Dr Roderich Gross

PhD, SMIEEE, MACM

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Senior Lecturer in Robotics and Computational Intelligence

Roderich Gross
Profile picture of Roderich Gross
r.gross@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 5610

Full contact details

Dr Roderich Gross
Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering
Amy Johnson Building
Portobello Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield, a Visiting Scientist at CSAIL, MIT, and an Executive Committee Member of Sheffield Robotics, where I lead the Enabling Technologies theme. I received a Ph.D. degree in engineering science in 2007 from Université libre de Bruxelles, and was a JSPS Fellow (Tokyo Institute of Technology), a Research Associate (University of Bristol), and a Marie Curie Fellow (EPFL & Unilever). My research interests are in robotics and artificial intelligence. I have made contributions to the coordination of robot swarms and reconfigurable robots, and invented a machine learning method called Turing Learning. I served as the General Chair of DARS 2016 and as an Editor of IROS 2015-18. Currently, I serve as an Associate Editor of Swarm Intelligence, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, and ICRA 2019.

Research interests
  • swarm robotics, self-reconfigurable robots, multi-robot coordination, collaborative robots
  • robotics software/tools (human-robot interaction interfaces, formal design tools, operating systems)
  • machine learning for behavior inference (Turing Learning, generative adversarial networks)
  • autonomous systems and decision making
  • natural computing (swarm intelligence, evolutionary algorithms, artificial life)
Publications

Edited books

  • (Ed.) (2012) Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics): Preface.. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Gross R, Alboul L, Melhuish C, Witkowski M, Prescott T & Penders J (Eds.) (2011) Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, 12th Annual Conference, TAROS 2011. Springer Verlag. RIS download Bibtex download
  • (Ed.) (2010) Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics): Preface.. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Groß R, Kolling A, Berman S, Frazzoli E, Martinoli A, Matsuno F & Gauci M (2019) Correction to: Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems, Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (pp. C1-C1). Springer International Publishing RIS download Bibtex download
  • Gross R (2015) Self-assembly In Gargaud M (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Astrobiology (pp. 2239-2240). Springer RIS download Bibtex download
  • Blum C & Gross R (2015) Swarm Intelligence in Optimization and Robotics In Kacprzyk J & Pedrycz W (Ed.), Springer Handbook of Computational Intelligence (pp. 1291-1309). Berlin, Germany: Springer. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Blum C & Groß R (2015) Part f swarm intelligence, Springer Handbook of Computational Intelligence (pp. 1289). RIS download Bibtex download
  • (2015) S, Encyclopedia of Astrobiology (pp. 2227-2227). Springer Berlin Heidelberg RIS download Bibtex download
  • Groß R (2014) Self-Assembly, Encyclopedia of Astrobiology (pp. 1-2). Springer Berlin Heidelberg RIS download Bibtex download
  • Gross R, O'Grady R, Christensen AL & Dorigo M (2013) The Swarm-bot experience: Strength and mobility through physical cooperation In Kernbach S (Ed.), Handbook of Collective Robotics: Fundamentals and Challenges (pp. 49-79). Pan Stanford Publishing RIS download Bibtex download
  • Gross R (2011) Self assembly In Gargaud M (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Astrobiology RIS download Bibtex download
  • (2011) S, Encyclopedia of Astrobiology (pp. 1487-1487). Springer Berlin Heidelberg RIS download Bibtex download
  • Dorigo M, Tuci E, Trianni V, Gross R, Nouyan S, Ampatzis C, Labella HT, O'Grady R, Bonani M & Mondada F (2006) SWARM-BOT: Design and Implementation of Colonies of Self-assembling Robots In Yen GY & Fogel DB (Ed.), Computational Intelligence: Principles and Practice (pp. 103-135). NY: IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. RIS download Bibtex download

Conference proceedings papers

Datasets

Grants
  • Horizon Europe OpenSwarm: Orchestration and Programming ENergy-aware and collaborative Swarms With AI-powered Reliable Methods, £463,699, from 01/01/2023
  • EPSRC 'EPSRC Core Capital', £104,196, from 22/01/2020
  • DSTL 'DSTL Multi Robot Systems', £98.781, from 30/10/2019
  • Industry Research/Consultancy, 'Modular robotics', from 24/03/2017
  • EPSRC 'Robotics Capital Equipment' £462,075, 01/10/2016 - 31/03/2017
  • EPSRC ‘Human-Machine Cooperation in Robotics and Autonomous Systems’, £330,333.80 (App No.138565) 01/07/2013 – 30/09/2014
  • ESPRC ‘Evo-Bots’, £100,905 (App No. 135020) 01/07/2013 – 31/12/2014
  • EU FP7 'Evolving Robots', £37,125 (PERG07-GA-2010-267354) 01/09/2010 - 31/08/2013
  • Unilever Research ‘Unilever Research Portsunlight’, £62,414 (App No. 132096) 01/11/2011 – 31/07/2012
Teaching activities

I currently teach the following modules:

  • ACS6501 Foundations of Robotics
Professional activities and memberships
  • General Chair: DARS 2016 (13th Int Symp on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems)
  • Chair, IEEE CIS Task Force on Swarm Intelligence (2016-2017)
  • Editor, IROS 2019 - 2015 (IEEE/RSJ Int Conf on Intelligent Robots and Systems)
  • Associate Editor: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (from 2015)
  • Associate Editor: IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine (from 2015)
  • Associate Editor: Swarm Intelligence (from 2013)
  • Associate Editor: ICRA 2020-2019, 2015 - 2012 (IEEE Int Conf on Robotics and Automation)
  • Associate Editor: IROS, 2014 - 2012 (IEEE/RSJ Int Conf on Intelligent Robots and Systems)
  • Program Co-Chair: GECCO 2018 (Swarm Intelligence Track)
  • Program Co-Chair: AAMAS 2016 (Robotics Track)
  • Program Co-Chair: ANTS 2012 (8th Int Conf on Swarm Intelligence)
  • Program Co-Chair: TAROS 2011 (12th Conf Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems)
  • Publication Chair: ANTS 2010 (7th Int Conf on Swarm Intelligence)
  • Best/Outstanding Associate Editors: 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
  • Member of the Editorial Board: Frontiers in Robotics & AI
  • Part Editor: Springer Handbook of Computational Intelligence
  • Guest Editor: Distributed Robotics special issue (Auton Robots, 2018)
  • Guest Editor: Swarm Robotics special issue (Neural Comput & Appl, 2010)
  • Guest Editor: TAROS 2011 special issue (Robot Auton Syst)
  • Guest Editor: ANTS 2010 and ANTS 2012 special issues (Swarm Intell)
  • Grant Reviewer for national funding bodies (EU, Canada, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Austria)
  • Reviewer (e.g., Royal Soc Interface, IEEE Trans Robot, Int J Robot Res, IEEE Trans Evol Compt, PLoS ONE)
  • SPC Member: AAMAS 2018
  • PC Member: RSS 2020, NeurIPS 2020, IJCAI 2020, AAMAS 2020, GECCO 2020 

Invited talks (selected)

  • "Advances in distributed robotics and Turing Learning", SSR, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (2018)
  • "Robots, swarms and Turing learning", Plenary talk at 27th ERNSI Workshop (European Research Network on System Identification), Cambridge, UK (2018)
  • "Robots, swarms and Turing learning", Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Konstanz, Germany (2018)
  • "Less is more? Defining your building blocks", Dagstuhl seminar on Algorithmic Foundations of Programmable Matter, Germany (2018)
  • "Less is more? Controlling swarms and Turing learning", Biological Distributed Algorithms (BDA) Workshop, UCL, UK (2018)
  • "Less is more? Controlling swarms and Turing learning", Conference on Collective Robotics, International Centre for Theoretical Physics/UNESCO, Italy (2018) 
  • "Less is more? New approaches for swarm control and inference", Janelia Conference on Distributed, Collective Computation in Biological and Artificial Systems, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA (2018)
  • "Swarms - design, interaction and learning", University of Southampton, UK (2017)
  • "Advances in massively distributed robotics and machine learning", ULB, Brussels, Belgium (2017)
  • "Bandits, swarms, and Turing Learning", University of Bristol, UK (2017)
  • "Less is more? New approaches for swarm control and inference", 2016 CCS Workshop, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2016)
  • "Controlling swarms of robots without computation", JSPS EPSRC UK - Japan Workshop on Soft Robotics, University of Cambridge, UK (2016)
  • "Swarm robotics", IEEE RAS Summer School on Multi-Robot Systems, NUS, Singapore (2016)
  • "Less is more? New approaches for swarm control and inference", University of Liverpool, UK (2016)
  • "Less is more? New approaches for swarm control and inference", NIPS 2016 Workshop, Montreal, Canada (2015)
  • "Swarm robotics: Minimalism, learning and evolution" - University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2015)
  • "Controlling robot swarms - from theory to practice - and evolution beyond control", EPFL, Switzerland (2015)
  • "Swarm robotics - the future of healthcare?", RE.WORK Future Tech Summit, London, UK (2015)
  • "Swarm robotics: Minimalism, learning and evolution" - ULB, Belgium (2014)
  • "Swarm robotics: Minimalism, learning and evolution" - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA (2014)
  • "Is less more? Design principles for massively distributed robotic systems" - The Royal Society UK-Russia Frontiers of Science meeting, Kazan, Russia (2013)
  • "Towards distributed autonomous robotic systems," CSAIL, MIT, USA (2012)
  • "Towards autonomous robotic systems," Transducers Science and Technology Group, Univ. of Twente, The Netherlands (2011)
  • "From natural swarms to swarms of robots," Thrilling Wonder Stories 3, Architectural Association London, UK (2011)
  • "Self-assembly at the macroscopic scale," Self-Assembly on all Scales workshop, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Germany (2011)
  • "Autonomous mobile systems inspired by nature," Institute of Computer Science, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany (2009)
  • "Autonomous robotic systems inspired by nature," Fakultaet fuer Informatik, Univ. of Karlsruhe, Germany (2009)
  • "Physical interactions in multi-robot systems," Faculty of EE & IT, Technical Univ. of Munich, Germany (2009)
  • "Self-assembling robots: Physical interactions in collective robotics," IPVS, Univ. of Stuttgart, Germany (2008)
  • "What properties are required for individuals that work in groups or teams?," IPAB, Univ. of Edinburgh, UK (2007)
  • "Teamwork in colonies of insect-like robots," Bristol Robotics Laboratory, UK (2007)
  • "Self-assembly and its use in swarm-bot," Murata Lab, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan (2005)
  • "Group transport by a self-assembling robotic system," Kosuge and Wang Lab, Tohoku Univ., Japan (2005)
  • "Swarm-bots: A self-assembling robotic system," Fukuda Lab, Nagoya Univ., Japan (2005)