Dr Roderich Gross
PhD, SMIEEE, MACM
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Senior Lecturer in Robotics and Computational Intelligence
Full contact details
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Amy Johnson Building
Portobello Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
- Profile
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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
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- 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
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Journal articles
- Scalable plug-and-play robotic fabrics based on Kilobot modules. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 10(7), 6832-6839. View this article in WRRO
- A collective perception model for neighbor selection in groups based on visual attention mechanisms. New Journal of Physics, 26. View this article in WRRO
- Recent developments in self-assembling multi-robot systems. Current Robotics Reports, 4(4), 101-116. View this article in WRRO
- Coherent movement of error-prone individuals through mechanical coupling. Nature Communications, 14. View this article in WRRO
- Mean-shift exploration in shape assembly of robot swarms.. Nat Commun, 14(1), 3476.
- GenSwarm: Scalable Multi-Robot Code-Policy Generation and Deployment via Language Models. npj Robotics, 4(1), 5.
Conference proceedings
- Human Perceptions of Warmth and Competence in Swarm Robot Behavior. Companion Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp 196-200)
- On the Benefits of Robot Platooning for Navigating Crowded Environments (pp 259-272)
- CapBot: Enabling Battery-Free Swarm Robotics. 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (pp 570-576), 19 May 2025 - 23 May 2025.
- Ready, bid, go! On-demand delivery using fleets of drones with unknown, heterogeneous energy storage constraints. Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (pp 2015-2023). Detroit, Michigan, USA, 19 May 2025 - 19 May 2025. View this article in WRRO
- A comparative study of energy replenishment strategies for robot swarms. Swarm Intelligence: 14th International Conference, ANTS 2024, Konstanz, Germany, October 9–11, 2024, Proceedings, Vol. LNCS 14987 (pp 3-15). Konstanz, Germany, 9 October 2024 - 9 October 2024. View this article in WRRO
- Multi-robot systems research: a data-driven trend analysis. Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems. DARS 22, Vol. 28 (pp 537-549). Montbéliard, France, 28 November 2022 - 28 November 2022. View this article in WRRO
- Sharing the control of robot swarms among multiple human operators: a user study. 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Proceedings (pp 8847-8853). Detroit, Michigan, USA, 1 October 2023 - 1 October 2023. View this article in WRRO
- Towards heterogeneous modular robotic systems for industrial applications. Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS'23). Cambridge, UK, 13 September 2023 - 13 September 2023. View this article in WRRO
- Angled cantilever construction by force-aware robotic swarms. Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS'23). Cambridge, UK, 13 September 2023 - 13 September 2023. View this article in WRRO
- Energy replenishment strategies for robot swarms. 1st German Robotics Conference (GRC 2025). Nuremberg, Germany, 13 March 2025 - 13 March 2025. View this article in WRRO
- Multi-human multi-robot interaction: cooperation leveraging a robot swarm as a shared resource. 1st German Robotics Conference (GRC 2025). Nuremberg, Germany, 13 March 2025 - 13 March 2025. View this article in WRRO
Preprints
- Design for One, Deploy for Many: Navigating Tree Mazes with Multiple Agents, arXiv.
- Ready, Bid, Go! On-Demand Delivery Using Fleets of Drones with Unknown,
Heterogeneous Energy Storage Constraints.
- On the Benefits of Robot Platooning for Navigating Crowded Environments, arXiv.
- Scalable plug-and-play robotic fabrics based on Kilobot modules. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 10(7), 6832-6839. View this article in WRRO
- Grants
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- 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
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- ACS6501 Foundations of Robotics
- Professional activities and memberships
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- 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)