From Sensing to Collaboration: Engineering, Exploring and Exploiting the Building Blocks of Embodied Intelligence - An EPSRC Programme Grant
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Engineering Science
Abstract
Our robots are too specialised, too impoverished in their sensing, too uncooperative and too unsafe to be productive at scale. To contribute to productivity in strategically important areas such as social care, manufacturing, logistics, service, inspection or agriculture, future generations of robots need to be able to sense, interpret, act, navigate, coordinate and collaborate with an hitherto unprecedented acuity.
VISION: The overarching aim of this research programme is to deliver autonomous systems which amplify human capacity and potential. These robots must be capable of performing a broad array of bespoke tasks effectively, and with a minimum of operator intervention. In a sustainable national centre of excellence we will grow the technology and people substrate for robust embodied intelligence, i.e. the science and technology to enable robots to robustly and flexibly act, interact and collaborate in the real world.
STRATEGY: Our focus is on engineering, exploring and exploiting the building blocks of integrated embodied intelligence to deliver autonomous systems which, over the course of their life-time, acquire the sensing, perception, manipulation, navigation, collaboration and problem solving abilities required to allow them to operate unaided while significantly enhancing human productivity. We will significantly expand the reach and versatility of robots in domains of strategic and commercial value by exploiting synergies across research disciplines, which only emerge when deploying robot systems. In doing so we are driven by both fundamental science questions and real-world applications. Together with our partners, we have a clear scope in mind: versatile, collaborative robots whose societal and economic footprint is vast. Our work will underpin a national strategic aim with a carefully considered and coherent programme of research: from sensing to collaboration.
VISION: The overarching aim of this research programme is to deliver autonomous systems which amplify human capacity and potential. These robots must be capable of performing a broad array of bespoke tasks effectively, and with a minimum of operator intervention. In a sustainable national centre of excellence we will grow the technology and people substrate for robust embodied intelligence, i.e. the science and technology to enable robots to robustly and flexibly act, interact and collaborate in the real world.
STRATEGY: Our focus is on engineering, exploring and exploiting the building blocks of integrated embodied intelligence to deliver autonomous systems which, over the course of their life-time, acquire the sensing, perception, manipulation, navigation, collaboration and problem solving abilities required to allow them to operate unaided while significantly enhancing human productivity. We will significantly expand the reach and versatility of robots in domains of strategic and commercial value by exploiting synergies across research disciplines, which only emerge when deploying robot systems. In doing so we are driven by both fundamental science questions and real-world applications. Together with our partners, we have a clear scope in mind: versatile, collaborative robots whose societal and economic footprint is vast. Our work will underpin a national strategic aim with a carefully considered and coherent programme of research: from sensing to collaboration.
Planned Impact
Robust, versatile embodied intelligence is crucial for RAS technology contributing to industry and society. It is a pivotal enabler in a number of large industrial sectors in the global economy with an ability to reach a truly vast audience. To realise this potential, it is imperative to combine academic excellence with an appropriate grounding of the research in real industrial need. We run a "petal" impact model. At the heart of the endeavour is research staff surrounded by expert engineering support. Within this team are knowledge exchange engineers and a project delivery coordinator who are charged with managing the flow of knowledge between industry partners and the researchers. Membership to the cadre of industrial partners is offered on a sector-by-sector basis. In this way our proposal will create lasting, catalysing impact on UKPLC.
Industrial Impact - the true impact, reach, ambition and richness of this proposal is best illustrated by some of our research Flagships: domain-specific, physical instantiations of integrated competencies developed across the entire research consortium. Examples include pick-and-carry operations and dressing assistance in Social Care (supported by Oxfordshire County Council and Scan Computers); small-batch, interactive manufacturing tasks (with Accenture, RACE and the Shadow Robot Company); stock-taking, bin picking and bin packing tasks in Logistics (with Ocado and Bossa Nova); precision farming applications (with Saga Robotics); and long-term, multi-agent inspection tasks and autonomous fault intervention (with BP, Navtech L3-ASV and Oxbotica). Our long-term plan is to act as a hub, which serves as a catalyst for investors, existing businesses and new enterprises to inform, engage in and exploit the next generation of RAS technologies.
