Professor Tony Prescott
MA, MSc, PhD, CPsychol FBPsS
Department of Computer Science
Professor of Cognitive Robotics
Director of Sheffield Robotics
Knowledge Exchange and Entrepreneurship Co-Lead
T.J.Prescott@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6657
+44 114 222 6657
Regent Court (DCS)
Full contact details
Professor Tony Prescott
Department of Computer Science
Regent Court (DCS)
211 Portobello
Sheffield
S1 4DP
Department of Computer Science
Regent Court (DCS)
211 Portobello
Sheffield
S1 4DP
- Profile
-
I am a Professor of Cognitive Robotics at the University of Sheffield and Director of Sheffield Robotics an inter-disciplinary research institute across both Universities in Sheffield. I maintain profiles on ResearchGate and Linkedin, and a Youtube Channel with links to online interviews, talks and movies about our robots and research.
In addition to his my output I have authored a number of shorter pieces of general interest, about artificial intelligence and robotics, for the online magazine The Conversation.
- Qualifications
-
- MA Psychology (Edinburgh)
- MSc Applied Artificial Intelligence (Aberdeen)
- PhD Machine Learning (Sheffield)
- CPsychol FBPsS.
- Research interests
-
My research is within the areas of cognitive neuroscience, artificial intelligence and bio-inspired robotics. A particular focus is on the investigation of biomimetic and biohybrid systems: an example of the former would be an animal-like or humanoid robot, of the latter a human-machine interface.
Current research is directed towards:
- social cognition for humanoid robots including the possibility synthetic autobiographical memory and of a robot "sense of self”;
- active touch sensing for attention, orienting, and spatial memory;
- assistive and companion robotic technologies;
- haptic interfaces for sensory augmentation;
- telepresence robotics, and
- societal and ethical issues in technology.
Some of my research is done under the auspices of the Department's Adaptive Behaviour Research Group and the Active Touch Laboratory.
- Publications
-
Books
- Preface.
- Living machines. Oxford University Press.
- Preface.
- Living Machines 2012: the First International Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems..
Edited books
- Scholarpedia of Touch. Atlantis Press. View this article in WRRO
- Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics): Preface..
- Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems - First International Conference, Living Machines 2012, Barcelona, Spain, July 9-12, 2012. Proceedings. Springer.
- Modelling Natural Action Selection. Cambridge Univ Pr.
- Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems - 12th Annual Conference, TAROS 2011, Sheffield, UK, August 31 - September 2, 2011. Proceedings. Springer.
- Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems. Springer.
Journal articles
- A robotic model of hippocampal reverse replay for reinforcement learning. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 18(1).
- Towards emotionally aligned social robots for dementia: perspectives of care partners and persons with dementia. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 18(S2).
- Robot telepresence as a practical tool for responsible and open research in Trustworthy Autonomous Systems. Journal of Responsible Technology, 12.
- User perspectives on emotionally aligned social robots for older adults and persons living with dementia. Journal of Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies Engineering, 9.
- Scaffolding layered control architectures through constraint closure : insights into brain evolution and development. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 377(1844). View this article in WRRO
- The effect of direct and extended contact on attitudes towards social robots. Heliyon, 7(3), e06418-e06418.
- Are friends electric? The benefits and risks of human-robot relationships. iScience, 24(1). View this article in WRRO
- Socially assistive robots as mental health interventions for children : a scoping review. International Journal of Social Robotics.
- Addressing the ethics of telepresence applications through end-user engagement. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. View this article in WRRO
- Collinear mecanum drive: Modelling, analysis, partial feedback linearisation, and nonlinear control. IEEE Transactions on Robotics. View this article in WRRO
- Learning from sensory predictions for autonomous and adaptive exploration of object shape with a tactile robot. Neurocomputing. View this article in WRRO
- Dual-mode model predictive control of an omnidirectional wheeled inverted pendulum. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 24(6), 2964-2975. View this article in WRRO
- Memory and mental time travel in humans and social robots. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 374(1771), 20180025-20180025. View this article in WRRO
- The Human Brain Project: Responsible Brain Research for the Benefit of Society. Neuron, 101(3), 380-384. View this article in WRRO
- Robotic automation can improve the lives of people who need social care. BMJ (Online), 364. View this article in WRRO
- The Combinatorial Creature: Cortical Phenotypes within and across Lifetimes. Trends in Neurosciences. View this article in WRRO
- Whisker touch sensing guides locomotion in small, quadrupedal mammals. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 285(1880), 20180592-20180592. View this article in WRRO
- The effects of robot facial emotional expressions and gender on child-robot interaction in a field study. Connection Science. View this article in WRRO
- DAC-h3: A Proactive Robot Cognitive Architecture to Acquire and Express Knowledge About the World and the Self. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems, 10(4), 1005-1022. View this article in WRRO
- Feeling the Shape: Active Exploration Behaviors for Object Recognition With a Robotic Hand. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, 48(12), 2339-2348. View this article in WRRO
- Editorial: Ethical Principles of Robotics. Connection Science, 29(3), 187-188. View this article in WRRO
- Ethical principles of robotics. Connection Science, 29(2), 119-123. View this article in WRRO
- Robots are not just tools. Connection Science, 29(2), 142-149. View this article in WRRO
- Multisensory Wearable Interface for Immersion and Telepresence in Robotics. IEEE Sensors Journal, 17(8), 2534-2541. View this article in WRRO
- Whisker touch guides canopy exploration in a nocturnal, arboreal rodent, the Hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius). Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology. View this article in WRRO
- IntelliTable: Inclusively-Designed Furniture with Robotic Capabilities. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 242, 565-572. View this article in WRRO
- Active sensorimotor control for tactile exploration. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 87, 15-27. View this article in WRRO
- Head-mounted Sensory Augmentation Device: Designing a Tactile Language. IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 9(3), 376-386. View this article in WRRO
- Tactile Superresolution and Biomimetic Hyperacuity. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 31(3), 605-618. View this article in WRRO
- Me in the machine. New Scientist, 225(3013), 36-39. View this article in WRRO
- EDITORIAL. Connection Science, 27(1), 1-2.
- Strategy change in vibrissal active sensing during rat locomotion.. Curr Biol, 24(13), 1507-1512. View this article in WRRO
- Biomimetic tactile target acquisition, tracking and capture. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 62(3), 366-375. View this article in WRRO
- Active touch sensing: finger tips, whiskers, and antennae. FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE, 8. View this article in WRRO
- Abnormalities in whisking behaviour are associated with lesions in brain stem nuclei in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.. Behav Brain Res, 259, 274-283. View this article in WRRO
- Editorial. Connection Science, 26(1), 1-4.
- Whisker movements reveal spatial attention: a unified computational model of active sensing control in the rat.. PLoS Comput Biol, 9(9), e1003236. View this article in WRRO
- The evolution of active vibrissal sensing in mammals: Evidence from vibrissal musculature and function in the marsupial possum Monodelphis domestica. Journal of Experimental Biology, 216(18), 3483-3494. View this article in WRRO
- Vibrissal touch sensing in the harbor seal (Phoca vitulina): how do seals judge size?. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol, 199(6), 521-533. View this article in WRRO
- The state of the art in biomimetics.. Bioinspir Biomim, 8(1), 013001. View this article in WRRO
- TAROS2011. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 60(11), 1355.
- An internal model architecture for novelty detection: implications for cerebellar and collicular roles in sensory processing.. PLoS One, 7(9), e44560. View this article in WRRO
- Optimal decision-making in mammals: insights from a robot study of rodent texture discrimination.. J R Soc Interface, 9(72), 1517-1528. View this article in WRRO
- The effect of whisker movement on radial distance estimation: a case study in comparative robotics.. Front Neurorobot, 6, 12. View this article in WRRO
- Towards hierarchical blackboard mapping on a whiskered robot. Robotics and Autonomous Systems. View this article in WRRO
- The role of orienting in vibrissal touch sensing.. Front Behav Neurosci, 6, 39. View this article in WRRO
- Tactile discrimination using active whisker sensors. IEEE Sensors Journal, 12(2), 350-362. View this article in WRRO
- Active vibrissal sensing in rodents and marsupials.. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 366(1581), 3037-3048. View this article in WRRO
- Biomimetic vibrissal sensing for robots.. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 366(1581), 3085-3096. View this article in WRRO
- Active touch sensing.. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 366(1581), 2989-2995. View this article in WRRO
- Neural computation via neural geometry: a place code for inter-whisker timing in the barrel cortex?. PLoS Comput Biol, 7(10), e1002188. View this article in WRRO
- The development of whisker control in rats in relation to locomotion. Developmental Psychobiology. View this article in WRRO
- The ventral basal ganglia, a selection mechanism at the crossroads of space, strategy, and reward.. Prog Neurobiol, 90(4), 385-417. View this article in WRRO
- Modeling the emergence of whisker direction maps in rat barrel cortex.. PLoS One, 5(1), e8778. View this article in WRRO
- Adaptive cancelation of self-generated sensory signals in a whisking robot. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 26(6), 1065-1076. View this article in WRRO
- Response times for visually guided saccades in persons with Parkinson's disease: A meta-analytic review. Neuropsychologia, 48(4), 887-899. View this article in WRRO
- BRAHMS: Novel middleware for integrated systems computation. ADV ENG INFORM, 24(1), 49-61. View this article in WRRO
- Learning cortical representations from multiple whisker inputs. BMC Neuroscience, 10(S1).
- Hippocampal formation as unitary coherent particle filter. BMC Neuroscience, 10(S1).
- Whisking with Robots From Rat Vibrissae to Biomimetic Technology for Active Touch. IEEE ROBOT AUTOM MAG, 16(3), 42-50. View this article in WRRO
- Active touch sensing in the rat: anticipatory and regulatory control of whisker movements during surface exploration.. J Neurophysiol, 101(2), 862-874. View this article in WRRO
- Technical integration of hippocampus, Basal Ganglia and physical models for spatial navigation.. Front Neuroinform, 3, 6. View this article in WRRO
- Contact type dependency of texture classification in a whiskered mobile robot. Autonomous Robots, 26(4), 223-239. View this article in WRRO
- Spike-timing in primary sensory neurons: a model of somatosensory transduction in the rat.. Biol Cybern, 98(3), 185-194. View this article in WRRO
- Action selection.. Scholarpedia, 3, 2705-2705. View this article in WRRO
- Minimizing human intervention in the development of basal ganglia-inspired robot control. Applied Bionics and Biomechanics, 4(3), 101-109.
- Introduction. Modelling natural action selection.. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 362(1485), 1521-1529. View this article in WRRO
- Feedback control in active sensing: rat exploratory whisking is modulated by environmental contact.. Proc Biol Sci, 274(1613), 1035-1041. View this article in WRRO
- Is there a brainstem substrate for action selection?. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 362(1485), 1627-1639.
- Who dominates who in the dark basements of the brain?. BEHAV BRAIN SCI, 30(1), 104-+. View this article in WRRO
- Minimizing human intervention in the development of basal ganglia-inspired robot control. Applied Bionics and Biomechanics, 4(3), 101-109.
- Whiskerbot: A robotic active touch system modeled on the rat whisker sensory system. ADAPT BEHAV, 15(3), 223-240.
- Forced moves or good tricks in design space? Landmarks in the evolution of neural mechanisms for action selection. ADAPT BEHAV, 15(1), 9-31. View this article in WRRO
- A new dissimilarity measure for finding semantic structure in category fluency data with implications for understanding memory organization in schizophrenia.. Neuropsychology, 20(6), 685-699. View this article in WRRO
- A robot model of the basal ganglia: Behavior and intrinsic processing. NEURAL NETWORKS, 19(1), 31-61. View this article in WRRO
- The brainstem reticular formation is a small-world, not scale-free, network. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 273(1585), 503-511. View this article in WRRO
- A Biomimetic Haptic Sensor. International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2(4), 36-36.
- Is there an integrative center in the vertebrate brain-stem? A robotic evaluation of a model of the reticular formation viewed as an action selection device. ADAPT BEHAV, 13(2), 97-113. View this article in WRRO
- Empirically inspired simulated electro-mechanical model of the rat mystacial follicle-sinus complex.. Proc Biol Sci, 271(1556), 2509-2516. View this article in WRRO
- Testing computational hypotheses of brain systems function: a case study with the basal ganglia. Network: Computation in Neural Systems, 15(4), 263-290.
- Testing computational hypotheses of brain systems function: a case study with the basal ganglia.. Network, 15(4), 263-290.
- Computational models of the basal ganglia: from robots to membranes.. Trends Neurosci, 27(8), 453-459.
- A basal ganglia inspired model of action selection evaluated in a robotic survival task.. J Integr Neurosci, 2(2), 179-200. View this article in WRRO
- Connectionist simulation of attitude learning: asymmetries in the acquisition of positive and negative evaluations.. Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 29(10), 1221-1235. View this article in WRRO
- Continuity and change in the development of category structure: Insights from the semantic fluency task. INT J BEHAV DEV, 27(5), 467-479. View this article in WRRO
- A computational model of action selection in the basal ganglia. II. Analysis and simulation of behaviour.. Biol Cybern, 84(6), 411-423.
- A computational model of action selection in the basal ganglia. I. A new functional anatomy.. Biol Cybern, 84(6), 401-410.
- Is the short-latency dopamine response too short to signal reward error?. Trends Neurosci, 22(4), 146-151. View this article in WRRO
- Layered control architectures in robots and vertebrates. ADAPT BEHAV, 7(1), 99-127. View this article in WRRO
- The basal ganglia: a vertebrate solution to the selection problem?. Neuroscience, 89(4), 1009-1023. View this article in WRRO
- Kinematic coordination of reach and balance.. J Mot Behav, 30(3), 217-233.
- A robot trace maker: modeling the fossil evidence of early invertebrate behavior.. Artif Life, 3(4), 289-306. View this article in WRRO
- Spatial representation for navigation in animats. ADAPT BEHAV, 4(2), 85-123. View this article in WRRO
- A Robotic Model of Hippocampal Reverse Replay for Reinforcement Learning.
- iCub-HRI: A Software Framework for Complex Human–Robot Interaction Scenarios on the iCub Humanoid Robot. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5. View this article in WRRO
- Vibrissal behavior and function. Scholarpedia, 6(10), 6642-6642. View this article in WRRO
- A systematic review of attitudes, anxiety, acceptance, and trust towards social robots. International Journal of Social Robotics. View this article in WRRO
Chapters
- Active Touch Sensing in Mammals and Robots, Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology Elsevier
- Sapiens 5.0: A Manifesto for the Development of Human-AI Collaboration for Good In The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (Ed.), Future Studies (pp. 83-110). Abu Dhabi, UAE: The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research.
- The Synthetic Psychology of the Self, Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering (pp. 85-104). Springer International Publishing View this article in WRRO
- Robot Self In Ang MH, Khatib O & Siciliano B (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Robotics Berlin: Springer.
- Living Machines Oxford University Press
- A sketch of the education landscape in biomimetic and biohybrid systems Oxford University Press
- Mammals and mammal-like robots Oxford University Press View this article in WRRO
- Life Oxford University Press
- Biomimetic systems Oxford University Press
- A roadmap for Living Machines research Oxford University Press
- Evo-devo Oxford University Press View this article in WRRO
- A Living Machines approach to the sciences of mind and brain Oxford University Press
- Embodied Models and Neurorobotics In Arbib MA & Bonaiuto J (Ed.), From Neuron to Cognition via Computational Neuroscience MIT Press View this article in WRRO
- Action-Oriented Cognition and Its Implications, The Pragmatic Turn (pp. 321-332). The MIT Press View this article in WRRO
- Implications of Action-Oriented Paradigm Shifts in Cognitive Science, The Pragmatic Turn (pp. 333-356). The MIT Press View this article in WRRO
- Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems Springer International Publishing
- Vibrissal Behavior and Function, Scholarpedia of Touch (pp. 103-116). Atlantis Press View this article in WRRO
- Introduction: The World of Touch, Scholarpedia of Touch (pp. 1-28). Atlantis Press View this article in WRRO
- The Robot Vibrissal System: Understanding Mammalian Sensorimotor Co-ordination Through Biomimetics, Sensorimotor Integration in the Whisker System (pp. 213-240). Springer New York View this article in WRRO
- Preface In Wilson S, Verschure P, Mura A & Prescott A (Ed.), 4th International Conference, Living Machines 2015, Barcelona, Spain, July 28 - 31, 2015, Proceedings (pp. v-vi). Springer International Publishing
- Preface In Duff A, Lepora N, Mura A, Prescott A & Verschure P (Ed.), Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems: Third International Conference, Living Machines 2014, Milan, Italy, July 30--August 1, 2014, Proceedings (pp. V-VIII). Springer International Publishing
- Biomimetic robots as scientific models: a view from the whisker tip In Krichmar J & Wagatsuma H (Ed.), Neuromorphic and Brain-Based Robots (pp. 23-57). Cambridge University Press View this article in WRRO
- General introduction, Modelling Natural Action Selection (pp. 1-4).
- Selection and the basal ganglia: A role for dopamine In Graybiel AM, DeLong MR & Kitai ST (Ed.), The Basal Ganglia VI: v. 6 (pp. 257-266). Springer
- Basal Ganglia In Arbib MA (Ed.), The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks (pp. 147-150). The MIT Press View this article in WRRO
- Selection and the Basal Ganglia, Advances in Behavioral Biology (pp. 257-266). Springer US
- The Robot Basal Ganglia In Nicholson LFB & Faull RLM (Ed.), The Basal Ganglia VII: v. 7 (pp. 349-356). Springer View this article in WRRO
- Adaptive local navigation In Blake A & Yuille A (Ed.), Active Vision The MIT Press View this article in WRRO
- PREFACE, Proceedings of the 1968 Laurentian Hormone Conference (pp. v-vi). Elsevier
- Mechanisms of choice in the primate brain: a quick look at positive feedback, Modelling Natural Action Selection (pp. 390-418). Cambridge University Press View this article in WRRO
- General introduction, Modelling Natural Action Selection (pp. 1-4). Cambridge University Press
- Introduction to Part II: computational neuroscience models, Modelling Natural Action Selection (pp. 169-175). Cambridge University Press
- Introduction to Part I: rational and optimal decision making, Modelling Natural Action Selection (pp. 7-11). Cambridge University Press
- The medial reticular formation: a brainstem substrate for simple action selection?, Modelling Natural Action Selection (pp. 300-329). Cambridge University Press
- Introduction to Part III: action selection in social contexts, Modelling Natural Action Selection (pp. 421-426). Cambridge University Press
Conference proceedings papers
- Cognitive architecture as a service: scaffolded
integration of heterogeneous models through
event streams. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems : 11th International Conference, Living Machines 2022, Virtual Event, July 19–22, 2022, Proceedings, Vol. LNAI 13548 (pp 345-353). Virtual Event, 19 July 2022 - 22 July 2022.
- Deep Gaussian Processes for Angle and Position Discrimination in Active Touch Sensing (pp 41-51)
- Tactile and Proprioceptive Online Learning in Robotic Contour Following (pp 166-178)
- Designing socially assistive robots: a relational approach. ICCHP-AAATE 2022 Open Access Compendium "Assistive Technology, Accessibility and (e)Inclusion", Vol. Part II (pp 285-292). Lecco, Italy, 11 July 2022 - 15 July 2022.
- Robust and Long-term Monocular Teach and Repeat Navigation using a Single-experience Map. 2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 27 September 2021 - 1 October 2021. View this article in WRRO
- A framework for resolving motivational conflict via attractor dynamics. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems : 9th International Conference, Living Machines 2020, Freiburg, Germany, July 28–30, 2020, Proceedings (pp 192-203). Freiburg, Germany, 28 July 2020 - 30 July 2020.
- Fast reverse replays of recent spatiotemporal trajectories in a robotic hippocampal model. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems : 9th International Conference, Living Machines 2020, Freiburg, Germany, July 28–30, 2020, Proceedings (pp 390-401). Freiburg, Germany, 28 July 2020 - 30 July 2020.
- Teleport -- Variable Autonomy across Platforms. Companion of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction View this article in WRRO
- Obstacle Avoidance Using Stereo Vision and Deep Reinforcement Learning in an Animal-like Robot. 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), 6 December 2019 - 8 December 2019. View this article in WRRO
- Improving the visual comfort of virtual reality telepresence for robotics. Social Robotics (pp 697-706). Madrid, Spain, 26 November 2019 - 29 November 2019. View this article in WRRO
- Exploring the potential of the animal-like robot MiRo as a therapeutic tool for children diagnosed with autism. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems (pp 351-354). Nara, Japan, 9 July 2019 - 12 July 2019. View this article in WRRO
- Robots that imagine – can hippocampal replay be utilized for robotic mnemonics?. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems (pp 277-286). Nara, Japan, 9 July 2019 - 12 July 2019. View this article in WRRO
- A window into the robot ‘mind’ : using a graphical real-time display to provide transparency of function in a brain-based robot. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems (pp 316-320). Nara, Japan, 9 July 2019 - 12 July 2019. View this article in WRRO
- Measuring the effectiveness of biomimetic robots as therapeutic tools : translating the felt security scale from English to Japanese. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems (pp 63-75). Nara, Japan, 9 July 2019 - 12 July 2019. View this article in WRRO
- Velocity constrained trajectory generation for a collinear Mecanum wheeled robot. Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (pp 4444-4450). Montreal, QC, Canada, 20 May 2019 - 24 May 2019. View this article in WRRO
- What comes to mind when people are asked questions about robots?. Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems: 19th Annual Conference, TAROS 2018, Bristol, UK July 25-27, 2018, Proceedings, Vol. 10965 LNAI (pp 453-454), 25 July 2018 - 27 July 2018. View this article in WRRO
- Attitudes towards social robots: A protocol for a systematic review. Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems: 19th Annual Conference, TAROS 2018, Bristol, UK July 25-27, 2018, Proceedings, Vol. 10965 LNAI (pp 484-485), 25 July 2018 - 27 July 2018. View this article in WRRO
- A PERSONALIZED, ANIMAL-LIKE ROBOT COMPANION TO SUPPORT PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA. Alzheimer's & Dementia, Vol. 14(7) (pp P210-P210), 21 July 2018 - 26 July 2018. View this article in WRRO
- Living in a machine: Experiencing the world through a robotic avatar. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems (Lecture Notes in Computer Science), Vol. 10928 (pp 64-72), 17 July 2018 - 20 July 2018. View this article in WRRO
- Design and control of a novel omnidirectional dynamically balancing platform for remote inspection of confined and cluttered environments. 2018 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Electronics for Sustainable Energy Systems (IESES), 31 January 2018 - 2 February 2018. View this article in WRRO
- Action recognition with unsynchronised multi-sensory data. 2017 Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and Epigenetic Robotics (ICDL-EpiRob). Lisbon, Portugal, 18 September 2017 - 21 September 2017. View this article in WRRO
- MiRo. Companion of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction View this article in WRRO
- Adaptive perception: Learning from sensory predictions to extract object shape with a biomimetic fingertip. 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 24 September 2017 - 28 September 2017. View this article in WRRO
- Children's age influences their use of biological and mechanical questions towards a humanoid. Processdings of the 18th Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS), Vol. 10454 (pp 290-299), 19 July 2017 - 21 July 2017. View this article in WRRO
- Analysing the Limitations of Deep Learning for Developmental Robotics. Living Machines 2017: Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems (pp 86-94) View this article in WRRO
- You made him be alive: Children’s perceptions of animacy in a humanoid robot. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 10384 (pp 73-85), 25 July 2017 - 28 July 2017. View this article in WRRO
- Towards a wearable interface for immersive telepresence in robotics. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, LNICST, Vol. 196 (pp 65-73) View this article in WRRO
- MiRo: An animal-like companion robot with a biomimetic brain-based control system. Proceedings of the Companion of the 2017 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Vol. Part F (pp 50-51), 6 March 2017 - 9 March 2017. View this article in WRRO
- Growing-Up Hand in Hand with Robots. Proceedings of the Companion of the 2017 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction View this article in WRRO
- Analyzing children's expectations from robotic companions in educational settings. 2017 IEEE-RAS 17th International Conference on Humanoid Robotics (Humanoids), 15 November 2017 - 17 November 2017. View this article in WRRO
- An integrated probabilistic framework for robot perception, learning and memory. 2016 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), 3 December 2016 - 7 December 2016. View this article in WRRO
- Expressive touch: Control of robot emotional expression by touch. 25th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, RO-MAN 2016 (pp 974-979) View this article in WRRO
- Bayesian perception of touch for control of robot emotion. 2016 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), 24 July 2016 - 29 July 2016. View this article in WRRO
- Designing Robot Personalities for Human-Robot Symbiotic Interaction in an Educational Context (pp 413-417) View this article in WRRO
- Head-mounted Sensory Augmentation Device: Comparing Haptic and Audio Modality. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems View this article in WRRO
- Impact of robot responsiveness and adult involvement on children's social behaviours in human-robot interaction. AISB Annual Convention 2016, AISB 2016 View this article in WRRO
- A Bioinspired Approach to Vision. Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, Vol. 9716 (pp 40-52). Sheffield, UK, 26 June 2016 - 1 July 2016. View this article in WRRO
- Congratulations, It’s a Boy! Bench-Marking Children’s Perceptions of the Robokind Zeno-R25 (pp 33-39) View this article in WRRO
- AISB 2016 symposium on the principles of robotics. AISB Annual Convention 2016, AISB 2016 View this article in WRRO
- Towards a Synthetic Tutor Assistant: The EASEL Project and its Architecture (pp 353-364) View this article in WRRO
- MIRO: A Robot “Mammal” with a Biomimetic Brain-Based Control System (pp 179-191) View this article in WRRO
- iCub Visual Memory Inspector: Visualising the iCub’s Thoughts (pp 48-57) View this article in WRRO
- The EASEL Project: Towards Educational Human-Robot Symbiotic Interaction (pp 297-306) View this article in WRRO
- MIRO. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology - ACE '15, 16 November 2015 - 19 November 2015. View this article in WRRO
- Active haptic shape recognition by intrinsic motivation with a robot hand. 2015 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC) (pp 299-304) View this article in WRRO
- Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems
- Telepresence: Immersion with the iCub Humanoid Robot and the Oculus Rift (pp 461-464) View this article in WRRO
- Tactile Language for a Head-Mounted Sensory Augmentation Device (pp 359-365) View this article in WRRO
- Children’s Age Influences Their Perceptions of a Humanoid Robot as Being Like a Person or Machine (pp 348-353) View this article in WRRO
- A Top-Down Approach for a Synthetic Autobiographical Memory System (pp 280-292) View this article in WRRO
- Towards a child-robot symbiotic co-development: A theoretical approach. AISB Convention 2015 View this article in WRRO
- Saying It with Light: A Pilot Study of Affective Communication Using the MIRO Robot (pp 243-255) View this article in WRRO
- Extending a Hippocampal Model for Navigation Around a Maze Generated from Real-World Data (pp 441-452) View this article in WRRO
- Active Control for Object Perception and Exploration with a Robotic Hand (pp 415-428) View this article in WRRO
- Presence of life-like robot expressions influences children's enjoyment of human-robot interactions in the field. AISB Convention 2015 View this article in WRRO
- Centralizing Bias and the Vibrotactile Funneling Illusion on the Forehead (pp 55-62) View this article in WRRO
- Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems
- Discrimination of Social Tactile Gestures Using Biomimetic Skin (pp 46-48) View this article in WRRO
- Machines Learning - Towards a New Synthetic Autobiographical Memory (pp 84-96) View this article in WRRO
- A future of living machines? International trends and prospects in biomimetic and biohybrid systems. Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, Vol. 9055 View this article in WRRO
- Optimising Robot Personalities for Symbiotic Interaction (pp 392-395) View this article in WRRO
- The AI singularity and runaway human intelligence. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 8064 LNAI (pp 438-440) View this article in WRRO
- Sensory augmentation with distal touch: The tactile helmet project. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 8064 LNAI (pp 24-35) View this article in WRRO
- Perception of simple stimuli using sparse data from a tactile whisker array. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 8064 LNAI (pp 179-190) View this article in WRRO
- A SOLID case for active bayesian perception in robot touch. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 8064 LNAI (pp 154-166) View this article in WRRO
- Angle and position perception for exploration with active touch. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 8064 LNAI (pp 405-408) View this article in WRRO
- Evo-devo design for living machines. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 8064 LNAI (pp 454-456) View this article in WRRO
- Active Bayesian perception and reinforcement learning. IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (pp 4735-4740) View this article in WRRO
- Attachment to assistive technology: A new conceptualisation. Assistive Technology Research Series, Vol. 33 (pp 823-828) View this article in WRRO
- Active Bayesian perception for angle and position discrimination with a biomimetic fingertip. IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (pp 5968-5973) View this article in WRRO
- Active touch for robust perception under position uncertainty. Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (pp 3020-3025) View this article in WRRO
- Simultaneous localisation and mapping on a multi-degree of freedom biomimetic whiskered robot. Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (pp 586-592) View this article in WRRO
- Towards a roadmap for living machines. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 8064 LNAI (pp 396-398) View this article in WRRO
- Cerebellum-based adaptation for fine haptic control over the space of uncertain surfaces. 2013 World Haptics Conference, WHC 2013 (pp 353-358) View this article in WRRO
- Active contour following to explore object shape with robot touch. 2013 World Haptics Conference, WHC 2013 (pp 341-346) View this article in WRRO
- Whiskered texture classification with uncertain contact pose geometry. IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (pp 7-13) View this article in WRRO
- Embodied hyperacuity from Bayesian perception: Shape and position discrimination with an iCub fingertip sensor. IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (pp 4638-4643) View this article in WRRO
- Predictive prey pursuit in a whiskered robot. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 7429 LNAI (pp 343-353) View this article in WRRO
- Bioinspired control of electro-active polymers for next generation soft robots. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 7429 LNAI (pp 424-425) View this article in WRRO
- The emergence of action sequences from spatial attention: Insight from rodent-like robots. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 7375 LNAI (pp 168-179) View this article in WRRO
- Tactile SLAM with a biomimetic whiskered robot. Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (pp 4925-4930) View this article in WRRO
- Towards contour following exploration based on tactile sensing with the iCub fingertip. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 7429 LNAI (pp 459-460) View this article in WRRO
- Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics): Preface. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 7375 LNAI
- Toward a fusion model of feature and spatial tactile memory in the crayfish cherax destructor. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 7375 LNAI (pp 352-354)
- The State-of-the-Art in Biomimetics.. Living Machines, Vol. 7375 (pp 367-368) View this article in WRRO
- Brain-inspired Bayesian perception for biomimetic robot touch.. ICRA (pp 5111-5116) View this article in WRRO
- Towards a Framework for Tactile Perception in Social Robotics.. Living Machines, Vol. 7375 (pp 335-336) View this article in WRRO
- Texture Classification through Tactile Sensing.. Living Machines, Vol. 7375 (pp 377-379) View this article in WRRO
- Each to their own beat: periodicity in temporal inference. BMC Neuroscience, Vol. 12(S1)
- Scaling up a Boltzmann machine model of hippocampus with visual features for mobile robots. 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, ROBIO 2011 (pp 835-840) View this article in WRRO
- Robot companions for citizens. Procedia Computer Science, Vol. 7 (pp 47-51) View this article in WRRO
- Crunchbot: A mobile whiskered robot platform. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 6856 LNAI (pp 102-113) View this article in WRRO
- Sensing with artificial tactile sensors: An investigation of spatio-temporal inference. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 6856 LNAI (pp 253-264)
- A general classifier of whisker data using stationary naive bayes: Application to BIOTACT robots. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 6856 LNAI (pp 13-23)
- Mapping with sparse local sensors and strong hierarchical priors. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 6856 LNAI (pp 183-194) View this article in WRRO
- Naive Bayes novelty detection for a moving robot with whiskers. 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, ROBIO 2010 (pp 131-136) View this article in WRRO
- Whisker-object contact speed affects radial distance estimation. 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, ROBIO 2010 (pp 720-725) View this article in WRRO
- Hippocampus as unitary coherent particle filter. 2010 INTERNATIONAL JOINT CONFERENCE ON NEURAL NETWORKS IJCNN 2010 View this article in WRRO
- Naive Bayes texture classification applied to whisker data from a moving robot. 2010 INTERNATIONAL JOINT CONFERENCE ON NEURAL NETWORKS IJCNN 2010 View this article in WRRO
- Learning in a unitary coherent hippocampus. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 6352 LNCS(PART 1) (pp 388-394) View this article in WRRO
- Tactile discrimination using template classifiers: Towards a model of feature extraction in mammalian vibrissal systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 6226 LNAI (pp 178-187) View this article in WRRO
- SCRATCHbot: Active tactile sensing in a whiskered mobile robot. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 6226 LNAI (pp 93-103) View this article in WRRO
- Hippocampus, Amygdala and Basal Ganglia Based Navigation Control. ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS - ICANN 2009, PT I, Vol. 5768 (pp 267-276) View this article in WRRO
- Kinematic Invariants Describinh Locally Coherent Events: An Efficient and Flexible Approach to Non-Linear Tomography. 71st EAGE Conference and Exhibition - Workshops and Fieldtrips
- Whiskerbot: A haptic sensor array for mobile robots. Proceedings of AISB'06: Adaptation in Artificial and Biological Systems, Vol. 2 (pp 93-96)
- A model of sensorimotor coordination in the rat whisker system. FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS 9, PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 4095 (pp 77-88) View this article in WRRO
- Distributed action selection by a brainstem neural substrate: An embodied evaluation. FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS 9, PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 4095 (pp 199-210)
- A biologically inspired FPGA based implementation of a tactile sensory system for object recognition and texture discrimination. 2006 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FIELD PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC AND APPLICATIONS, PROCEEDINGS (pp 897-900)
- A Biomimetic Haptic Sensor. International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Vol. 2(4) (pp 335-343)
- Reliability and validity of a paced computer Stroop task for fMRI. ARCHIVES OF CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 18(7) (pp 755-755)
- The interaction of recurrent axon collateral networks in the basal ganglia. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 2714 (pp 797-804) View this article in WRRO
- The robot basal ganglia: Action selection by an embedded model of the basal ganglia. BASAL GANGLIA VII, Vol. 52 (pp 349-358) View this article in WRRO
- An embodied model of action selection mechanisms in the vertebrate brain. FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS 6 (pp 157-166) View this article in WRRO
- The robot basal ganglia: Control of robot action selection by an embodied model of the mammalian basal ganglia. EUR J NEUROSCI, Vol. 12 (pp 134-134)
- Feature distributions and experimental evaluation in a connectionist model of semantic memory. CONNECTIONIST MODELS IN COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE (pp 159-169) View this article in WRRO
- Almost a decade of Cognitive Science at Sheffield. AISB'99 Workshop on Issues in Teaching Cognitive Science to Undergraduates. Edinburgh College of Art & Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. View this article in WRRO
- The Basal Ganglia viewed as an Action Selection Device (pp 1033-1038) View this article in WRRO
- Experimental and connectionist perspectives on semantic memory development. PROCEEDINGS OF THE TWENTIETH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE COGNITIVE SCIENCE SOCIETY (pp 478-483) View this article in WRRO
- The early evolution of spatial behaviour: robot models of trace fossils. Workshop on Spatial Reasoning in Mobile Robots and Animals, Vol. Report number UMCS-97-4-1. Manchester View this article in WRRO
- Layered control architectures in natural and artificial systems. Workshop on Learning in Robots and Animals. Brighton, 31 March 1996 - 2 April 1996. View this article in WRRO
- Robot spatial learning: insights from animal and human behaviour. IEE Colloquium on Self Learning Robots
- Robot spatial learning: Insights from animal and human behaviour. IEE Colloquium (Digest)(26) View this article in WRRO
- SPATIAL-LEARNING AND REPRESENTATION IN ANIMATS. FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS 3 (pp 164-173) View this article in WRRO
- BUILDING LONG-RANGE COGNITIVE MAPS USING LOCAL LANDMARKS. FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS 2 (pp 233-242) View this article in WRRO
- Obstacle Avoidance through Reinforcement Learning.. NIPS (pp 523-530) View this article in WRRO
- Sunny uplands or slippery slopes? The risks and benefits of using robots in care. UKRE Workshop on Robot Ethics, 25 March 2013. View this article in WRRO
- Active Bayesian Perception for Simultaneous Object Localization and Identification. Robotics: Science and Systems IX View this article in WRRO
- Robot Companions For Citizens: Roadmapping The Potential For Future Robots In Empowering Older People. BRAID (Bridging Research in Ageing and ICT Development) Final Conference, 29 May 2012. View this article in WRRO
Reports
- Preparing the Workforce for 2030: Skills and Education for Robotics & Autonomous Systems
- Robotics in Social Care: A Connected Care Ecosystem for Independent Living View this article in WRRO
Theses / Dissertations
- Explorations in Reinforcement and Model-based Learning.
Working papers
- Automatic recognition of child speech for robotic applications in noisy
environments. View this article in WRRO
Other
- Erratum: A new dissimilarity measure for finding semantic structure in category fluency data with implications for understanding memory organization in schizophrenia (Neuropsychology (2006) 20, 6 (685-699)). Neuropsychology, 21(2), 273.
- THOUGHT RULES. NEW SCI, 135(1830), 53-53.
Preprints
- A Robotic Model of Hippocampal Reverse Replay for Reinforcement Learning, arXiv.
- DAC-h3: A Proactive Robot Cognitive Architecture to Acquire and Express
Knowledge About the World and the Self, arXiv.
- Basal Ganglia Control of Reflexive Saccades: A Computational Model Integrating Physiology Anatomy and Behaviour, bioRxiv.
- Automatic recognition of child speech for robotic applications in noisy
environments, arXiv.
- Impact of robot responsiveness and adult involvement on children's
social behaviours in human-robot interaction, arXiv.
- Preface.
- Grants
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- Human Brain Project: EU Future Emerging Technologies Flagship. T.J. Prescott (Sheffield PI): The Human Brain Project (2016-). Project value to Sheffield €774,000 (over four years).
- EPSRC. T.J.Prescott (PI): SERAS: Skills and Education in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (March 2020 - Feb 2021). £35,500
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). T. J. Prescott (PI): Cyberselves in Immersive Technologies (2014-2015). Project value £50,000.
- EU Framework 7 Cognitive and Robotics Systems. T. J. Prescott (PI): What You Say Is What You Did (WYSIWYD) (2014 - 2017). Total project value €3,500,000 (€575,000 to Sheffield).
- EU Framework 7 Cognitive and Robotics Systems. T.J. Prescott (PI): Expressive Agents for Symbiotic Education and Learning (EASEL) (Nov 2013 - 2016). Total project value €2,910,000 (€595,000 to Sheffield).
- UK Technology Strategy Board. T.J. Prescott (PI): IntelliTable (Sept 2013 -14). Total project value £100,000 (£27,000 to Sheffield).
- EPSRC Capital for Great Technologies. T.J. Prescott (PI): Human-Machine Cooperation In Robotics And Autonomous (July 2013 -14). £1,000,000.
- European Union Framework 7 Programme. T.J. Prescott (PI for Sheffield component): Convergent Science Network for Biomimetics and Neurotechnology (Mar 2013-2016). Total project value €950,000 (€172,711 to Sheffield).
- Weizmann – UK Joint Research Programme. T.J. Prescott (PI): Development of motor-sensory strategies for vibrissal active touch (Oct 2012-2014). Total project value $100,000 ($50,000 to Sheffield).
- EPSRC. T.J. Prescott (Co-Investigator): Bio-inspired Control of Electro-Active Polymers for Next Generation Soft Robots (Jan 2012-2015). Total project value £359,094 (~£170,000 to Sheffield).
- EPSRC/UoS. T.J. Prescott (PI): A wearable active sensing device using tactile displays (Sept 2011-2012). £49,998.
- European Union Framework 7 Programme. T.J. Prescott (PI for Sheffield component): CA-RoboCom: Coordination Action for the design and description of the FET Flagship candidate Robot Companions for Citizens (May 2011-2012). Total project value €1,500,000 (€90,000 to Sheffield).
- European Union Framework 7 Programme. T.J. Prescott (PI for Sheffield component): Experimental Functional Android Assistant (EFAA) (Jan 2011-2014). Total project value €2,858,000 (€517,000 to Sheffield).
- UoS Proof of Concept. T.J. Prescott (PI): Virtual Whiskers for Navigation in Hazardous Environments (Nov 2010-May 2011). £10,000.
- European Union Framework 7 Programme. T.J. Prescott (PI for Sheffield component): Convergent Science Network for Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems (Jan 2009-2012). Total project value €520,000 (€108,000) to Sheffield).
- European Union Framework 7 ICT Project 215910. T. J. Prescott (Co-ordinator and PI): BIOmimetic Technology for vibrissal ACtive Touch (BIOTACT) (2008-). (Jan 2008-Dec 2011). Total project value €7.8M (~€1.4M European Union contribution to Sheffield).
- European Union Framework 6 Cognitive Systems Project ST-027819-IP. T.J. Prescott (PI): Integration Cognition, Emotion, and Action (ICEA). (Jan 2006–Dec 2009). €8.08M (~€0.9M to Sheffield).
- EPRSC EP/C516303/1. Collaboration between 5 UK Universities. K. Gurney (PI) and TJ. Prescott: REVERB: Reverse Engineering the VERtebrate Brain (April 2005-March 2010). £1.8M (~£0.7M to Sheffield).
- EPRSC GR/S19639/01. Collaboration with Bristol Robotics Laborator. TJ. Prescott (PI): WhiskerBot: A Robot Whisker System Modelled on the Rat Mystacial Vibrissae (September 2003-August 2006). £430k (~£150k to Sheffield).
- EPRSC GR/R95722/01 T. J. Prescott (PI), K. Gurney, P. Redgrave: Robot control using a model of central structures in the vertebrate brain (Sept 2002–August 2005). £161k.
- Professional activities and memberships
-
Activities and Distinctions
- University of Sheffield Principal Investigator for the European Union Horizon 2020 Human Brain Project, 2016–
- Sage Centre for the Study of Mind Distinguished Fellow (2018)
- Fellow of the British Psychological Society (FBPsS), 2011–
- Co-founder of the University of Sheffield spin-out company Consequential Robotics, 2016–
- Editor of Connection Science, 2014-
- Co-founder of the "Living Machines" International Conference Series, 2012-
- Co-organiser of the European Union FP7 Co-ordination Action Convergent Science Network for Biomimetics and Neurotechlog
- Co-founder and Director of the Sheffield Robotics, 2011-
- Partner in the "Robot Companions for Citizens" FET Flagship pilot project and leader of a working group on Societal Impacts and Ethical Issues in Robotics, 2011-12
- Cofounder and co-organiser of the annual Barcelona Summer School on Cognitiion, Brain & Technology, 2008-
- Co-ordinator of the EU FP7 BIOTACT project, 2008-12
- Visiting Research Fellow at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, 2003-
- Founder and co-director of the Adaptive Behaviour Research Group, 1996-
- My research has been covered by the BBC One Show, Radio 4 Today Programme, Material World & Costing the Earth, Discovery Channel, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Observer, The Economist, Science Magazine, New Scientist, Focus Magazine and American Scientist.
Earlier Plenary and Invited Talks
- Assistive and companion robot technologies. Technology and Dementia (AAIC 17 Satellite Meeting), London, 15th July 2018.
- Through a glass, darkly; then face to robot face, Public Symposium in Honour of the Artist Jordan Wolfson at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, February 18th 2018.
- Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences, 6th October 2016 (Invited talk)
- Battle of Ideas, London Barbican Centre, 22nd October 2016 (Debate)
- IEEE ICDL-EPIROB 2016, 22nd September 2016 (Plenary talk)
- Tencent "Way to Evolve" Conference, November 2015 (Invited talk, live streamed)
- Institute of Contemporary Art "Fear of Missing Out", 30th May 2015 (invited talk)
- SPIE Biomimetics, San Diego, USA, March 2014 (Opening talk)
- 'Socially-responsible research in Cognitive Systems: A no-win or a win-win'. EU Cognition III Annual Meeting, Brighton, UK, December 2013 (Plenary talk)
- IEEE World Haptics, Daejeon, South Korea, April 2013 (Opening talk)
- European Conference for Complex Systems, Warwick, 2009 (Opening talk)
- 2018 Highlights & Invited Talks
2018 Highlights
- The Handbook of Living Machines, co-edited with Paul Verschure, Nathan Lepora and Michael Szollosy, was published by the Oxford University Press in April. Part of the OUP’s influential Oxford Handbook series, the book’s 65 contributed chapters provide a comprehensive introduction to research in biomimetic and biohybrid systems.
- I am grateful to Michael Gazzaniga and Scott Grafton, from the Sage Centre for the Study of Mind at UC Santa Barbara, for hosting me for a 3-month Distinguished Fellow appointment in the summer of 2018, and to the University of Sheffield for granting me study leave for the period.
- While in California I also visited Leah Krubitzer’s lab at UC Davis, where we co-wrote a review The Combinatorial Creature for Trends in Neurosciences on the evolution and development of mammalian cortex.
- Our spin-out company Consequential Robotics released a new version of our unique brain-based animal-like robot. The MiRo-e is intended for use in education and therapy and the robot is set to be a key part of our new robotics teaching in the Department of Computer Science at Sheffield University.
- The Cyberselves Roadshow, co-organised with Michael Szollosy and Daniel Camilleri, and supported by the AHRC Cyberselves project, made appearances at Bluedot Festival, Cheltenham Science Festival, London Tech Week (3 events), FutureFest, Manchester Science Festival and Sheffield Festival of Mind, reaching an audience of more than 20,000 people. This video shows us meeting Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at London Futurefest.
- With colleagues I co-organised the 7th International Conference on Living Machines in Paris, and the 11th edition of the Barcelona Summer School on Brain, Cognition and Technology.
- As part of our activities for the EU FET Flagship Human Brain Project we organised the first HBP Innovation Forum at the London Science Museum. Thanks for everyone who visited our exhibits or attended our events.
2018 Invited Talks
- Synthesizing the embodied self: A robotics perspective, Does the Brain Need a Body? Human Brain Project Workshop, Barcelona, Spain, March 9th.
- Making Ourselves: from Psychology to Robotics, Human Brain Project Education Workshop, Munich, March 13th.
- The robot vibrissal system: Understanding mammalian sensorimotor co-ordination through biomimetics, 14th annual Ben-Gurion University Workshop on Computational Motor Control, Beersheba, Israel, March 18th.
- Artificial Intelligence: Robots and the Fate of the Human Race, ECSSR 23rd Annual Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE, March 20-21st.
- Are Friends Electric? Our Future Lives with Robots, Edinburgh International Science Festival, March 31st (sponsored by the British Computing Society).
- Understanding the Brain by Building Robots, Sage Center for the Study of Mind Distinguished Fellows Series, UC Santa Barbara, California, USA, April 16th.
- How Robots Could Change Our View of the Human, Sage Center for the Study of Mind Distinguished Fellows Series, UC Santa Barbara, California, USA, April 23rd.
- Are Friends Electric? Our Future Lives with Robots and Artificial Intelligence, Sage Center for the Study of Mind Distinguished Fellows Series, UC Santa Barbara, California, USA, April 30th
- The Future of Work, York Festival of Ideas, York, UK, June 16th.
- VIP Opening Panel, RAID (Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Data) 2018, Paris, France, June 19th.
- A Personalized Animal-like Robot Companion to Support People with Dementia, Annual Meeting of the Alzheimer’s Society, Chicago, July 22nd.
- The synthetic psychology of the self, IEEE/RSJ IROS Conference 2018 BODIS Workshop: The utility of body, interaction and self learning in robotics, Madrid, October 1st.
- The Impact of Robotics on the Future of Work AI, Digital Leadership Forum: Automation and the Future of Work, London, November 16th.
- Robotics and Artificial Intelligence for Social Care, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Social Care
- Friend or foe? (Skills for Care), London, November 20th.
- Can Robots Have Emotions? Philosophy Café - Emotions: Natural, Cultural or Artificial? Sheffield, UK, November 26th.
- The making of ourselves: from psychology to robotics. University of Sheffield Department of Computer Science Inaugural Lecture Series, Sheffield, UK, November 28th.
- The integration of sensing attention and memory in mammals and robots, EPFL Brain-Mind Institute Symposium: Controlling Behavior in Robots and Animals, Lausanne, Switzerland, December 4th.