BRL News

PhD Opportunity with Centre for Machine Vision in collaboration with Zenotech

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 11:10:46 GMT

There's an opportunity to apply for a funded full-time PhD in the Centre for Machine Vision (CMV), School of Engineering, UWE Bristol. This studentship, titled "Three-dimensional object detection and segmentation in point clouds in the context of aerospace CFD meshing" will be jointly funded by UWE Bristol and Zenotech Ltd.

The CMV is located within the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), a joint venture between UWE Bristol and University of Bristol. The CMV specialises in real-world applications of computer vision and machine learning for the realisation of working prototypes and demonstrators, with a strong emphasis on 3D imaging and analysis, data capture, and modelling. This studentship will also receive support from the world-leading aerodynamic and software development teams at Zenotech, such as relevant datasets for project case study, and general domain expertise in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) meshing.

This study will investigate feature-based registration of point clouds and deep-learning-based 3D object detection in point clouds, in order to automatically select and tune mesh criteria for every type of aerodynamic device together with local contexts of an aircraft’s geometry.

To apply please click here.

When prompted, use the reference n umber 2223-APR-CATE11.

For more information about this opportunity please head over here.

For an informal discussion about the studentship, please email Dr Wenhao Zhang at wenhao.zhang@uwe.ac.uk.

The expected start date of this studentship is 01 April 2023.

The closing date for applications is 06 December 2022.

UK-RAS Network Robot Talk Podcast with Mickey Li

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 10:04:00 GMT

Tune in to episode 23 of Robot Talk featuring our BRL colleague and FARSCOPE PhD candidate Mickey Li

Mickey Li is a Robotics and Autonomous systems PhD researcher at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory and the University of Bristol. His research focuses on optimal multi-UAV path planning for building inspection, in particular how guarantees can be provided despite vehicle failures. Most recently he has been developing a portable development and deployment infrastructure for multi-UAV experimentation for the BRL Flight Arena inspired by advances in cloud computing.

You can listen to the podcast using the player below. Alternatively, you can head over to UK-RAS Network website here.

PHD Opportunity: Centre For Machine Vision seeking a suitable PhD candidate for a newly funded project

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 09:38:54 GMT

Centre For Machine Vision at Bristol Robotics Laboratory has been successful in securing funding from SWBio for a new PhD position for a project titled “Vision‐based artificial intelligence and social network analysis for early prediction of disease from cattle behaviours and interactions”.

PhD studentship: “Vision‐based artificial intelligence and social network analysis for early prediction of disease from cattle behaviours and interactions”

This fully funded PhD studentship will aim to develop vision‐based artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to understand changes in social dynamics associated with early and chronic subclinical disease in cows. The project builds on work which used AI to individually identify and track Holstein‐Friesian cows using facial recognition. The work will combine and extend our AI methods and the underlying behavioural science to develop a system that identifies and tracks the movements of individuals, and then detects and classifies social interactions.

The studentship would suit either a computational student interested in social networks and behaviour, or someone with biosciences expertise who wishes to build up artificial intelligence skills.

The student will be based 50%/50% at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the University of the West of England with Dr Mark Hansen and Professor Melvyn Smith, and Bristol Veterinary School at the University of Bristol, with data scientist Professor Andrew Dowsey, animal biometrics experts Dr Laszlo Talas and Dr John Fennell, and behavioural scientists Dr Suzanne Held and Prof Mike Mendl.

This project in collaboration with the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England (UWE) is subject to a joint degree award from these two institutions.

Applications should be made through the University of Bristol - please head over to https://www.swbio.ac.uk/programme/how-to-apply/ and select University of Bristol for more information on how to apply.

Alternatively, you can head over directly to Start your application | Study at Bristol | University of Bristol and search for "South West Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership (PhD)" to find the vacancy.

Please note that the deadline for applications is Midnight, Monday 5 December 2022 for a September 2023 start.