Academic Impact - the award of a Programme Grant will stimulate the transition of robotics technology from an academic pedigree to real-world applications of industrial significance. It will consolidate and strengthen the UK research base across disciplines such as Robotics, HRI and Cognitive Science.
Societal Impact - we aspire for our robots to work with and alongside us in productive symbiosis - or even care for us. While scientific boundaries are receding, issues surrounding trust and acceptance of this technology into society become ever more apparent. Immediately, then, questions of Responsible Innovation must be asked. The Anticipate-Reflect-Engage-Act) paradigm, as set out by EPSRC, is of course apt here. The Programme Grant will: Anticipate results of related research on the impact of automation on employment; Reflect on and promote ethical thinking around intelligent machines and the societal benefits of interactions between robots and people; Engage with stakeholders and the general public to provide feedback surrounding the effects of our innovation; and Act to test examples of safe and effective human-robot interaction.
Industrial Impact - the true impact, reach, ambition and richness of this proposal is best illustrated by some of our research Flagships: domain-specific, physical instantiations of integrated competencies developed across the entire research consortium. Examples include pick-and-carry operations and dressing assistance in Social Care (supported by Oxfordshire County Council and Scan Computers); small-batch, interactive manufacturing tasks (with Accenture, RACE and the Shadow Robot Company); stock-taking, bin picking and bin packing tasks in Logistics (with Ocado and Bossa Nova); precision farming applications (with Saga Robotics); and long-term, multi-agent inspection tasks and autonomous fault intervention (with BP, Navtech L3-ASV and Oxbotica). Our long-term plan is to act as a hub, which serves as a catalyst for investors, existing businesses and new enterprises to inform, engage in and exploit the next generation of RAS technologies.
Academic Impact - the award of a Programme Grant will stimulate the transition of robotics technology from an academic pedigree to real-world applications of industrial significance. It will consolidate and strengthen the UK research base across disciplines such as Robotics, HRI and Cognitive Science.
Societal Impact - we aspire for our robots to work with and alongside us in productive symbiosis - or even care for us. While scientific boundaries are receding, issues surrounding trust and acceptance of this technology into society become ever more apparent. Immediately, then, questions of Responsible Innovation must be asked. The Anticipate-Reflect-Engage-Act) paradigm, as set out by EPSRC, is of course apt here. The Programme Grant will: Anticipate results of related research on the impact of automation on employment; Reflect on and promote ethical thinking around intelligent machines and the societal benefits of interactions between robots and people; Engage with stakeholders and the general public to provide feedback surrounding the effects of our innovation; and Act to test examples of safe and effective human-robot interaction.
Organisations
- University of Oxford (Lead Research Organisation)
- Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) (Collaboration)
- OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE (Collaboration)
- Accenture (United States) (Project Partner)
- Shadow Robot (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Saga Robotics (International) (Project Partner)
- BP (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Ocado Group (Project Partner)
- CCFE/UKAEA (Project Partner)
- Australian Centre for Robotic Vision (Project Partner)
- ASV (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Honda (Germany) (Project Partner)
- Bossanova (Project Partner)
- OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL (Project Partner)
Publications
Albini A
(2021)
A Local Filtering Technique for Robot Skin Data
in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Aldera R
(2022)
What Goes Around: Leveraging a Constant-Curvature Motion Constraint in Radar Odometry
in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Baioumy M
(2022)
Beta residuals: improving fault-tolerant control for sensory faults via bayesian inference and precision learning
in IFAC-PapersOnLine, 55(6), 285-291
Barbosa F
(2021)
Risk-Aware Motion Planning in Partially Known Environments
Barbosa F
(2021)
Risk-Aware Motion Planning in Partially Known Environments
Brudermüller L
(2022)
Time-bounded large-scale mission planning under uncertainty for UV disinfection
Budd M
(2022)
Probabilistic Planning for AUV Data Harvesting from Smart Underwater Sensor Networks
in IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2022-October, 12051-12057
Collins J
(2024)
RAMP: A Benchmark for Evaluating Robotic Assembly Manipulation and Planning
in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Colombatto C
(2024)
Folk psychological attributions of consciousness to large language models.
