proof-of-concept.

Melanie Simons

‎PhD Student

UOB

The aim of my PhD research is to utilise Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality (collectively known as XR) techniques and equipment to improve the effectiveness of robot teleoperation in remote, hazardous environments (e.g. nuclear decommissioning sites). 

Using a series of user studies, I aim to test the utility of different modes of control and feedback, using task performance (task speed, error rate), human factors (comfort, usability, sickness effects), and other quantitative and qualitative measures. 

Greg Baker

PhD Student

FARSCOPE

The Robotics Innovation Facility (RIFBristol) - BRL’s specialist industry facing unit - provides a range of research, training and consultancy services to organisations of any size, across multiple sectors. Its expertise spans industrial robotics, smart automation, mechanical and electronics engineering, mechatronics and simulation. 

This talk will provide an overview of RIFBristol’s remit and working methods, and will explore some of its past projects and successes stories, with an emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Assoc. Prof. Farid Dailami

Associate Professor for Knowledge Exchange in Manufacturing  and RIFBristol Director

UWE Bristol

Information to follow.

Prof. Kerstin Eder

Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Computer Science

University of Bristol

I would like to introduce the presented work of mine about dual arm robot cooperative teleoperation by using relative impedance, force estimation and bilateral position control to realize cooperative manipulations such as grasping and placing a ball. 

Then, I would like to present my recent research about human skill learning and generalization for dual arm robot manipulation that has been published as a journal paper. Lastly, I will discuss the connections of these two issues and how to realize human-like skill-based cooperative teleoperation. 

Dr. Zhenyu Lu

Robot Teleoperation

UWE Bristol

By adapting the TacTip tactile sensor for use as the foot of a walking robot, we enable high resolution sensing of the ground contacting a robot's foot. 

We demonstrate that a quadrupedal robot reliant solely on tactile feedback can successfully traverse challenging, unmapped terrains such as raised narrow paths. The developed hardware and online learning methods can be readily transferred to multiple platforms.

Lizzie Stone

‎PhD Student

FARSCOPE

In this presentation I discuss the development of a ground based mobile robot utilising a novel method of locomotion. Whegs, or ‘wheel-legs’ allow a robot to traverse rough terrain while retaining the benefits and simplicity of wheeled movement.

Dr Hemma Philamore 

MSc Programme Co-Director

University of Bristol

In this presentation I discuss the development of a ground based mobile robot utilising a novel method of locomotion. Whegs, or ‘wheel-legs’ allow a robot to traverse rough terrain while retaining the benefits and simplicity of wheeled movement.

Dominic Murphy

PhD Student

UWE Bristol

We set out to explore how new technologies like robots can improve the well-being of children at a Special Education Needs school in Somerset. For three weeks, Pepper the robot will live in the school, alongside the pupils and the teachers. 

We will present some initial findings, illustrations of key interactions, and what we have seen emerging from the study so far. Implications for future work in this field will also be presented.

Dr Severin Lemaignan

Associate Professor Social Robotics and AI 

UWE Bristol

Technology start-ups, particularly ones involving hardware, face unique challenges. The BRL has a successful track record supporting early-stage companies, helping them grow into thriving businesses.

Mark Corderoy

Manager, BRL Hardware Incubator

UWE Bristol

Case Studies:

Sam Onwugbeno

Altered Carbon

Arthur Keeling

Indus Ltd

How can robotic tele-operated systems become more accessible, by adopting designs inspired by the human hand? 

This talk will discuss work on hand exoskeletons and tactile sensing which promote user dexterity and more effective teleoperation in the medical domain but also, beyond, in areas that benefit from user-centred design such as areas where safety issues prevent use of autonomous robots, such as assistive technologies and nuclear industry.

Dr Antonia Tzemanaki

Lecturer in Robotics

University of Bristol

In our complex world, robots will need help from humans, but how can they get that assistance? This research explores how a robot’s emotional behaviour influences people’s willingness to help, and how ethically acceptable this is.

Joe Daly

‎PhD Student

FARSCOPE

Small fixed-wing UAVs offer attributes such as high range and endurance, but are challenging to operate in complex urban environments, due to their lack of manoeuvrability. 

In my research, supported by DSTL, I use reinforcement to generate flight controllers to perform agile manoeuvres in the real world. 

Liam Fletcher

‎PhD Student

FARSCOPE

In this talk we present the results of 4 years of industry needs-driven research in robot teleoperation for nuclear waste sort and segregation, mapping of nuclear facilities with mobile robots, and virtual reality interfaces for immersive and intuitive robot teleoperation.

Prof. Manuel Giuliani

Co-Director, BRL

Professor in Embedded Cognitive AI for Robotics 

UWE Bristol

The CMV has engaged in applications of computer vision for a range of industrial applications. 

This talk describes novel methods for some of those applications including the inspection of 3D tiles, aggregates and composite parts. A particular emphasis is given on latest DETI-funded research on using polarisation imaging technologies for the fine-scale metrology of carbon fibre composite components.

Dr, Gary Atkinson

Senior Lecturer

UWE Bristol

Information to follow  

Prof. Kerstin Eder 

Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Computer Science University of Bristol

Autonomous systems are being developed to operate in demanding environments, where they need to continuously familiarise themselves with new instances and learn new tasks, but how do we ensure these new instances or tasks are learnt correctly and do not negatively affect the existing system's performance? 

Autonomic computing provides a rigorous framework to allow the continuous learning process to be monitored and analysed to ensure the system learns new instances or tasks correctly and in a way that does not negatively affect existing desired behaviours of the system. 

In this presentation, I will introduce the approach we are taking to implement the autonomic computing framework for neural networks in autonomous systems, by using oracles to detect faults followed by retraining neural networks on only new data points without forgetting important information from previous training.

Abanoub Ghobrial

PhD Student

UoB

Prof. Arthur Richards

Co-Director, BRL

Professor of Robotics and Control,

University of Bristol

Prof. Manuel Giuliani

Co-Director, BRL

Professor in Embedded Cognitive AI for Robotics 

UWE Bristol