Socially intelligent robot helps autistic Somerset pupils

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 10:57:26 GMT

A robot has been helping autistic pupils with regulating their emotions in a three-week long research project.

Pepper the robot based at The Mendip School in Somerset has been taking part in social activities designed to help autistic pupils with their wellbeing.

Children at the school have been able to approach the robot for help in the three-week project.

The Mendip School said autistic pupils have now found a new "confidence" to socially interact with others.

The Bristol Robotics lab based at the University of the West of England helped to develop the technology using pupils and teachers input to decide how it would best support students in need.

Mendip School's assistant headteacher, Iian Conley, said: ''Since Pepper arrived at the school there has been a lot of dancing and the children have also really enjoyed the robot's jokes.

"Children who wouldn't normally socially interact with others are now choosing to interact with their peers.

"It's great to see students willing to communicate with the robot where they might struggle with adults and children, and to see them opening up their friendship groups.''

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) - its medical name - is the name for a range of conditions which affect how a person communicates and interacts with the world around them, as well as their interests and behaviour.

It is estimated that about one in every 100 people in the UK is autistic.

Read the full article here

An approach to achieve compliant robotic manipulation inspired by human adaptive control strategies

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 14:45:27 GMT

Over the past few decades, roboticists have created increasingly advanced and sophisticated robotics systems. While some of these systems are highly efficient and achieved remarkable results, they still perform far poorly than humans on several tasks, including those that involve grasping and manipulating objects.

Researchers from Guangdong University of Technology, Politecnico di Milano, University of Sussex and Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) at University of the West of England have recently developed a model that could help to improve robot manipulation. This model, presented in a paper published in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, draws inspiration from how humans adapt their manipulation strategies based on the task they are trying to complete.

"Humans have the remarkable ability to deal with physical contact and complete dynamic tasks, such as curving, cutting and assembly, optimally and compliantly," Professor Chenguang Yang, the corresponding author for the paper working at BRL, told TechXplore. "Although these tasks are easy for humans, they are quite challenging for robots to perform, even advanced ones."

According to Professor Yang and his colleagues, one of the reasons that many robots struggle with manipulation tasks is that they lack an innate human skill called adaptable compliance. This skill allows humans to adapt their movements and manipulation strategies according to the interactive force with the object they are trying to manipulate.

Read the full article here

Bristol Robotics Laboratory hosts virtual conference to showcase cutting-edge research

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 14:48:13 GMT

The conference brings together leading robotics researchers and business leaders to explore the benefits of robotics, smart automation, AI and machine-learning.

Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) will host a virtual conference on Wednesday 30 June, showcasing cutting-edge research and opportunities for organisations to engage with the UK’s largest robotics research laboratory.

The conference brings together leading robotics researchers and business leaders to explore how robotics, smart automation, AI and machine learning can benefit organisations, from start-ups to large corporations.

BRL will be presenting over 50 talks, a series of which will take place live from within the laboratory, on topics ranging from smart automation, assistive robotics and human-robot interaction to unmanned aerial vehicles.

There will also be live demonstrations, industrial case studies and opportunities to discover current research from the community of PhD students.

Read the full article here

Pepper the robot helps autistic pupils make human friends

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:50:15 GMT

Why did the robot cross the road? To tell jokes and lead dances in the corridors of a special needs school.

Pepper, a socially intelligent robot, has spent the past three weeks helping pupils at the Mendip School in Somerset, in a first project of its kind to embed a humanoid robot in a school. Programmed at the University of the West of England’s (UWE) Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Pepper can take part in social and physical activities with children, such as storytelling, dancing, and using relaxation techniques such as t’ai chi and cuddles to help autistic pupils manage their wellbeing.

“One of the great things we’ve seen already is children gathering in groups to engage with Pepper,” Iian Conley, an assistant head teacher, said.