in Neuroscience of consciousness
Costen C
(2022)
Shared autonomy systems with stochastic operator models
Costen C
(2023)
Planning with Hidden Parameter Polynomial MDPs
in Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Costen C
(2022)
Shared Autonomy Systems with Stochastic Operator Models
DeMoss B
(2023)
DITTO: Offline Imitation Learning with World Models
in DITTO: Offline Imitation Learning with World Models
Engelcke M
(2021)
GENESIS-V2: Inferring Unordered Object Representations without Iterative Refinement
in arXiv preprint: 2104.09958.
Gautier A
(2023)
Multi-Unit Auctions for Allocating Chance-Constrained Resources
in Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Gautier A
(2022)
Negotiated Path Planning for Non-Cooperative Multi-Robot Systems
Gautier A.
(2022)
Negotiated Path Planning for Non-Cooperative Multi-Robot Systems
in Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS
Gibbons O
(2023)
A Tactile Feedback Insertion Strategy for Peg-in-Hole Tasks
Goodwin W
(2022)
Zero-Shot Category-Level Object Pose Estimation
in Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 13699 LNCS, 516-532
He L
(2023)
Robotic Simulators for Tissue Examination Training With Multimodal Sensory Feedback.
in IEEE reviews in biomedical engineering
He L
(2022)
3D-Printed Soft Sensors for Adaptive Sensing with Online and Offline Tunable Stiffness.
in Soft robotics
He L
(2023)
Rubber-Like Soft Lattice Structure for Anti-Ballooning in Fluidic Elastic Soft Robots
in Advanced Engineering Materials
Hughes J
(2021)
Online Morphological Adaptation for Tactile Sensing Augmentation.
in Frontiers in robotics and AI
Hung C
(2022)
Reaching Through Latent Space: From Joint Statistics to Path Planning in Manipulation
in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Jackson J
(2022)
Short-range multispectral imaging is an inexpensive, fast, and accurate approach to estimate biodiversity in a temperate calcareous grassland.
in Ecology and evolution
Jovan F
(2022)
Efficiently exploring for human robot interaction: partially observable Poisson processes
in AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS, 2022
Kochakarn P
(2023)
Explainable Action Prediction through Self-Supervision on Scene Graphs
Kochakarn P
(2023)
Explainable Action Prediction through Self-Supervision on Scene Graphs
Lacerda B
(2022)
Decision-making under uncertainty for multi-robot systems
in AI COMMUNICATIONS, 35(4), 433-441
Lacerda B
(2022)
Decision-making under uncertainty for multi-robot systems
in AI Communications
Liu C
(2024)
Exploring Kinematic Bifurcations and Hinge Compliance for In-Hand Manipulation: How Could Thick-Panel Origami Contribute?
