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The experimental implementation of Eduroam is now working. Preliminary insructions are in the following documents :-
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded $100,000 to BRL through the Grand Challenges Explorations Scheme (Round 7) for the project called 'Urine-tricity: electricity from urine' that will look into generating electricity from urine and wastewater for countries of the developing world. The announcement was made by the University today, after the Grand Challenges Explorations announced on Monday Nov 7th 2011 that a total of 110 Round-7 grants have been awarded.
The recipient of this grant, Dr. Ioannis Ieropoulos, along with Prof. John Greenman and Prof. Chris Melhuish, have been working with urine as a potential fuel for Microbial Fuel Cells and robots, as part of Dr. Ieropoulos's EPSRC CAF (EP/I004653/1) for the last 2 years. The team has also recently published the world's first article on the subject, which features in the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics . The scientific paper was featured in Chemistry World (the official RSC members' magazine), the University News Bulletin as well as on the RSC website.
In August 2012, just after the Olympic Games, the Bristol Robotics Laboratory will host the FIRA RoboWorld Cup, founded in 1996.
It is the first and premier event where roboticists internationally gather and challenge each other to test their newest technology in Olympic style robotic contests, such as football, weight lifting, running and marathon.
Technology developed for the FIRA-RoboWorld Cup requires a holistic view, involving mechanical, electronics and digital control and image processing technology.
The event will be combined with :-
The UK's robotics conference "Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems" (TAROS), the annual premier event for UK roboticists.
TAROS (Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems) is aimed at the presentation and discussion of the latest results and methods in autonomous robotics research and applications. Taros offers a friendly environment for robotics researchers and industry to take stock and plan future progress.
TAROS welcomes senior researchers and research students alike, and specifically provides opportunities for research students and young research scientists to present their work to the scientific community.
A movie and description of EcoBot-III (a.k.a. BREADbot - Bio-Regulation and Energy-Autonomy with Digestion), which shows the first steps towards full self-sustainability.
The scientific paper reporting on this work will appear in the proceedings of the Alife-XII conference, to take place between the 19-23 of August 2010.
Special issue -
The guest editors, Dr Guido Herrmann & Professor Chris Melhuish would like to invite researchers from the field of robotics and human-machine/robot interaction to contribute to this special issue of the International Journal of Social Robotics. Prospective authors are invited to make submissions by 15 September 2009 to http://www.editorialmanager.com/soro/.
A more detailed version of the call for contributions is available, in PDF format or in Word format.
E-mail enquiries should be directed to soro@brl.ac.uk.
Please follow this link. FlightGlobal
Professor Alan Winfield, Dr Tony Pipe and Dr Sanja Dogramadzi of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory are taking part in a project that aims to provide a unique platform for a two way discussion and debate between young people and robotics researchers. The project, Robotic Visions, is led by Dr Karen Bultitude of the Science Communication Unit at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Funded through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, this dialogue project involves a nationwide programme of five separate 'visions conferences'. The direction of each conference will be led by the participants themselves - both students and researchers - who will work together to identify the issues and topics that are of most concern to them. Professor Alan Winfield explains Robots have such an enormous impact on our lives already and the speed at which the research is developing has important repercussions for our futures. This makes it critical that we identify strong ethical principles for future investigations so we are seeking the views of the very people whose lives will be affected by research developments. At the end of the conference a shared vision will be presented to different audiences including government, policy makers, other researchers and young people. For further information please visit http://www.walkingwithrobots.org/events/RoboticVisions.php
BRL is coordinating a new FP7 4 year project (with French, German and Italian partners) which addresses the fundamental issues which would enable safe Human Robot Interaction (HRI). Specifically this project addresses the problem of a human and a robot performing co-operative tasks in a co-located space, such as in the kitchen where your service robot stirs the soup as you add the cream. These issues include communication of a shared goal (verbally and through gesture), perception and understanding of intention (from dextrous and gross movements), cognition necessary for interaction, and active and passive compliance. These are the prerequisites for many applications in service robotics and through research will provide the scientific foundations for engineering cognitive systems. The project is based on the essential premise that it will be ultimately beneficial to our socioeconomic welfare to generate service robots capable of safe co-operative physical interaction with humans. The key hypothesis is that safe interaction between human and robot can be engineered physically and cognitively for joint physical tasks requiring co-operative manipulation of real world objects.
In partnership with 7 EU research groups BRL has begun a four-year research project funded by the Seventh Research Programme (FP7) of the European Union. The aim of BIOTACT is to develop novel tactile sensory technologies inspired by the vibrissal (whisker) sensory systems of mammals such as rats and shrews. BIOTACT is one of several projects funded under the FP7 initiative on Bio-ICT Convergence . The BIOTACT project is also sponsoring two web-based projects concerned with promoting research in the field of tactile sensing: the Scholarpedia Encyclopedia of Touch and the Active Touch Community web-site.
BRL has recently won a £100k EPSRC funding for a Rapid Prototyping machine which will play an important part in the future creation of sub-assemblies for robots. As well as producing complicated 3D parts it can also produce complex moulds which can create plastic and flexible parts for soft' robots and actuators.
New UWE Robotics Lecturer, Dr Matt Studley has led a successful bid for EPSRC funding to develop a new interactive robotics event; "One Man and his Bot". The team also includes Prof Alan Winfield and Dr Karen Bultitude, who are both very experienced at communicating robot science to the public.
"Although we've been taking a swarm robotics demo to science festivals for some years now, we noticed that the schoolkids were confused about what a robot really is. Perhaps from TV's 'Robot Wars' they have the impression that robots are remote controlled vehicles. We realised we needed to change this!"
The grant from the EPSRC PPE Scheme will support building a flock of robot sheep which will autonomously flock together. Members of the public will have the chance to drive a 'sheepdog' to see how many sheep they can herd into a pen within a short time.
"We hope this event will demonstrate that robotics can be fun, that there's a big difference between a robot and a remote controlled vehicle, and let us explain how biological examples are used by roboticists to inspire their work."
The event will be delivered at the Imagineering Fair at the Bath & West Show, as well as the Discover Zone at Cheltenham Science Festival. It is anticipated that further dates and locations will be incorporated in the future.
Work started at the beginning of March on the $1.5million upgrade and expansion of BRL. The upgrades include 12 new research units, video conferencing, rapid prototyping and workshop facilities. BRL will also be acquiring and developing robot heads and torsos along with 2 and 3D position location infrastructure for its current and new fleets of mobile robots. The construction and re-fitting is expected to take approximately 3 months. Professor Chris Melhuish, Director of BRL, is “excited about the potential to create even more collaborations with other academics institutions and industry”
Intelligent and independent robots, designed to cooperate with people and work autonomously, are to be developed at a new robotics facility in Bristol. read more
The Emergence of Artificial Culture in Robot Societies announced here, is a 4-year EPSRC funded project in which the overall aim is to investigate the emergence of culture as a novel property of social animals by building an artificial society of robots: the Artificial Culture lab. Lead by Alan Winfield, the project is a collaboration between the Bristol Robotics Lab at UWE, Bristol and the universities of Abertay Dundee, Exeter, Leeds Metropolitan, Manchester and Warwick.
Alan Winfield is leading the EPSRC Stage Award Walking with Robots, with co-investigators Prof Noel Sharkey (Sheffield), Prof Owen Holland (Essex) and Prof Frank Burnet (UWE, Science Communication Unit). The project is coordinated from the Science Communication Unit, and is a 3 year programme of events designed to take the UK's intelligent robots research into schools, science centres and public spaces and, in so doing, raise the level of understanding and debate about the future of intelligent robots in society. See: www.walkingwithrobots.org
This file last updated Wednesday, 25-Jan-2012 14:33:45 GMT
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