Read the full article here

Robot stomachs: powering machines with garbage and pee

Fri, 14 May 2021 08:49:05 GMT

The Seinfeld idiom, “worlds are colliding,” is probably the best description of work in the age of Corona. Pre-pandemic, it was easy to departmentalize one’s professional life from one’s home existence. Clearly, my dishpan hands have hindered my writing schedule. Thank goodness for the robots in my life, scrubbing and vacuuming my floors; if only they could power themselves with the crumbs they suck up.

The World Bank estimates that 3.5 million tons of solid waste is produced by humans everyday, with America accounting for more than 250 million tons a year or over 4 pounds of trash per citizen. This figure does not include the 34 billion gallons of human organic materials that is processed in water treatment centers across the country each year. To the fictional Dr. Emmett Brown, this garbage is akin to “black gold” – ecologically powering cities, cars, and machines. In reality, the movie, “Back to The Future II” was inspired by the biomass gasification movement of 20th century in powering cars with wood during World War II when petroleum was scarce. The technology has advanced so much that a few years ago the GENeco water treatment plant in the United Kingdom built a biomethane gas bus that relied solely on sewage. In reflecting on the importance of the technology, Collin Field of Bath Bus Company declared, “We will never, ever, ever, while we are on this planet, run out of human waste.”

Less than twenty miles away from the GENco plant, Professor Loannis Leropoulos of the University of Bristol’s Robotics Laboratory is working on the next generation of bio-engineered fuel cells. Last week, Dr. Leropoulos demonstrated his revolutionary Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) for me. As witnessed, he is not just inspired by nature, but harnessing its beauty to power the next generation of robots. The MFCs mimic an animal’s stomach with microbes breaking down food to create adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

The Bristol lab began building MFCs to power its suite of EcoBots. “I started this journey about twenty years ago with the main purpose of building sustainable autonomous robots for remote area access,” reflects Leropoulos. He was inspired by Dr. Stuart Wilkinson’s Gastrobot in the early 2000s that first promoted the idea of “an intelligent machine that digests real food for energy.” At the time the media hyped Wilkinson’s invention as a flesh-eating robot, when in reality it digested sugar cubes, turning the carbohydrates into electrical energy. Unfortunately, the Gastrobot’s clumsy oversized form factor suffered from long charging times with an 18-hour “carbo-loading” process for every 15 minutes of power....

Read the full entry here

Evolving, self-replicating robots are here — but don’t worry about an uprising

Sat, 17 Apr 2021 08:35:14 GMT

“We are trying to, if you like, invent a completely new way of designing robots that doesn’t require humans to actually do the designing,” said Alan Winfield. “We’re developing the machine or robot equivalent of artificial selection in the way that farmers have been doing for not just centuries, but for millennia … What we’re interested in is breeding robots. I mean that literally.”

Winfield, who has been working with software and robotic systems since the early 1980s, is a professor of Cognitive Robotics in the Bristol Robotics Lab at the University of the West of England (UWE). He’s also one of the brains behind the Autonomous Robot Evolution (ARE) project, a multiyear effort carried out by UWE, the University of York, Edinburgh Napier University, and University of Amsterdam. It will, its creators hope, change the way that robots are designed and built. And it’s all thanks to borrowing a page from evolutionary biology.

Welcome to the EvoSphere

Mimicking evolutionary processes through software is a concept that has been explored at least as far back as the 1940s, the same decade in which ENIAC, a 32-ton colossus that was the world’s first programmable, general-purpose electronic digital computer, was fired up for the first time. In the latter years of that decade, the mathematician John von Neumann suggested that an artificial machine might be built that was able to self-replicate — meaning that it would create copies of itself, which could then create more copies.

Von Neumann’s concept, which predated artificial intelligence by more than half a decade, was revolutionary. It sparked interest in the field that has come to be known as Artificial Life, or ALife, a combination of computer science and biochemistry that attempts to simulate natural life and evolution through the use of computer simulations....

Read the full entry here

Documenatry: The Secret Science of Sewage

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 11:07:59 GMT

A new two part TV documentary, "The Secret Life of Sewage" featuring the Bristol BioEnergy Centre, airs on BBC Two tonight, 18th March.

Dr George McGavin and Dr Zoe Laughlin set up base camp at one of the UK’s biggest Sewage Works to investigate the revolutionary science finding vital renewable resources and undiscovered life in human waste.

Teaming up with world class scientists, they search for biological entities in sewage with potentially lifesaving medical properties, find out how pee can generate electricity, gas from poo can fuel a car and how nutrients in waste can help solve the soil crisis. They follow each stage of the sewage treatment process, revealing what the stuff we flush can tell us about how we live today, and the mindboggling biotechnology being harnessed to clean it, making the wastewater safe enough to return to the environment.

Read the full entry here

BRL Research: Bristol BioEnergy Centre

Robot tours and virtual reality: the new ways artists are connecting with audiences

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 09:45:37 GMT

Art has helped so many of us through a turbulent year – but for the creators themselves, it’s been a time of restrictions. We look at innovative ways they’ve adopted to stay afloat.

The Hastings Contemporary gallery opened nine years ago as a home for British contemporary art, but now the doors are closed. The exhibitions are still up, but the galleries are silent and still. One member of staff may occasionally be walking around the black-tiled building that looks out on to The Stade, a shingle beach on the Channel. But there’s something else moving through the space and focusing on the artwork. It’s a telepresence robot. Visitors can’t currently come to the gallery – so the gallery is taking the art to the visitors.

“When you have to close your doors to the public, that’s a disaster,” says Liz Gilmore, the gallery’s director. “Our audiences and the art are the heartbeat of everything [we do].”

Developed by US startup Double Robotics and loaned to the gallery by the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, the robot has sensors in its base and can be controlled via a phone or a laptop – allowing a gallery employee, sitting at home behind a screen, to guide a group, also at home behind individual screens, around the exhibition space. Since April 2020, Gilmore says, they have given hundreds of the half-hour tours.

It’s one of the many innovative ways of dealing with the drastic changes brought about by the pandemic. The cultural sector has been one of the hardest hit by Covid-19: the arts and entertainment industry saw a 44.5% reduction in GDP in the second quarter of 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics. Institutions of all sizes have suffered, as have individual arts workers, many of whom have been made redundant, lost funding or seen freelance income dry up.....

Read the full entry here

BRL Research: Assistive Robotics

Congratulations, Ben Warmington! TakeAim Runner-Up 2020

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 14:21:44 GMT

We are delighted to announce that BRL based PhD student, Ben Warmington, is a runner-up at the national Smith Institute’s annual TakeAIM competition.

The TakeAIM competition is an opportunity for university students to showcase their work on the industrial stage. TakeAIM’s goal is to highlight the crucial role mathematics plays in solving real-world problems while rewarding the academic exploration of future innovators who undertake pioneering research.

Ben, a University of Bristol PhD student, wrote about a piece of research he is directly involved in carrying out, identifying opportunities that may be realised by its application and possible future benefits in both economic and social terms. The entry, " Taking inspiration from nature's smallest machines to inspire better robotics ", focussed on his work attempting to model and subsequently leverage the inherent adaptive and organisational qualities of molecular motors to produce simpler and smarter actuators.

Extract:

How do animals perform such a variety of complicated motions so well, when our robots are so inflexible? If you asked most people this they may say it's something to do with the brain, and this is certainly part of the answer, but brainless organisms can achieve similar movements! Indeed, even our brain isn’t powerful enough to control every process happening within us – a vast amount of simple control must be passed off to tiny ‘molecular motors’, the basis for all our movement.

There are hundreds of thousands of independent molecular motor units in a single muscle cell! Like rowers in a boat they work together to allow us to move and adapt, making decisions with little to no input from the brain....

Read the full entry here

International Women's Day: 87 most influential women in Bristol

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 10:18:22 GMT

Bristol is home to many influential and powerful women.

That is why BristolLive wanted to celebrate International Women's Day by recognising some of the women who have contributed to life in the city in the past 12 months....

Praminda Caleb-Solly

Praminda is a professor of assistive robotics and intelligent health technologies at the Bristol Robotics Lab in UWE Bristol.

With over 18 years of teaching and research experience, Praminda’s work focuses on how robotics technology can support and improve people’s health and wellbeing.

Since last year she has been working with North Bristol NHS Trust and colleagues from Bristol Robotics Laboratory to understand how best to introduce socially and physical assistive robots at Southmead hospital and evaluate how they could improve patient care.

Read the full article including all 87 profiles here

Ministers must invest beyond London, Oxford and Cambridge for real innovation

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 15:51:06 GMT

Excessive concentration is rarely a good thing. In markets, it leads to monopoly, higher prices and lower quality. In society, it leads to homogeneity. And in a national economy, it creates imbalances which can ultimately hinder growth and fairness. And yet excessive concentration is exactly what is happening as a result of the way we fund research and development.

New research from the think tank Onward published today shows that nearly three out of every four research-intensive jobs created in the last decade were based in the areas across London, Oxford and Cambridge, despite their making up only a fifth of the total population.

It’s a problem that has hounded successive governments. Under Labour, AstraZeneca announced the closure of its research site in Leicestershire. Less than three years later their footprint was consolidated further from Cheshire to Cambridge.

For the government’s levelling up agenda to succeed, it’s going to be crucial to close the innovation gap — the pressing challenge for ministers will be how to make that happen. The government has already committed to spending 2.4 per cent of GDP on research and development by 2027, a welcome increase. According to the Campaign for Science and Engineering, that pledge will be worth an additional £9 billion a year. Onward’s research recommends, amongst other things, dedicating that uplift in the budget to the rest of the country, outside Oxford, Cambridge and London. The government’s own evidence has said productivity would be up to 4 per cent higher by 2027 as a result. Local economies will grow further and world-leading research will be produced faster.

This isn’t about defunding the Golden Triangle. Much of the work that places the UK at the global forefront for innovation and advances is undertaken by scientists and researchers there, the clearest example being the discovery of a successful coronavirus vaccine in Oxford. As clusters of world-class research capabilities, they will continue to receive funding from government, partners and industry collaborations because the ecosystems there are already established and mature. Onward’s recommendations are about harnessing the talents of people in places like Bristol, Sheffield, and Newcastle to power the recovery too. Whether in Bristol’s Robotics Laboratory or Newcastle’s Centre for Life — both cities with globally competitive expertise — there is untapped potential to grow further with greater support and investment......

BRL News

PhD Opportunity with Centre for Machine Vision in collaboration with Zenotech

UK-RAS Network Robot Talk Podcast with Mickey Li

Tune in to episode 23 of Robot Talk featuring our BRL colleague and FARSCOPE PhD candidate Mickey Li

PHD Opportunity: Centre For Machine Vision seeking a suitable PhD candidate for a newly funded project

Centre For Machine Vision at Bristol Robotics Laboratory has been successful in securing funding from SWBio for a new PhD position for a project titled “Vision‐based artificial intelligence and social network analysis for early prediction of disease from cattle behaviours and interactions”.

Socially intelligent robot helps autistic Somerset pupils

An approach to achieve compliant robotic manipulation inspired by human adaptive control strategies

Bristol Robotics Laboratory hosts virtual conference to showcase cutting-edge research

Pepper the robot helps autistic pupils make human friends

Robot stomachs: powering machines with garbage and pee

Evolving, self-replicating robots are here — but don’t worry about an uprising

Welcome to the EvoSphere

Documenatry: The Secret Science of Sewage

Robot tours and virtual reality: the new ways artists are connecting with audiences

Congratulations, Ben Warmington! TakeAim Runner-Up 2020

International Women's Day: 87 most influential women in Bristol

Ministers must invest beyond London, Oxford and Cambridge for real innovation

Bristol entrepreneurs getting younger with 4 in 10 start-ups formed by under-30s last year

Credit card-sized pump could enable ‘power clothing’ to help patients with mobility

The 'living bricks' that generate energy and tell you if they are happy

Credit card-sized soft pumps power wearable artificial muscles

Autonomous buses to become ‘fully operational” later in 2021

Dancin' Oxford is back with virtual dance festival

Living bricks can generate energy in the home

A robotic dog that can learn points to the future

CMV receive funding to create augmented reality picking aid for farm workers

Robotics lab helps provide access to art for disabled people in self-isolation

Multidisciplinary Bristol team receives £3m to investigate trustworthiness of future robots

UWE Research into the impact of driverless vehicles – Capri Project

Research from UWE Bristol featured in new Netflix Docuseries

Open Bionics Founders Awarded MBEs

The Co-founders of Bristol-based Open Bionics, Joel Gibbard and Samantha Payne, have each been awarded an MBE for their work democratising bionic technology for amputees all around the world.

Socially intelligent robot to be introduced to special needs school in innovative study

Researchers from UWE Bristol are investigating how socially intelligent robots can be used in schools to support young autistic people.

emPOWER project aims for artificial muscles

Artificial muscles to replace or work alongside our own muscles are being developed by emPOWER, a project aiming to extend life by restoring natural body function.

New project to explore how robotic muscles could turn back the body clock

New project to explore how robotic muscles could turn back the body clock

A checklist for safe robot swarms

A Checklist for Safe Robot Swarms

As robot swarms move from the laboratory to real-world applications, a routine checklist of questions could help ensure their safe operation.

Homelync joins forces with Aico to expand market-leading social landlord Internet of Things platform

Homelync’s acquisition by Aico represents a significant milestone for social landlords looking to procure connected solutions.

Robot gives virtual tours of UK art exhibitions

The robot provides close up experiences of the gallery's artwork, including Quentin Blake's "The Taxi Driver" piece

Technicians begin manufacture of visors for NHS staff

UWE supports third of Silicon Gorge Finalists

You Can’t Visit the Museum. But Your Robot Can

With arts institutions closed around the world, Hastings Contemporary museum in England is offering virtual tours using a telepresence robot.

Symptom-trackers and doctor dorms: how universities are fighting Covid-19

Partnership will explore use of robots to improve patient care at Southmead Hospital

How Bristol drones could help save our most endangered species

Driverless, autonomous transport pods begin UK public trials

New roadmap to put Scotland ‘at the forefront’ of driverless car technology

Secrets of Skin: Sensing

Why Londoners are ditching the capital to buy in Bristol

World’s first robotic personal trainer guides gym goers through exercise programme

Robot personal trainer could be your new gym coach

Scientists develop robot personal trainer to coach at gym

Robotics for All

Soft skin-like robots you can put in your pocket

Driverless buses to carry 10,000 people a week into Edinburgh

Key Stakeholders : Hazardous Environment Waste Handling Robots Market Research Report, Growth Trends And Competitive Analysis 2019

Pepper the robot steals the show at NASHiCS conference

AI technology to aid farmers in screening pigs’ emotions

SciRocChallenge tests robots in a realistic smart shopping environment

Academics play role in public trial of driverless pods at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Robot End-Effector Market to Reach US$ 6.5 Bn by 2025

Hazardous Environment Waste Handling Robots Market Benefits, Forthcoming Developments....

Why Bristol is leading the UK’s robotics revolution

Artificial evolution teaches robots to swarm in the wild

UK researchers have embedded swarm robots with processing power that enables in situ artificial evolution and independent learning.

Pigs' emotions could be read by new farming technology

As happy as a pig in mud or feeling sow-er? New technology could read animals’ emotions

A team of scientists are using AI to monitor the feelings of the mammals, starting with the most intelligent of them all: the pig.

Life-like robots that can make decisions...

Life-like robots that can make decisions, adapt to their environment and learn are one step closer to becoming reality

5 materials to evaluate for designing, building robust robots

Arla UK 360 farmers to trial new 3D imagery systems with automated intelligence