in Advanced Intelligent Systems
Liu C
(2021)
A 3D-Printable Robotic Gripper Based on Thick Panel Origami
in Frontiers in Robotics and AI
Mitchell A
(2023)
VAE-Loco: Versatile Quadruped Locomotion by Learning a Disentangled Gait Representation
in IEEE Transactions on Robotics
Musat V
(2024)
NeuralFloors: Conditional Street-Level Scene Generation From BEV Semantic Maps via Neural Fields
in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Musat V
(2022)
Depth-SIMS: Semi-Parametric Image and Depth Synthesis
Description | Research Highlights and Key Successes • We have developed durable and compliant distributed tactile sensors for soft robotics end-effectors using multi-material manufacturing techniques and are deploying them into our two social care flagships. • We have created a framework using generative models to synthesise tactile images from visual data. • We have advanced the state-of-the-art in unsupervised object-centric scene segmentation and generation. • We have developed a novel approach to planning for complex robot systems exploiting the structured latent spaces learnt by deep generative models. The approach is versatile, finding application in reaching and locomotion tasks thus far. • Our work on semantic LiDAR localisation has defined the state-of-the-art whilst requiring extremely low storage overhead. • We have proposed a dataset comparison tool enabling effective learning and evaluation in navigation settings. • We have developed a planning method and discrete event simulator for rapid synthesis and evaluation of multi-robot policies under uncertainty. These tools are being deployed to evaluate the throughput of human-robot warehouse configurations. • We have developed approaches for risk-aware planning and learning to support future safe human-robot task-level collaboration. An example is a fast, reactive motion planner for safer human-robot physical interaction. • With a view to developing a framework to characterise touch from instrumental and affective perspectives within social care, we conducted systematic reviews and empirical research on affective touch, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary approaches and the role of touch in therapeutic relationships - specifically to support the emergence of trust or confidence. • We are pioneering the qualitative and quantitative characterisation of the metacognitive abilities of humans and machines in individual and shared autonomy tasks. • Early engagement with stakeholders in our flagship domains has enabled us to significantly refine our application focus. This is evidenced in our revised Flagship tasks. Examples include the expansion of our social care activity focused around The Good Hydration Project and Training & Enablement as well as our recent launch of a new, industry inspired robot assembly benchmark. |
Exploitation Route | Academic publications, however too early to say as the grant is ongoing. - Further development based on academic publications - licensing by industrial stakeholders - Larger scale field studies in public and private services |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Healthcare Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Transport |
URL | https://embodiedintelligence.web.ox.ac.uk/home |
Description | CAMAS has been used by Accenture Labs to simulate large scale multi-robot interactions as part of a generative design process for warehouse layouts and the optimisation of the distribution of human and robot workers within these warehouses. |
Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy |
Impact Types | Economic Policy & public services |
Description | MTC Benchmark |
Organisation | Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | We have devised, implemented and launched the RAMP public benchmark. An open and accessible robotics benchmark targeting industry-inspired challenges in off-site assembly tasks. The benchmark consists of a full simulation suite as well as low-cost 3D printable parts for real-world implementation. Basic baseline algorithms are provided to further catalyse progress. |
Collaborator Contribution | The MTC has contributed the problem definition and requirement shaping. Together with the University of Birmingham the MTC has contributed an initial planning baseline. |
Impact | RAMP published paper, RAMP website listed above and a NVIDIA blog post. |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Metacognition in robotics |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Department | Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Developing measures and models of metacognition in human-machine interactions, and evaluating their impact on trust and collaboration. |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise and research platforms (both physical and in software) related to robotics and human-machine interaction |
Impact | Outputs in progress |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Oxfordshire County Council OT's |
Organisation | Oxfordshire County Council |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | UCL & IoR have explored with Occupational Therapists (OTs) how robotics can support OT trainings and OT practice. We have engaged with OTs across the UK and in particular with Occupational Therapists from the Oxfordshire County Council. We are now iteratively designing a robot simulating clients with different physical and psychological needs to support training of touch-based assessment of client seating quality. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Oxfordshire County Council is supporting our research through interviews, focus groups and co-designed workshops to explore robots needs and requirements. They have agreed to continue the discussion through iterative design and evaluation of the robot platforms and related technology. We expect to run a second focus group soon with the first robotic platform iteration |
Impact | T. Olugbade, L. He, P. Maiolino, D. Heylen and N. Bianchi-Berthouze, "Touch Technology in Affective Human-, Robot-, and Virtual-Human Interactions: A Survey," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 111, no. 10, pp. 1333-1354, Oct. 2023, doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2023.3272780 One paper is in review: systematic review of use and categorization of instrumental and affective touch in clinical settings is One paper reporting the study with OTs on robots requirements is about to be submitted Work still ongoing |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Uni Dundee on sub-contracting in a UKSA contract |
Organisation | University of Dundee |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Engaged Uni Dundee on sub-contracting in a UKSA contract for exploiting our work on synthesising realistic images from planetary simulators |
Collaborator Contribution | Additional funding towards research |
Impact | Ongoing |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | 5th UK manipulation Workshop organisation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 5th UK manipulation Workshop organisation |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
URL | https://www.robot-manipulation.uk/ |
Description | ARA Symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | ARA Symposium |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | ARIA - 2 days workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | ARIA - 2 days workshop |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | Academic Executive Board - Embodied Intelligence - May 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Academic Executive Board - Embodied Intelligence |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Amazon Research Award Symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Amazon Research Award Symposium |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Attended MARS 2022 Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Attended MARS 2022 Conference at Amazon |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Attended Oxford Human-Machine Collaboration Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Attended Oxford Human-Machine Collaboration Conference |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | BL & NH ESSAI Summer school on Model Uncertainty in Sequential Decision Making |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | BL & NH ESSAI Summer school on Model Uncertainty in Sequential Decision Making |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | CDL-Oxford (AI) Session |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | CDL-Oxford (AI) Session |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Co-organiser of the workshop robot assisted safe manipulation in hazardous material |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Co-organiser of the workshop robot assisted safe manipulation in hazardous material |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/morph-lab/events/icra23-workshop-on-robot-assisted-safe-manipulation-of-h... |
Description | DDM Workshop on "uncommon sensing modalities" at ITSC 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | DDM Workshop on "uncommon sensing modalities" at ITSC 2023 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://btsit2023.compute.dtu.dk/ |
Description | ECMR 2021 - invitation for a keynote speech |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | ECMR 2021 - invitation for a keynote speech |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | EPSRC IAA Steering Group meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | EPSRC IAA Steering Group meeting |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Fosun conversation ongoing |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Fosun conversation ongoing |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | HIP Invited to speak at and contribute to BrainWorlds initiative |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | HIP Invited to speak at and contribute to BrainWorlds initiative |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://brainworlds.uni-freiburg.de |
Description | HIP Talk at Cambridge (Observatory for Human Machine Collaboration & Control Groups) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | HIP Talk at Cambridge (Observatory for Human Machine Collaboration & Control Groups) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | HIP taking part in ADRA/ EU Roadmapping event on Generative AI in Robotics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | HIP taking part in Adra/ EU Roadmapping event on Generative AI in Robotics |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | IBM-Oxford collaboration |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Discuss collaboration |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | IROS Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | IROS Conference |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | IT Committee |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | IT Committee |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Invited Talk: Pavel Izmailov on What Bayesian Neural Network Posteriors Really Are Like |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Invited Talk: Pavel Izmailov on What Bayesian Neural Network Posteriors Really Are Like |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Invited speaker workshop at ICRA 2023 for presenting the optimisation toolbox for design optimisation of soft robots |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Perla Maiolino was an invited speaker at a workshop within ICRA 2023 programme, for presenting the optimisation toolbox for design of soft robots |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.icra2023.org/programme/workshops-tutorials |
Description | Jan 2023: Ingmar gave invited talk at Imperial College Robot Learning Lab |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | • Jan 2023: HIP gave invited talk at Imperial College Robot Learning Lab |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | MG Invited to speak at SpaceTech |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | MG Invited to speak at SpaceTech |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.space.ox.ac.uk/events/oxford-spacetech-conference |
Description | NVIDIA potentially interested in closely related project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | NVIDIA potentially interested in closely related project |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Newspaper article in Financial Times |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Article in Financial Times magazine on the potential for metacognition in AI |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.ft.com/content/1ff66eb9-166f-4082-958f-debe84e92e9e |
Description | Oxford Robotics Institute visit to the MTC |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Oxford Robotics Institute visit to the MTC |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | PM & NH - talk at Pint of Science event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | PM & NH - talk at Pint of Science event |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | PM - Invited speaker workshop at EPFL |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited speaker workshop at EPFL |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.epfl.ch/labs/create/workshop-on-robotics-and-embodied-ai-for-food-and-home-applications/ |
Description | PM Talk with Oxford-Nottingham Academics for proposal DEA and DES for EPSRC |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | PM Talk with Oxford-Nottingham Academics for proposal DEA and DES for EPSRC |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | PM meeting with CSIRO (Australia) for possible collaboration |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | PM meeting with CSIRO (Australia) for possible collaboration |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | PM plenary talk at the London International Youth Science Forum |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | PM plenary talk at the London International Youth Science Forum |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.liysf.org.uk/ |
Description | PM workshop at Neurips 23 about tactile sensing |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | PM workshop at Neurips 23 about tactile sensing |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Panel Member - ELLIS PhD & Postdoc Summit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Panel Member - ELLIS PhD & Postdoc Summit |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Pembroke Investment Committee |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Pembroke Investment Committee |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Podcast about optimisation toolbox for design of soft robots |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Soft robotics debate led by Prof. Laura Blumenschein and podcast series on soft robotic software packages released during ICRA 2023 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Podcast with decision-making, long-term autonomy, and artificial intelligence |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Robot Talk podcast administered by the UK-RAS network |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.ukras.org.uk/RobotTalk/episode-49-Nick-Hawes/ |
Description | Presentation at Children, Interaction, and Design event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | MN gave a presentation at Children, Interaction, and Design networking event in Edinburgh, Scotland. About 100 people from different parts of the UK, with interest and/or background in interaction design with/for children, attended this event. The presentation sparked conversation about future directions of interaction design with children and emerging technologies may support children's development and learning both in formal and informal settings. There was an invitation to join this network where members collaborate on writing grants and meet for knowledge exchange and other related events. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/children-interaction-and-design-networking-event-tickets-504606921887 |
Description | Presentation at UCL Robotics Workshop '23 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | MN and LH gave a presentation and presented a poster at UCL Robotics Workshop 2023 with the title "How understanding the role of instrumental-affective touch in occupational therapy practice may support the development of collaborative robots in healthcare". About two hundred people attended the event. The presentation sparked conversations especially around trust and touch in clinician-patient interaction. In addition, audience members reported interest in themes reported, and an understanding the importance of instrumental-affective touch in human-robotic interaction, as well as acknowledging how this type of understanding of touch may support in designing social robots in healthcare settings. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/robotics/events/2023/feb/ucl-robotics-23 |
Description | Presentation at the Association for the Advancement of Affective Computing |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | NB gave an online seminar presentation for the Association for the Advancement of Affective Computing (AAAC) titled "Movement, Touch and Affective Technology: Opportunities in Physical Rehabilitation" reaching an international professional audience with shared interest in affective computing. The presentation sparked conversation afterwards about opportunities to investigate touch in social robotics and exploring future research collaboration. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://aaac.world/association/ |
Description | Speak at CDT Joint Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Speak at CDT Joint Conference |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Speaks at David Filliat's w/s |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | speaks at David Filliat's w/s |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Spot demo at Science Wonder Garden Party at Begbroke. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The project team participated in an open day event held at Begbroke Science Park where attendees had the opportunity to engage in various activities including experiments, lab tours, interactive talks, games, and art and science workshops to learn about research and innovation in the area, including at Oxford University. The project team specifically offered the chance to meet Spot, the robot, showcasing our work in robotics. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://vimeo.com/844041868 |
Description | Talk at MORE |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Gives MORE talk |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Workshops with Occupational Therapists |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Two workshops facilitated by researchers, conducted with practicing occupational therapists and their trainers, to explore how therapists use touch as part of their practice, and what types of affect is conveyed through different type of touch during seating assessment or moving and handling of patient. The workshops also sparked conversations around opportunities and challenges of designing and incorporating social robots to occupational training, or working alongside therapists. The participating therapists were keen to continue collaborating in future workshops and research with similar themes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | invited to advisory board on Awareness Inside track EU proposal |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | invited to advisory board on Awareness Inside track EU proposal |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | involved in scoping project with IBM for DARPA project on introspective control |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | involved in scoping project with IBM for DARPA project on introspective control |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | part of a potential partner-centre bid to the Australian Research Council. Remit of the centre similar to ours. Underlines topicality and reach of what we are doing here. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | part of a potential partner-centre bid to the Australian Research Council. Remit of the centre similar to ours. Underlines topicality and reach of what we are doing here. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | • 12th April 2022: NH talk invited talk to Edinburgh Centre for Robotics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • 12th April 2022: NH talk invited talk to Edinburgh Centre for Robotics |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 12th Jan 2022: NH gave invited seminar to University of Manchester |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | • 12th Jan 2022: NH gave invited seminar to University of Manchester |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 12th Nov 2021: NH gave invited seminar to AIMS CDT |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | • 12th Nov 2021: NH gave invited seminar to AIMS CDT |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 14th June 2022: NH invited talk at the KTH RPL Summer School in Sweden. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | • 14th June 2022: NH invited talk at the KTH RPL Summer School in Sweden. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 17 November 2022: All groups involved in PG delivered talks at Bristol symposium organised by this PG. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • 17 November 2022: All groups involved in PG delivered talks at Bristol symposium organised by this PG. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 17 November 2022: PG/ORI visit to BRL, effectively a small symposium for knowledge exchange and to explore overlap. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • 17 November 2022: PG/ORI visit to BRL, effectively a small symposium for knowledge exchange and to explore overlap. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 22nd June 2022: NH invited talk at AgriForwards CDT conference in Lincoln. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • 22nd June 2022: NH invited talk at AgriForwards CDT conference in Lincoln. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 24th Feb 2022: NH invited talk to Beijing Institute of Technology |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • 24th Feb 2022: NH invited talk to Beijing Institute of Technology |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 26-30 September 2022: NH participated at Dagstuhl on Cognitive Robotics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • 26-30 September 2022: NH participated at Dagstuhl on Cognitive Robotics |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 27 May: HIP give invited talk at ICRA w/s on Releasing Robots into the Wild. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • 27 May: HIP give invited talk at ICRA w/s on Releasing Robots into the Wild. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 28th April 2022: HIP + NH talks to the Human Machine Collorabtion Conference at Oxford (internal industry-facing event) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • 28th April 2022: HIP + NH talks to the Human Machine Collorabtion Conference at Oxford (internal industry-facing event) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 28th May 2022: NH, HIP delivered talks on human-machine collaboration at a large AWS-sponsored conference in Oxford |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • 28th May 2022: NH, HIP delivered talks on human-machine collaboration at a large AWS-sponsored conference in Oxford |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 28th May 2022: NH/HIP AWS Human-Machine Collaboration Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • 28th May 2022: NH/HIP AWS Human-Machine Collaboration |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • 3 Sep 2021: HIP gave keynote at ECMR 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • 3 Sep 2021: HIP gave keynote at ECMR 2021 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • Dec 2021: HIP/SF/OPJ together with IBM and others organised NeurIPS w/s on Metacognition in the Age of AI |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • Dec 2021: HIP/SF/OPJ together with IBM and others organised NeurIPS w/s on Metacognition in the Age of AI |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | • Jan 2023: HIP and PM delivered invited talks at UK Manipulation W/S |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • Jan 2023: HIP and PM delivered invited talks at UK Manipulation W/S |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | • Jan 2023: HIP gave invited talk at HEIBRiDs Berlin |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • Jan 2023: HIP gave invited talk at HEIBRiDs Berlin |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | • Jan 2023: HIP gave invited talk for TU Berlin Science of Intelligence Seminar Series |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • Jan 2023: HIP gave invited talk for TU Berlin Science of Intelligence Seminar Series |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | • October 2022: HIP delivered invited talk at IROS w/s on Probabilistic Robotics in Age of Deep Learning |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | • October 2022: HIP delivered invited talk at IROS w/s on Probabilistic Robotics in Age of Deep Learning |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |