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Chris Melhuish, Project Co-ordinator
Professor Chris Melhuish is Director of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), and
holds Professorial Chairs at both the University of Bristol and the University of the West of
England, Bristol.
He has 17 years experience in designing and
constructing advanced robotic equipment. The last 10 years have been spent working specifically on
autonomous robot systems. He has worked on many aspects of collective minimalist techniques
including locomotion kinesis and taxis, secondary swarming, formation of 'work gangs', collective
behaviour transition and building using stigmergy. His research work has resulted in over 100
publications in international refereed journals and conferences. Chris has been asked to deliver
invited
talks at a number of academic, funding body and advanced industrial organisations, including
advanced topics workshops at Universities in the UK and across Europe. Seven awarded research
grants since 2001 totalled over £2M. He recently joined the ‘Robots for Personal Care’ project team,
a
combined BSI/ISO standardisation initiative with a safety agenda for human service robots of general
relevance to the project proposed here. His directorship of BRL brings a wealth of knowledge on all
aspects of advanced robot design, as well as a
strong design and manufacturing infrastructure, to the project overall. The BRL's particular area of
interest in relation to HRI is non-verbal communication and, particularly, how
humans can safely interact with robots, demonstrating object-focused behaviours through gesture and
touch. |
Tony Pipe, Lead for work on Safety for Interaction
Dr. Tony Pipe is Deputy Director of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, a Reader in Robotics &
Autonomous Systems at UWE and a visiting Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. He has 15
years experience of research in advanced robotics, machine learning and adaptive behaviour applied
to
intelligent & distributed control/monitoring systems, and in embedding complex algorithms (such as
biologically-plausible spiking neural networks) in re-programmable digital VLSI. He has worked
extensively on adaptive joint-controllers for multi-axis robot manipulators, where the focus has
been
on proving convergence during adaptation and stability of the overall system using Lyapunov theory,
and on efficient reaching strategies for redundant robot manipulators. His research work has
resulted
in over 80 publications in international refereed journals and conferences. Four awarded research
grants since 2004 come to a total of £1.7M. Tony also recently joined the BSI/ISO standardisation
initiative, ‘Robots for Personal Care’. |
Fiona Killard, Project Manager
Dr. Fiona C. Killard received her undergraduate degree in Analytical Science from Dublin City
University,
and went on to complete a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry in 2005 at the same university. She continued
her postdoctoral
studies in the area of Education and Outreach with particular focus on primary level science
education at the Biomedical
Diagnostics Institute in DCU. In July 2007 she was appointed as Research Manager at the Office of
the Vice-President for
Research, DCU where she advised and managed EU funding programmes including FP7. Her scientific
background, interdisciplinary experience and knowledge
of EU programmes gives her an ideal set of skills to successfully take over the management of this
project. |
Stuart Burgess
Prof. Stuart Burgess is Head of the Engineering Design Group and Head of the Mechanical Engineering
Department at Bristol University.
He has published over 100 technical papers in engineering design and invented seven patented
mechanical devices. SB recently designed the solar
array deployment mechanism on the £1.4 billion ENVISAT satellite.
|
Mike Fraser
Dr. Mike Fraser is a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of
Bristol. His research is concerned
with the public and social interaction with new technology, spanning distributed, physically active,
haptic, mobile and ubiquitous systems.
Over the past five years, Dr. Fraser has obtained one millon pounds of funding. He is currently a
principal investigator on two EPSRC grants and one
ESRC grant, concerned in different ways with distributed and mobile interaction and has completed
projects funded by the ESRC and EU. He was also
co-investigator and research manager of a European Fifth Framework IST Disappearing Computer project
(SHAPE) designing, developing and deploying
novel technologies in museum settings. He has also contributed to a variety of further projects
including the Equator Interdisciplinary Research
Collaboration, a six-year major programme of work on merging virtual and physical worlds funded by
the EPSRC; Mobile Bristol, a DTI-funded project
undertaking technology and user research in city-wide pervasive mobile media; an ESPRIT IV IST Long
Term Research Grant called 'Kidstory' developing
tangible technologies for classroom collaboration; and an ESRC grant 'Social Interaction through
Objects' which studied collaborative work with
objects in co-located and virtual environments. |
Neill Campbell
Neill Campbell is a Reader in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bristol.
His main interests are in Computer Vision and Computer Animation. In the CHRIS project his main role
is in
the analysis and generation (synthesis) of realistic and believable facial emotions and
gestures. |
Sergey Skachek, Research Associate
Sergey Skachek is a Research Associate at Bristol Robotics Laborotory, UK. He has a MSc in Physics
and a PhD in Electrical Engineering.
His main interests are robotics, computer simulations, mathematical modelling, software engineering
and development. In the CHRIS project he will
develop algorithms for gesture recognition and couple them with gaze and facial expressions
analysis. He will also be involved in development
and programming of safety and human protection modules on BERT platform. |
Alex Lenz, Research Associate
After completing a traditional apprenticeship programme as an electronics technician in the German
manufacturing industry ,
Alex gained a degree in microelectronics engineering (Dipl. Ing. FH) at the University of Applied
Sciences in Trier, Germany.
He furthered his education at the University of the West of England, Bristol and successfully
completed an MSc Dissertation in the
field of embedded on-line learning in November 2002. He has worked for two years for Siemens VDO
Automotive as an embedded software
development engineer and you can see some of his real-time software running in the new VW Golf V and
Passat VI. Alex started working as a
Research Associate at BRL in 2005, investigating biologically inspired real-time control algorithms
applied to an engineering
implementation of vestibulo-ocular reflex. He will be employing his expertise in distributed
real-time control, embedded systems and
biologically inspired adaptive technologies to make BERT (one of our robots) safer. |
Said Ghani Khan, PhD Student
Said's area of research interest includes Robotics and Control. Said has completed a Masters in
Robotics with Distinction from the
University of Plymouth, UK in 2006. He holds his Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering with
Honors from NWFP University of Engineering &
Technology Peshawar, Pakistan. After his masters he worked for over a year as a research associate
at the GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology,
Pakistan. |
Felix Warneken, lead for work on cooperative coordination
Felix Warneken is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and a
visiting researcher at the Max Planck Insititute for Evolutionary Anthropology. He studies the
cognitive and motivational prerequisites for cooperative behaviors by testing young children and
great apes.
|
Michael Tomasello
Mike is the Co-Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
Research interests focus on processes
of social cognition, social learning, and communication/language in human children and great apes.
Books include First Verbs (Cambridge University Press, 1992); Primate Cognition (Oxford University
Press, 1997);
The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition (Harvard University Press, 1999);
Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition (Harvard University Press,
2003);
and Origins of Human Communication (MIT Press, 2008).
|
Jasmin Steinwender
PhD student at the Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology at the Max Planck Institute
for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
She studies cooperation in children and wants to investigate the cognitive prerequisites for
cooperation.
|
Katharina Hamann
Katharina is a PhD student at the Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. She is interested in the development of cooperation in children, particularly with regard to its motivational aspects. |
Giorgio Metta, Lead for work on motor control and mirroring and scenario testing
Giorgio Metta is senior scientist at the IIT and assistant professor at the University of Genoa where
he teaches courses on anthropomorphic
robotics and intelligent systems for the bioengineering curricula. He holds a MS with honors (in
1994) and PhD (in 2000) in electronic engineering
both from the University of Genoa. From 2001 to 2002 he was postdoctoral associate at the MIT AI-Lab
where he worked on various humanoid robotic
platforms. He is assistant professor at the University of Genoa since 2005 and with IIT since 2006.
Giorgio Metta research activities are in the fields
of biologically motivated and humanoid robotics and in particular in developing life-long developing
artificial systems that show some of the abilities
of natural systems. His research developed in collaboration with leading European and international
scientists from different disciplines like
neuroscience, psychology, and robotics. Giorgio Metta is author or co-authos of approximately 100
publications. He has been working as research
scientist and co-PI in several international and national funded projects. He has been reviewer for
international journals, national and international
funding agencies.
|
Armando Tacchella
Armando Tacchella is Associate Professor of Information Systems at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Genoa since November 2005. He obtained his Ph.D in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Genoa in 2001 and his “Laurea” (M.Sc equivalent) in Computer Engineering in 1997. Teaching activities include graduate courses in Artificial Intelligence (AI), formal languages, compilers, and machine learning as well as undergraduate courses in design and analysis of algorithms. His research interest are mainly in the field of AI, with a focus on systems and techniques for automated reasoning and machine learning, and applications to the diagnosis f complex systems, formal verification of hardware and software, and cognitive architectures. His interest in the CHRIS project are the formal verification of control software and the automated synthesis of safe learning agents. |
Ugo Pattacini
Ugo Pattacini is a PhD student at the Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department of Italian
Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy.
His main interests are in control engineering, signal processing and real-time software development
for embedded systems. In the CHRIS project
he is concerned with the design and the implementation of a modular adaptive controller for the
sensorimotor system of a humanoid robot.
|
Lorenzo Natale
Lorenzo Natale is team leader at the Italian Institute of Technology. He received a MS degree in
Electronic Engineering in 2000 and PhD in Robotics
from the Universtity of Genoa. During his MSc and Ph.D. he worked in the Laboratory for Integrated
Advanced Robotics (LIRA-Lab), at the University of Genoa.
In the period between 2005 and 2006 he was Postdoctoral researcher at the MIT Computer Science and
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, working in the Humanoid Robotics Group.
His research focuses on developmental robotics, sensorimotor learning and perception in artificial
and biological systems. He is also interested in
software development and integration.
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Matteo Fumagalli
Matteo Fumagalli was born in Rochester (Minnesota) on the 22th January 1982. He graduated in
mechanical engineering at Politecnico di Milano
in July 2007. His master thesis concerned the Impedence Control of Cooperatives Manipulators. During
the same year he worked at the departement of
electronics and informatics (D.E.I.) of the Politecnico di Milano. There he focused on the dynamic
system identification and control and on the
modelization of stepper motors. His work at the Politecnico di Milano ended on January 2007, when he
reached the IIT where he holds a PhD position.
Matteo Fumagalli has a background on the modelization, measurement and control of dynamical system.
He is interested in interaction control
of manipulators. At the IIT he is working on identification and force control of manipulators.
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Claudia Peschiera
Claudia Peschiera is a PhD student at the University of Genoa. Her main interests are formal
verification and model checking.
Her interest in the CHRIS project is to prove the absence of errors in control software using static
verification.
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Luca Pulina
Luca Pulina is a post-doc at the University of Genoa. He obtained his Ph.D. in Robotics from the
University of Genoa in 2009 and
his "Laurea" (M.Sc equivalent) in Computer Engineering in 2005. His research interest are in the
field of AI, with a focus on systems and techniques
for automated reasoning and machine learning. His interest in the CHRIS project is the automated
synthesis of safe learning agents.
|
Rachid Alami, lead for work on decisional planning
Rachid is a senior scientist at the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Group from LAAS. His main
research topics are: Mobile Robotics,
Control Architectures, Multi-robot cooperation, Task and Motion Planning, Personal and Service
Robotics and Human/Robot Interaction.
|
Raquel Ros
Raquel Ros is a post-doc in the RIS (Robotics and InteractionS) group at LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France. She has a MSc and a PhD in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence). Her main interests are Case-Based Reasoning, robotics and human robot interaction. In the CRHIS project she focuses her work on the decisional planning of a social robot to improve interaction with humans. |
Emrah Akin Sisbot
Emrah Akin Sisbot is a post-doc in Robotics and Interactions group in LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France. He
has a MSc in Artificial Intelligence and PhD
in Robotics. His main interests are motion planning, human-robot interaction and multi-robot
cooperation. In CHRIS project, he focuses on geometrical
reasoning on human-robot space sharing.
|
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is a PhD student in Robotics and InteractionS (RIS) group in LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France. Before starting his PhD, he has done MSc in Artificial Intelligence. His main research interest is the supervision of decisional Human-Robot Interaction. In the CHRIS project his focus will be on development of Robot Memory/Knowledge. |
Amit Kumar Pandey
Amit Kumar Pandey is presently working as a Ph.D. candidate in RIS (Robotics and InteractionS) group
at LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France.
He received his MS by Research degree with specialization in Robotics, in 2007, from IIIT-Hyderabad,
India. During his MS/R, he worked as
Research Assistant at Robotics Research Centre of IIIT-H, where his research focus was on designing
and development of a Fully Autonomous
Mobile Robot Navigation System equipped with SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping),
Exploration and Path Planning capabilities.
His current area of research is in the field of HRI, addressing the various issues associated with
task and motion planning, ranging from
safety & comfort to intuitive & socially acceptable behavior of Robot in a Human centered
environment. In CHRIS project his focus will be
on the development of primitives for robot manipulation in a co-operative Human-Robot scenario and
its implementation on the Humanoid Robot, HRP-2.
|
Matthieu Warnier
Matthieu Warnier is a PhD student in Robotics and Interactions (RIS) group in LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France. He worked as a research engineer in LAAS for ten months before starting his PhD. His main interests are robot high level cognitive skills and human robot interaction. In the CHRIS project he focuses his work on the decisional planning of a social robot to improve interaction with humans. |
Séverin Lemaignan
Séverin Lemaignan is a PhD student in Robotics and Interactions group in LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France.
He has a MSc in Artificial Intelligence
and has in the past worked as an engineer at the INRIA instiute for computing sciences. His main
interests are knowledge representation and storage
by robots, based on ontologies. In the CHRIS project, he mainly works on the symbolic knowledge
base.
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Peter Ford Dominey, lead for work on Systems Engineering
Peter Ford Dominey is a Research Director with the INSERM. His research interests include understanding and simulating the neurophysiology of cognitive sequence processing and language, and its application to robot cognition and language processing. |
Jocelyne Ventre-Dominey
Jocelyne Ventre-Dominey is Senior Researcher at INSERM-U846 in Lyon, France. Her research interest includes understanding the functional organisation of the cerebral cortex in multimodal representation, including visual and vestibular modalities as well as their interaction with high-order cognitive function like language and memory. Her experimental work in human is directly involved in the actual humanoid robot implementation (iCub). |
Stephane Lallee
Stephane Lallee is a PhD Student. He has a licence degree in Computer Sciences and a master degree in Cognition Sciences. His main interests are the modelling of cognition and mind and how to embed these models in a robotic platform. |
Jean-David Boucher, PhD student
The goal of Jean-David's Phd is to create a programm for a human-robot intercation (HRI). The main
characteristics of it are: the robot has to learn via the interaction with the user, the user is a
naive personn, no computer science knowledge is necessary, the robot has to create new
representations for each behavior, the user can reuse these representations, the interaction has to
be as fluent as possible. |
This file last updated Thursday, 03-May-2012 12:05:50
© 2008-2012, The CHRIS project, T Building, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK