UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Node in Functionality
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: Aerospace Engineering
Abstract
'Autonomous systems' are machines with some form of decision-making ability, which allows them to act independently from a human controller. This kind of technology is already all around us, from traction control systems in cars, to the helpful assistant in mobile phones and computers (Siri, Alexa, Cortana). Some of these systems have more autonomy than others, meaning that some are very predictable and will only react in the way they are initially set up, whereas others have more freedom and can learn and react in ways that go beyond their initial setup. This can make them more useful, but also less predictable.
Some autonomous systems have the potential to change what they do, and we call this 'evolving functionality'. This means that a system designed to do a certain task in a certain way, may 'evolve' over time to either do the same task a different way, or to do a different task. All without a human controller telling it what to do. These kinds of systems are being developed because they are potentially very useful, with a wide range of possible applications ranging from minimal down-time manufacturing through to emergency response and robotic surgery. The ability to evolve in functionality offers the potential for autonomous systems to move from conducting well defined tasks in predictable situations, to undertaking complex tasks in changing real-world environments.
However, systems that can evolve in function lead to legitimate concerns about safety, responsibility and trust. We learn to trust technology because it is reliable, and when a technology is not reliable, we discard it because it cannot be trusted to function properly. But it may be difficult to learn to trust technology whose function is changing. We might also ask important questions about how functional evolutions are monitored, tested and regulated for safety in appropriate ways. For example, just because a robot with the ability to adapt to handle different shaped objects passes safety testing in a warehouse does not mean that it will necessarily be safe if it is used to do a similar task in a surgical setting. It is also unclear who, if anyone, bears the responsibility for the outcome of functional evolution - whether positive or negative.
This research seeks to explore and address these issues, by asking how we can, or should, place trust in autonomous systems with evolving functionality. Our approach is to use three evolving technologies - swarm systems, soft robotics and unmanned air vehicles - which operate in fundamentally different ways, to allow our findings to be used across a wide range of different application areas. We will study these systems in real time to explore both how these systems are developed and how features can be built into the design process to increase trustworthiness, termed Design-for-Trustworthiness. This will support the development of autonomous systems with the ability to adapt, evolve and improve, but with the reassurance that these systems have been developed with methods that ensure they are safe, reliable, and trustworthy.
Some autonomous systems have the potential to change what they do, and we call this 'evolving functionality'. This means that a system designed to do a certain task in a certain way, may 'evolve' over time to either do the same task a different way, or to do a different task. All without a human controller telling it what to do. These kinds of systems are being developed because they are potentially very useful, with a wide range of possible applications ranging from minimal down-time manufacturing through to emergency response and robotic surgery. The ability to evolve in functionality offers the potential for autonomous systems to move from conducting well defined tasks in predictable situations, to undertaking complex tasks in changing real-world environments.
However, systems that can evolve in function lead to legitimate concerns about safety, responsibility and trust. We learn to trust technology because it is reliable, and when a technology is not reliable, we discard it because it cannot be trusted to function properly. But it may be difficult to learn to trust technology whose function is changing. We might also ask important questions about how functional evolutions are monitored, tested and regulated for safety in appropriate ways. For example, just because a robot with the ability to adapt to handle different shaped objects passes safety testing in a warehouse does not mean that it will necessarily be safe if it is used to do a similar task in a surgical setting. It is also unclear who, if anyone, bears the responsibility for the outcome of functional evolution - whether positive or negative.
This research seeks to explore and address these issues, by asking how we can, or should, place trust in autonomous systems with evolving functionality. Our approach is to use three evolving technologies - swarm systems, soft robotics and unmanned air vehicles - which operate in fundamentally different ways, to allow our findings to be used across a wide range of different application areas. We will study these systems in real time to explore both how these systems are developed and how features can be built into the design process to increase trustworthiness, termed Design-for-Trustworthiness. This will support the development of autonomous systems with the ability to adapt, evolve and improve, but with the reassurance that these systems have been developed with methods that ensure they are safe, reliable, and trustworthy.
Organisations
- University of Bristol (Lead Research Organisation)
- Nissan Motor Company (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON (Collaboration)
- Ocado Technology (Project Partner)
- Martyn Thomas Associates Limited (Project Partner)
- Toshiba Europe Limited (UK) (Project Partner)
- Prof Simon Gregory (Project Partner)
- BT Group (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Olympus Surgical Technologies Europe (Project Partner)
- Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Project Partner)
- Burges Salmon LLP (Project Partner)
- Liverpool Data Research Associate LDRA (Project Partner)
- Thales (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Foster and Partners (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- ROVCO LIMITED (Project Partner)
- LV=GI (Project Partner)
Publications
Abeywickrama D
(2022)
Emergence of norms in interactions with complex rewards
in Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems
Chance G
(2022)
On Determinism of Game Engines Used for Simulation-Based Autonomous Vehicle Verification
in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
Eder K
(2021)
Complete Agent-driven Model-based System Testing for Autonomous Systems
in Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science
Garrad M
(2022)
Design and Characterisation of a Muscle-Mimetic Dielectrophoretic Ratcheting Actuator
in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Giannaccini M
(2023)
A Bioinspired Active Robotic Simulator of the Human Respiratory System
in IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics
Gough E
(2021)
Planning for a Tight Squeeze: Navigation of Morphing Soft Robots in Congested Environments
in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Groves-Raines M
(2022)
Wind tunnel testing of an avian-inspired morphing wing with distributed pressure sensing
Helps T
(2022)
Liquid-amplified zipping actuators for micro-air vehicles with transmission-free flapping.
in Science robotics
Lee S
(2022)
A Data-Driven Method for Metric Extraction to Detect Faults in Robot Swarms
in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Description | We are exploring the processes used to develop autonomous systems which can adapt in response to changes in their environment. We have identified ethical and regulatory challenges and limitations in current processes and regulations. We have also identified how these types of autonomous systems challenge many of the existing approaches for specifying, designing, verifying and monitoring these systems and have begun to develop processes for addressing these challenges. We are communicating the challenges we have identified and the processes we are developing through academic publications, presentations to industry and academia, government policy responses, and public engagement activities. As part of our work we are developing three novel adaptive robotic technologies; swarm robots for moving and storing goods; soft robotic grippers for handling and packing grocery items; and quadrotors with machine learning based flight control systems. We have developed a series of prototypes for each technology, and all offer improved adaptability over conventional approaches. We are continuing to develop more advanced prototypes with input from our industrial project partners. We are communicating these advances through academic publications, presentations to industry and academia, social media and public events. Much of our work has been done in collaboration with our 13 project partners and with other members of the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) Hub and Nodes. This has included running joint workshops, writing joint publications and collaborating on two new Integrator research projects. |
Exploitation Route | The processes and guidelines we are developing will be used by a range of sectors involved with autonomous systems, this includes system developers, regulators, policy makers and users. These processes and guidelines will allow for the adaptation of systems to be considered when specifying, designing, verifying, monitoring, using and regulating these types of systems. The particular adaptive technologies we are developing will also contribute to the development of commercial products, particularly through collaboration with our project partners which cross a wide range of sectors. |
Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Security and Diplomacy,Transport |
URL | https://tasfunctionality.bristol.ac.uk/ |
Description | Engineering Faculty Post-Doctoral Research Prize, Improving inclusivity in Machine Learning-based flight control research |
Amount | £3,900 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Bristol |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2021 |
End | 10/2021 |
Description | SPAIS Research Development Funding Grant |
Amount | £2,016 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Bristol |
Department | School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2022 |
Title | Responsible Research and Innovation methods for researchers |
Description | Led by the University of Bristol's Public Engagement Team, Matimba Swana and Peter Winter have been involved in developing RRI tools for the public engagement team. For example, we've helped develop a 'reverse think tank' methodology by recording a video about why writing rules (regulations) for autonomous systems is important. School children viewed the video (via the Public engagement team) and responded to the video in a variety of different ways, including a 'storify activity', a 'disney creative strategy activity' etc etc. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | No impact yet |
URL | https://www.bristol.ac.uk/public-engagement/opportunities/rri/ |
Title | Data for AFM dielectrophoretic gel |
Description | Included here are data to support the paper: Ciqun Xu, Charl F. J. Faul, Majid Taghavi, and Jonathan Rossiter, Electric Field-driven Dielectrophoretic Elastomer Actuators, Advanced Functional Materials (2023), DOI:10.1002/adfm.202208943 |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/239k7m1nddrq72vaxbsfis2mf8/ |
Title | Data for AFM graded stiffness gel paper |
Description | Included here are data to support the paper: M. Taghavi, H.Y. C, A. T. Conn, J. Rossiter, Stiffness Graded Electroactive Artificial Muscle. Advanced Functional Materials (2022). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/2zbvg07b3mb7l22irr6a3u2axr/ |
Title | Data for DLZ ratchet paper - ICRA-RAL 2022 |
Description | Included here are data to support the paper: M. Garrad, M. Naghavi Zadeh, C. Romero, F. Scarpa, A.Conn, and J. Rossiter, Design and Characterisation of a Muscle-mimetic Dielectrophoretic Ratcheting Actuator IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (2022). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/1ctw36cjsr16e279g3qlwy792l/ |
Title | Data for GelBat paper - RoboSoft 2023 |
Description | Included here are data to support the paper: H.Y. Chen, A. Keller, A. T. Conn, J. Rossiter. GelBat: An Edible Gelatin-Based Battery. RoboSoft (2023). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/2c4017s8543i2od5qdx3osoqd/ |
Title | Data for ICRA 2023 - variable stiffness unit |
Description | Data for ICRA2023 paper: Tianqi Yue, Tsam Lung You, Hemma Philamore, Hermes Bloomfield-Gadêlha and Jonathan Rossiter, A Silicone-sponge-based Variable-stiffness Device, 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/1m1aqxh299w2j20l7i8umgqwct/ |
Title | Data for Robo-Squid paper - RoboSoft 2023 |
Description | Data for paper: S. Firouznia, C. Xu, H. Philamore, J. Rossiter, Robo-Squid: Experimental investigation of pulsed jet propulsion based on magnetohydrodynamics, 2023 6th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics (ROBOSOFT) |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/xfg77nkkatek2qqv8vz15qw30/ |
Title | Data for RoboSoft2022 - soft exosuit |
Description | Data supporting paper: Emanuele Pulvirenti, Richard Diteesawat, Helmut Hauser, Jonathan Rossiter, Towards a Soft Exosuit for Hypogravity adaptation: Design and Control of Lightweight Bubble Artificial Muscles, Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2022. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/11gbyp96cqskc2mfjq2wwpaizt/ |
Title | Data for SAP-BAM paper |
Description | This repository contains data pertaining to the article: Saltwater-responsive bubble artificial muscles using superabsorbent polymers, Daniel Gosden, Richard Suphapol Diteesawat, Matthew Studley and Jonathan Rossiter, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 2022, doi: 10.3389/frobt.2022.960372. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/2raladk8u6pqu23o1jyc5rueeu/ |
Title | Data for Scissor paper - RA-L RoboSoft 2022 |
Description | Data supporting paper: Soft Scissor: A Cartilage-inspired, Pneumatic Artificial Muscle for Wearable Devices Nahian Rahman, Richard Suphapol Diteesawat, Sam Hoh, Leah Morris, Ailie Turton, Mary Cramp, Jonathan Rossiter Robotics and Autonomy Letters and Proc. RoboSoft 2022. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/7z74iw9bxt4m26ulyqxrhvi58/ |
Title | Data for high frequency TCP actuators |
Description | Data for paper: T.L. You, J. Rossiter, H. Philamore, Robotic Fish driven by Twisted and Coiled Polymer Actuators at High Frequencies, 6th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/76pyal8dv5yn2w9fdhl6tlo2s/ |
Title | Data for hygroscopic actuators |
Description | Data supporting paper: A. Keller*, Q. Qi, Y*. Kumaresan, A. Conn, J. Rossiter, Biodegradable Humidity Actuators for Sustainable Soft Robotics using Deliquescent Hydrogels, IEEE RoboSoft 2023 |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/1vctpyervo0il2f4zfqeo05rd6/ |
Title | Data for modular cellbot paper - RoboSoft 2023 |
Description | Included here are data to support the paper: Ridhi Bansal, Helmut Hauser, Jonathan Rossiter, Self-reconfiguring Soft Modular Cellbots, 2023 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/2xnkxqqa7r5cc2rwdauepmqkdq/ |
Title | Data for suction cup paper - ICRA-RAL 2022 |
Description | Data to support the paper: T. Yue, W. Si, AJ. Partridge, C. Yang, AT. Conn, H. Bloomfield-Gadêlha, J. Rossiter, A Contact-triggered Adaptive Soft Suction Cup, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/1d3nyztdx0vkw2kcdotlo4ezm0/ |
Title | Hydrogel-actuated Soft Sucker with Mucus Secretion |
Description | Data for publication: Hydrogel-actuated Soft Sucker with Mucus Secretion, Tianqi Yue, Alex Keller, Daniel Gosden, Hermes Bloomfield-Gadelha and Jonathan Rossiter, Proc. RoboSoft 2023, Singapore, 3-7 April 2023 |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/2hzqiunnryl952q4acb9yf1va5/ |
Title | Soft buckling elements simulation |
Description | Developing a family of solf buckling elements to measure trustworthiness in soft robots using SOFA. |
Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Using datasets to measure trustworthiness in soft robots |
Description | Collaboration with Nissan on human factors in automated driving |
Organisation | Nissan Motor Company |
Country | Japan |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | This collaboration is building on the research findings, expertise and skills from the EPSRC funded Trustworthy Robotic Assistants project, the RIVERAS project and also two follow-on Innovate UK awards, CAPRI and ROBOPILOT. The visiting researcher from Nissan receives supervision and access to the lab resources as well as equipment to conduct his research. |
Collaborator Contribution | Nissan are funding a professional researcher to work in the Trustworthy Systems Laboratory at Bristol for two years with the objective to investigate human factors in automated driving. The research is focused on areas where the automated vehicle needs to navigate crowded spaces and interact with human-driven vehicles to gain their trust while achieving its objectives. |
Impact | no published papers yet |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Collaboration with Nissan on human factors in automated driving |
Organisation | Nissan Motor Company |
Country | Japan |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | This collaboration is building on the research findings, expertise and skills from the EPSRC funded Trustworthy Robotic Assistants project, the RIVERAS project and also two follow-on Innovate UK awards, CAPRI and ROBOPILOT. The visiting researcher from Nissan receives supervision and access to the lab resources as well as equipment to conduct his research. |
Collaborator Contribution | Nissan are funding a professional researcher to work in the Trustworthy Systems Laboratory at Bristol for two years with the objective to investigate human factors in automated driving. The research is focused on areas where the automated vehicle needs to navigate crowded spaces and interact with human-driven vehicles to gain their trust while achieving its objectives. |
Impact | no published papers yet |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | TAS Hub Integrator Project: Methodological perspectives on the ethics of trust and responsibility of autonomous systems |
Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The TAS Integrator workshop is a collaboration between the Governance and Functionality Nodes, to explore theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding the ethics of trust(worthiness) in autonomous systems. |
Collaborator Contribution | No contributions so far |
Impact | no outputs |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | TAS Hub Integrator project: Safety and desirability criteria for AI-controlled aerial drones on construction sites |
Organisation | University of Southampton |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Contribution of expertise on aerial robotics and use of testing hardware at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of expertise in computer science, machine learning and legal studies. |
Impact | Multi-disciplinary team involving robotics, aerospace engineering, computer science, legal studies and architects |
Start Year | 2022 |
Title | DOTS Gym |
Description | Interactive interface and swarm simulator |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Impact | Product enables experimentation with Human-swarm interaction and also acts as an outreach/education tool. |
Title | Lightweight Swarm Simulator |
Description | 2D Simulator for conducting parameter trials and evolution of swarm systems quickly. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Impact | Enables evolutionary development of swarm systems at a fast pace. |
Title | Wind tunnel morphing-wing model |
Description | The wind tunnel morphing-wing model planform is approximately 60cm in span (length) and 20cm in chord (width). The structure consists of a main spar (main load-bearing element), ribs and stringers. These elements are made from a mix of materials, including aluminium, balsa wood, plywood, polycarbonate and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS)-based polymer. The model is divided into two sections: a fixed-section and morphing-section. The morphing-section is formed by feather-like elements (made from polycarbonate) wich are hinged at the root and actuated by a servo (installed at the fixed-section). Both sections are instrumented with and array of pressureports/taps that allow for the measurement of the static pressure around the wing. The fixed-section pressure tap array is distributed chord-wise, while the morphing-section array is distributed span-wise. |
Type Of Technology | Physical Model/Kit |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Impact | The model has had the following impact: - enabled collection of experimental data for aerodynamic characterisation of a morphing-wing UAV model, - supported submission of a conference paper (International Conference on Unmanned Aerial Systems - ICUAS 2022), - enabled modelling and simulation of a morphing-wing UAV dynamics for flight control design purposes. |
Description | BBC Bristol Radio interview on the LAZA flying robots |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Live interview on prime time BBC Bristol Radio to discuss the LAZA (Liquid Amplified Zipping Actuator) flapping wing robots and the future of safe ubiquitous flying robots. Result of work published in Science Robotics (02/2022). Broadcast to the BBC Bristol region. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | BBC Earth film "Would modern robots be possible without nature? - Inspired By Nature" |
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 | Interview and filming at Bristol Robotics Laboratory for BBC Earth on the topic of future biomimetic robotics. Presents our research in the larger context of robots that are inspired by, and which mimic, natural organisms. International release through BBC Earth. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.facebook.com/bbcearth/videos/would-modern-robots-be-possible-without-nature-inspired-by-... |
Description | BBC Points West broadcast interview and article on the LAZA flying robots |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Live interview on prime time BBC West to demonstrate and discuss the LAZA (Liquid Amplified Zipping Actuator) flapping wing robots fabricated by the research team and published in Science Robotics (02/2022). Broadcast to the BBC West region. Also included specially recorded videos filmed at Bristol Robotics Laboratory. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | BBC Radio Gloucestershire interview, Sunday Breakfast programme |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was interviewed by BBC Radio Gloucestershire (Sunday Breakfast programme) on 17th October 2021. The aim of the interview was to introduce the TAS Node in Functionality project, advertise it, and stimulate the public's thinking around ethical and societal implications of our work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | BBC Radio and Naked Scientist interview: Will robots become artificial organisms? |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Interview with the Naked Scientist podcast and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire on the topic of "Will robots become artificial organisms?". Based on the work of Rossiter on robotic artificial organisms. Discussed the challenges and consequences to health, environment, industry and society of robotic organisms. Naked Scientist podcast has a large international audience. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/will-robots-become-artificial-organisms |
Description | Bristol Data and AI showcase, June 2022 |
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 | Outreach activity on ethical and regulatory challenges related to the deployment of autonomous systems (Bristol Data and AI showcase, June 2022). Activity table got a lot of visitors, and feature on YouTube channel. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://twitter.com/ProfJonIves/status/1534092960245157888?s=20&t=J_-glUZhp1u_lqnwo1Ckaw |
Description | DOTS Competition |
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 | Organised an international competition on industrial swarm logistics powered by our testbed |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://robohub.org/simulations-real-robots-and-bloopers-from-the-dots-competition-powering-emergenc... |
Description | Demonstration (TAS Hub All Hands Meeting) - Anthony Le |
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 | A Demonstration of Soft Trustworthy Autonomous Systems was given at the TAS Hub All Hands Meeting (July 2022), by Anthony Le. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Department of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering talk, Southampton University - "Inspiration from birds for new approaches to autonomous flight" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Gave a departmental talk on autonomous flight and spoke with a range of academics and postgraduate students about latest technologies and appraoches in this field. Resulted in future collaboration plans and requests for further information. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | FUTURES 2022 Schools Research Fair |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | FUTURES 2022 Schools Research Fair. Activity desk that generated discussion and debate. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://tasfunctionality.bristol.ac.uk/2022/10/18/functionality-research-showcase-at-futures-2022/ |
Description | FUTURES 2022: A Festival of Discovery |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Part of two events (1) Schools Research Fair - : Students in groups of about 10 rotated between stations for 5-10 minutes. At our station we had illustrations on autonomous systems which we used to engage with the students. The students provided feedback and answered questions on Mentimeter and we projected their responses on a monitor. We then have a discussion about their responses. (2) Researchers Tales - In the fitting setting of the library at Brunel's SS Great Britain, Researchers performed short stories about our research and career to families and adults, bringing our research to life and breaking stereotypes of what it means to be a researcher. Before the event we received two days of training by a professional storyteller. Feedback from the FUTURES team "The reactions we have had from the public has been very positive and many have commented how much they enjoyed talking to yourselves, the researchers, in particular. " "The few stories we heard were amazing and really moving - so detailed and presented brilliantly. FUTURES is what it is thanks to the hard work of people like you." We had an amazing turnout with 250 children attending the School Research Fair and 450 people/families attending the evening Up Late (including the Vice Chancellor, who had an amazing time). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://2022.futuresnight.co.uk/ |
Description | FUTURES 2022: A Festival of Discovery |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | On September 30th, Peter Winter, as part of John Downer's Regulation work package on the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) project, took part in the FUTURES 2022 Research Festival and ran an exciting stall ('Trust me I'm a Robot!') with the Ethics work package at the School Research Fair on the topic of trust and autonomous systems. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | First quarterly 'Let's Do Digital' meeting by SWAG Cancer Alliance |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | SWAG Cancer Alliance is responsible for working with providers, commissioners, and other partners to improve services and patient experience. A spin off from the "Let's Talk Digital" conference is the creation of a "Let's Do Digital" clinical informatics hub. This would be a place for digital innovation at the frontline, building digital solutions for the benefit of both staff and patients. I recorded a presentation for the event and the organizers reported increased interest in swarm medicine and AI-driven cancer therapies. I have been asked to speak again at the 2023 Let's talk digital conference. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.swagcanceralliance.nhs.uk/lets-digital/lets-talk-digital-2022/ |
Description | Framework for Assurance of Emergent Behaviour for use in Autonomous Robotic Swarms (AERoS) @AMLAS Workshop: 8/11/2022 (adapted for Swarms) - Presentation of Regulatory requirements section. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I presented Macrae's (2021) Structural; Organisational; Technological; Epistemic, and Cultural or ('SOTEC') framework to help identify dimensions of socio-technical risk in the swarm cloakroom study. The framework was really useful when it came to identifying five dimensions of potential risk and failure in the swarm-cloakroom context. I then showed how I used these sources of risk to craft specific regulatory requirements. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Gatsby/SWC symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Talk on Swarms for People at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre Annual Student Symposium: How Dumb Agents Act Clever Together. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/events/annual-student-symposium-how-dumb-agents-act-clever-tog... |
Description | Governance and regulation of software/AI as medical device workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Participation in formal working group, working towards regulation of software and AI in medicine organised as part of the UKRI Research Node on Governance and Regulation (2-5pm Tuesday 25th January 2022) on behalf of Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://governance.tas.ac.uk/2022/02/02/workshop-on-regulation-of-software-as-medical-device-ai-as-m... |
Description | Governing AI Futures: The Wicked Dilemmas of Navigating Autonomous Systems [Paper presented at ESOCITE4S22, Mexico: Society for the Social Study of Science, 2022] |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | We gave a verbal presentation on our forthcoming paper '6 wicked(ish) problems of regulating autonomous systems' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.4sonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/FINAL-PROGRAM-6.12.pdf |
Description | IMA (The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications) talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation to the regional branch of the UK Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | IROS 2022 Keynote on Swarms for People |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invitation to present a keynote on "Swarms for People" at top international robotics conference IROS. Over 500 people where in attendance. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://iros2022.org/program/keynote-speakers/ |
Description | Interview with Soft Robotics Podcast on flying micro 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 | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Interview with the Soft Robotics Podcast by Jonathan Rossiter, discussing the state-of-the-art and future of flying micro robots and flapping wing robotics at the small scale. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE4R30LzwXI |
Description | Invited Talk - SAB 2022 - Swarms for People |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited to give a talk at SAB 2022 on "Swarms for People": Around 100 academics were in the room. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://sab2022.sciencesconf.org/resource/page/id/4 |
Description | Invited talk at ICRA 2022 on Determining Appropriate Metrics and Test Methods for Soft Actuators in Robotic Systems |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited talk entitled "Should you trust a soft robot? From actuation and energy metrics to trustworthiness in soft robotics" at the ICRA 2022 workshop on Determining Appropriate Metrics and Test Methods for Soft Actuators in Robotic Systems, 23 May 2022, Philadelphia, USA. Presenting our latest technology and user-centred approach to soft robotics in the context of trustworthy autonomous systems. A key challenge discussed is the measurement of trust given the common uncertainty of soft robotic behaviours and control. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://sites.google.com/andrew.cmu.edu/softactuatormetrics/ |
Description | Invited talk at the EPSRC UK-Swiss Mixed Reality in Soft Robotics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited talk to the EPSRC UK-Swiss Mixed Reality in Soft Robotics workshop 8-9 December 2022, Cambridge UK. Presentation and discussion about the emerging use, and potential, for mixed reality in robotic systems with emphasis on soft robotics. Aiming to increase UK-Swiss collaboration. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://birlab.org/workshop-on-soft-robotics-for-mixed-reality/ |
Description | Invited talk to ICRA 2022 workshop on Leverating Advancements in Smart Materials Science |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Invited talk at the ICRA 2022 workshop on Leveraging Advancements in Smart Materials Science: Soft Robots Gaining New Abilities Through Smart and Functional Materials, 27 May 2022, Philadelphia USA. Presenting talk entitled "From smart materials to trustworthy soft robots - flapping, gripping and squeezing" outlining our latest technologies to world leaders in soft robotics. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.spp2100.de/icra2022 |
Description | Invited talk to RoboSoft 2022 workshop on Embodied Intelligence |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited talk titled "Embodied Intelligent Organisms, Trustworthiness and Realismor, trusting your senses" at the RoboSoft 2022 workshop on Embodied Intelligence, 4 April 2022, Edinburgh, UK. A very dynamic even including talks, panel discussions and brainstorming how soft robotics can embrace more of the emerging field of embodied intelligence. Talks from leaders around the world. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://birlab.org/embodied-intelligence-workshop-in-robosoft-2022/ |
Description | Invited talk to the 2022 Cutting Edge Laryngology conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited talk to the Cutting Edge Laryngology 2022 conference, 22 September 2022, the conference of the British Laryngological Association. Talk title: From laryngeal dysfunction to power clothing - routes to restoring mobility and independence with soft robots. This provided an important platform for the presentation and discussion of our recent developments in implantable soft robotics to address unmet healthcare needs, here in the context of laryngeal dysfunction and wearable robotics. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.britishlaryngological.org/event/cutting-edge-laryngology-2022 |
Description | KAUST invited talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited presentation on Swarms for People. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://cemse.kaust.edu.sa/risc/media/25649 |
Description | Keynote at the annual CDT conference of the Edinburgh EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Robotics and Autonomous Systems |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Keynote at the annual CDT conference of the Edinburgh EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Robotics and Autonomous Systems. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.edinburgh-robotics.org/events/annual-cdt-conference |
Description | LS2 Systems Biology Meeting Keynote |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Keynote at the Swiss Systems Biology Meeting 2021 on Emergent properties and self-organisation across scales. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://meetings.ls2.ch/systemsbiology2021/speakers |
Description | METNANO 2021 invited talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk on swarm engineering across scales. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://metanano.itmo.ru/conference-schedule-new |
Description | NASA/JPL invited talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation on Swarms for People and weekly NASA/JPL seminar. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | OOP Keynote on "Swarms for People" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Keynote presentation at the OOP conference in Germany. Over 500 participants were there. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.oop-konferenz.de/oop-2023/startpage/program/keynotes |
Description | Organiser of the ICRA 2021 workshop on micro-nano systems |
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 | Workshop at main robotics conference attracting nearly 200 researchers. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://hauertlab.com/icra2021-workshop-on-micro-nano-swarm-robotics/ |
Description | Overview of Functionality Node talk at Trustworthy Autonomous Systems All Hands Meeting |
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 | Overview talk describing TAS Functionality aims, objectives and progress so far. Part of TAS program All Hands meeting which was attended by TAS researchers, industry and commercial partners as well as researchers from outside the program. Resulted in discussions of future collaboration with the Node. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.tas.ac.uk/bigeventscpt/all-hands-meeting/ |
Description | Overview of TAS Node in Functionality (John Downer) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Presentation @Governance and Regulation Seminar 8: 22/09/2021 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://governance.tas.ac.uk/2021/08/05/governance-and-regulation-seminar-8-john-downer-university-o... |
Description | Paper presented at European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation of our forthcoming 'Six Wicked(ish) Problems of Regulating Autonomous Systems' paper |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://easst2022.org/EASST_2022_Madrid_ProgramFINAL.pdf |
Description | Paper presented at World Congress of Bioethics 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Paper presented at World Congress of Bioethics 2022. Soft robots for healthcare: An overview of the ethical issues. Presented by Dr Arianna Manzini, on behalf of Arianna Manzini, Helen Smith & Jonathan Ives |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Paper presented at World Congress of Bioethics 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Paper presented at World Congress of Bioethics 2022. 'Would you trust a RoboDoc? The potential ethical pitfalls of autonomous systems with evolving functionality deployed in healthcare.'. Given by prof Jonathan ves, on behalf of Jonathan Ives, Helen Smith & Arianna Manzini. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Paper presented at World Congress of Bioethics 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Paper on 'Artificial intelligence in clinical decision-making: rethinking personal moral responsibility' present by Dr Helen Smith on behalf of Helen Smith, Giles Birchley & Jon Ives |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | PechaKucha / Poster presentation: Global Forum on Bioethics in Research (GFBR 2022) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The Global Forum on Bioethics in Research (GFBR) exists to provide a global platform for the exchange and sharing of experience and expertise on research ethics among researchers, research policy makers and ethicists, among others. Its core aims are to give voice to low- and middle- income country (LMIC) perspectives in debates about global health research ethics and to promote collaboration. GFBR2022 was on 'Ethics of AI in global health research'. Participants included academia, industry, healthcare professionals, third sector organizations and policymakers. Presentation was "Future nanomedicines: building a regulatory framework for the first in-human nanoswarm cancer clinical trial" which won best PechaKucha award, sparked questions and discussion afterwards and has led to ongoing discussions and potential future partnerships. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.gfbr.global/past-meetings/16th-forum-cape-town-south-africa-29-30-november-2022/ |
Description | Podcast "Can machines care for us" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This episode of the "Living with AI Podcast" discusses a few TAShub projects grouped around the theme of whether we can trust machines to care for us. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e7cfbf64-65f6-489d-96f0-f3cd119f9a53/episodes/ea604521-805e-42c5-8... |
Description | Poster presentation (TAS Hub All Hands Meeting) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Poster presentation (TAS Hub All Hands Meeting, July 2022). 'Squishy, safe and ethical? An overview of ethical issues in soft robotics'. Given by Dr Arianna Manzini |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Poster presentation (TAS Hub All Hands Meeting) - Alix Partridge |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Poster presentation (TAS Hub All Hands Meeting, July 2022). 'ReRobot: Recycled Materials for Trustworthy Soft Robots'. Given by Dr Alix Partridge |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.tas.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TAS-AHM-22-Brochure-print-version_Final.pdf |
Description | Poster presentation (TAS Hub All Hands Meeting) - James Wilson |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Poster presentation (TAS Hub All Hands Meeting, July 2022). 'Designing Interaction for Trustworthy Swarms'. Given by Dr James Wilson |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.tas.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TAS-AHM-22-Brochure-print-version_Final.pdf |
Description | Poster presentation (TAS Hub All Hands Meeting, July 2022) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | We gave a poster presentation based on our forthcoming 'Six Wicked(ish) Problems of Regulating Autonomous Systems' paper |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://tas.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Seven-Wickedish-Problems-of-Regulating-Autonomous-Syste... |
Description | Poster presentation (TAS Hub All Hands Meeting, July 2022) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Poster - How should we regulate the first-in-human nanoswarm cancer clinical trial? The 2022 AHM brings together everyone across the TAS Programme to showcase our research to date, forge new multidisciplinary networks, and see the scope of TAS on a global scale. Key discussions include how to translate TAS research into key impact areas: policy, skills, public engagement, and industry. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.tas.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TAS-AHM-22-Brochure-print-version_Final.pdf |
Description | Poster presentation at Perspectives in Hybrid Autonomous Systems Engineering (PHASE 2022) symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | poster title - "Nanoswarms: Should we let a robot swarm treat your cancer?" The PHASE 2022 in-person symposium was held in Bristol, UK in June 2022. The symposium brought together experts to discuss what the next generations of autonomous systems will look like - systems that must be designed to have the human in or on the loop. PHASE 2022 THEMES HUMANS ~ Architecture, Systems, Autonomy, Human Factors, Ethics, Trust ~ ROBOTS |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.phase2022.org/programme/ |
Description | Poster presentation at TAS Hub All Hands Meeting - Towards specifying for a trustworthy UAV flight control system with evolving functionality (Dhaminda Abeywickrama) |
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 | Presentation of proposed research work for the TAS project and summary of current achievements. Discussions with event attendees resulted in development of plans for future collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://tas.ac.uk/bigeventscpt/all-hands-meeting-2022/ |
Description | Poster submission to the TAS All-Hands Meeting |
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 | Presentation of proposed research work for the TAS project and summary of current achievements. Our poster was focused on the verification of autonomous systems with evolving functionality. We set our our approach to verification using a mix of formal and simulation based methods, and stress the importance of functional and non-functional aspects of trust. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.tas.ac.uk/eventslist/all-hands-meeting-call-for-content/ |
Description | Presentation at AAAI 2022 Fall Symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Max Griffiths gave a short talk on his research at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) symposium held in Virginia, USA. His talk featured within the 'Thinking Fast and Slow and Other Cognitive Theories in AI' workshop session.. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://sites.google.com/view/aaai-fss22/program |
Description | Presentation at Bristol Robotics Lab Conference 2021 on Developing Trustworthy Autonomous Systems by Shane Windsor |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Presentation at online conference to industry/business on research activities based at the Bristol Robotics Lab. Presented overview of TAS Functionality Node. Approx 175 live participants then a further 120 viewers of recorded talk. Attendees from 19 countries. Resulted in follow-up discussions of potential future collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pewGvWMz0c |
Description | Presentation at Early Career Researcher event - TAS Hub All Hands Meeting - Standards and specification challenges for autonomous systems with evolving functionality (Dhaminda Abeywickrama) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Gave talk on "Standards and specification challenges for autonomous systems with evolving functionality - Experiences from two case studies" to group of 30 early career researchers, which resulted in discussions and plans for future collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://tas.ac.uk/bigeventscpt/all-hands-meeting-2022/ |
Description | Presentation at Verification Futures Conference 2022 (Greg Chance) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Dr Greg Chance presented 'Agency-directed test generation of AV testing in simulation' at Verification Futures Conference 2022.The presentation addressed the challenge of efficiently generating effective tests for simulation-based AV verification using software testing agents. Dr Chance discussed the properties of a good test case and how using an automated method significantly provides more realistic driving scenarios. The talk was followed by exhibition and networking sessions enabling further discussion of the challenges faced in hardware and software verification with end-users from across Europe. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.tessolve.com/verification-futures/vf2022/agency-directed-test-generation-of-av-testing-i... |
Description | Presented at Softlab research day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | the SoftLab Research Day on Wednesday 2nd March at BRL from 9.00 - 4.00. The event will be a perfect opportunity to hear all about the fantastic work happening across all SoftLab research themes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Presented at TAS ECR meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This event is aimed at all TAS Hub PDRAs, Node PDRFs and PhD students, but is also open to TAS Hub and Node Co-Is and PIs. This event is also open to other CDTs across the broader networks of the TAS Hub and Nodes. The programme will include an in-person speed-networking session and a hybrid world-cafe session exploring AS applications. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Presented at Teignmouth Science Café on trustworthy automation (Greg Chance) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Dr Greg Chance presented at this long-standing public forum that promotes public engagement with Science. His talk was given online and covered key aspects of trust and safety, entitled 'Trust Me, I'm a Robot: Should we trust autonomous systems and can we use AI to test how safe they are?' The talk was followed by Q&A session. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Reddit Robotics Showcase invited talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presentation on "Swarms for People" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://redditroboticsshowcase.wordpress.com/ |
Description | Regulatory Challenges of Evolving Functionality in Autonomous Systems @ TAS All Hands Meeting 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Presentation @TAS Hub All Hands Meeting (AHM): 14-16/09/2021 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Regulatory Challenges of Evolving Functionality in Autonomous Systems @TAS HUB ECR Networking Event: 23/02/2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Presentation @TAS HUB ECR Networking Event: 23/02/2022 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Regulatory advice meeting on nanoswarms with UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's Innovation Office |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | The Innovation Office is part of the MHRA's Innovation Accelerator and is open to queries about innovative medicines, medical devices and manufacturing processes. The purpose of the meeting was to receive confidential expert regulatory information, advice and guidance on how the first-in-human clinical trial of nanoswarms could be regulated. The meeting sparked questions and discussion, and the potential to go back to the team with updates in future. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Responsible Innovation (RI) training programme with Public Engagement and Kilter Theatre |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Participating in a bespoke training programme to explore RI themes in a creative way. The training is part of a project to help develop new RI resources for use at the University and beyond (November 2021 - March 2022) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
Description | Reverse Think Tank Public Engagement |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | The aim of this project was to pilot a new method, but also explore how to focus the conversations with the public around Responsible Innovation. Traditional Think Tanks bring together diverse groups of experts to focus on resolving a particular problem by debating critical issues and introducing new ideas. The team have named this activity Reverse Think Tank (RTT) with the aim of challenging 'who is the expert'. Researchers created a five-minute video based on their research. The Public Engagement team held the Reverse Think Tank (without the researchers present) on the 13th July 2022. In total they had 11 young people aged 15-18 years old. The public engagement team stated "they were a fantastic group, we were all amazed with the depth and thoughtfulness of the discussions and they were really engaged with all the research topics." |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Robot Talk Podcast Episode with Sabine Hauert |
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 | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | In this episode of Robot Talk, Claire chatted to Sabine Hauert from the University of Bristol all about swarm robotics, nanorobots, and environmental monitoring. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.ukras.org.uk/RobotTalk/episode-34-Sabine-Hauert |
Description | Robotics and Everyday Life Workshops, Bristol |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Participation in 3 different workshops: (1) Autonomy and Anarchy; (2) Everyday Elements - earth, water and sky; and (3) Sense and Intelligence @Brigstow Institute, Uni of Bristol. 09.06.2021 - 29.06.2021) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | SPAIS Socio-Technical Futures research group and BDFI |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | University of Bristol's Socio-Technical Futures research group and Bristol Digital Futures Institute present a lecture by Harry Collins. In this inaugural event of the Research On Cultures of Engineering and Technology (ROCET) lecture series, we proudly welcome Harry Collins to Bristol to discuss his research into Artificial Intelligence technologies. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | SWARM 2021 workshop keynote |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk on "Swarms for People" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.swarm-systems.org/dars-swarm2021 |
Description | Speaker at Specifying for Trustworthiness Workshop at TAS All Hands Meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Dhaminda Abeywickrama from the TAS Functionality Node was a speaker as part of workshop on "Specifying for Trustworthiness". The title of the talk was "Standards and specifications challenges for autonomous systems with evolving functionality: Experiences from two case studies". There were 7 invited speakers from TAS Nodes and the Hub. The challenges presented sparked questions and discussions after the talk. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.tas.ac.uk/bigeventscpt/all-hands-meeting/ |
Description | Specifying for Trustworthiness Workshop at Trustworthy Autonomous Systems All Hands Meeting |
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 | Organised workshop with 7 invited speakers from a range of universities speaking on the topic of "Specifying for Trustworthiness". Workshop attended by 30 people from range of career stages and disciplines. Outcomes of discussions during workshop being compiled into a journal article. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.tas.ac.uk/bigeventscpt/all-hands-meeting/ |
Description | Squishy, safe & ethical? An overview of ethical issues in soft robotics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | This was a presentation I gave at the Centre for Ethics in Medicine seminar series on 9th December 2021. Abstract: In recent years, increasing emphasis has been placed on the application of the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework to the field of robotics, with the aim of developing robots that will benefit society, whilst producing the least harm to the environment. The growing field of soft robotics uses materials that, differently from those found in conventional rigid robots, are soft and flexible and so allow us to make robots that behave, and feel, much more like living organisms. Thus, soft robotics promises to allow safer human-robot interaction, and develop a new generation of robots that are safer for the environment. Perhaps owing to these promises, limited attention has been paid to the application of RRI to soft robotics, and no paper has so far provided a comprehensive overview of the ethical concerns that emerge from soft robotics advances. However, fundamental research in soft robotics is likely to increase the number of soft systems used in our everyday life and by untrained users. Thus, it has become urgent to undertake an ethical survey of the field. This presentation, which results from a collaboration between ethicists and soft roboticists, outlines some key ethical questions in soft robotics, around the following themes: (1) Uncanny valley, yuck factor, and the risk of deception; (2) Opportunity, environmental, and social costs; (3) Trust and trustworthiness; and (4) Challenging the myth of safe and innocuous robots. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Swarmhack 2022 participation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | James Wilson participated in Swarmhack 2022 organised at the University of York and Sheffield. Sabine Hauert was also a panelist during the event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.cs.york.ac.uk/news-events/events/2022/swarm-hack-2022/ |
Description | TAS All hands poster UAV technology case study |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | A poster presenting work on Trusworthy Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Flight Control with Evolving Functionality was visited by a virtual audience of ~30 people. This help raising the profile of work in the Functionality Node related to this case study. As part of this activity, I was able to interact with another researcher who ask for further information on the technical aspects of the work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.tas.ac.uk/bigeventscpt/all-hands-meeting/ |
Description | TAS Functionality Advisory Board biannual meetings |
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 | Biannual Advisory Board meetings with representative from project partner organizations. Involved formal reporting and technology demonstrations to showcase the activities of the Node. Meetings provided feedback on real world considerations of research. Extensive interactions with industry generated as outcome of meetings including development of case studies and arrangement of future research projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
Description | TAS Functionality Node weekly seminars |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Weekly internal seminar series acting to communicate research and share ideas from different disciplines across the Node. There have been 48 seminars to date and these have acted as a common forum for the Nodes research and generated and supported extensive cross-disciplinary research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022,2023 |
Description | TAS Resilience Node Seminar Talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A seminar on Operational Cyber Resilience that attracted interest from the audience and sparked new collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://resilience.tas.ac.uk/events |
Description | TAS Verifiability Node Seminar Talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | An online openly advertised seminar for the TAS Resilience node with a focus on advanced AI-based testing techniques. This attracted the attention of a research group from Europe whom we now are collaborating with. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://verifiability.org/events/ |
Description | TAS podcast on swarm robotics |
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 | Ep.10 on "Should we Worry about Swarm Robotics (Or simply rebrand as Flocking Robots?)" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.tas.ac.uk/Podcast/ep-10-should-we-worry-about-swarm-robotics-or-simply-rebrand-as-flocki... |
Description | TAS-RUSI presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation at the TAS-RUSI Trusting Machines Conference. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.tas.ac.uk/eventslist/trusting-machines/trust-machines-conference-programme/ |
Description | Talk at Perspectives in Hybrid Autonomous Systems Engineering (PHASE 2022) symposium - Challenges and Opportunities Surrounding Adaptive Autonomous Systems (Shane Windsor) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk on TAS Node in Functionality project and current achievements. Questions and discussions part of developing future funding activities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.phase2022.org/ |
Description | The ARET study: Adaptable Robots, Ethics, and Trust @ TAS Hub's All Hands Meeting 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | This was a poster presentation at the TAS Hub's All Hands Meeting (14-16 September 2021). This poster introduced the TAS network to the empirical study being conducted by the ethics work package of the TAS Node in Functionality. It caught the attention of researchers from other TAS Nodes/Hub who asked follow up questions about it. The poster was co-authored by Arianna Manzini, Helen Smith, and Jonathan Ives. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | The ARET study: Adaptable Robots, Ethics, and Trust @TAS Hub ECR Networking Event 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | This was a poster presentation at the TAS Hub ECR Networking event (23 February 2022).. This poster introduced the TAS network to the empirical study being conducted by the ethics work package of the TAS Node in Functionality. The poster was co-authored by Arianna Manzini, Helen Smith, and Jonathan Ives. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Third Workshop on Formal Methods for Autonomous Systems (FMAS 2021) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Participation in a two-day workshop that brought together researchers working on a range of techniques for the formal verification of autonomous systems and discussed key challenges of verification for autonomous systems: 21-22/10/2021 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Towards Trustworthy Autonomous Specification of Swarm Robots |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | This was a poster presentation to highlight the work conducted by WP1 and WP5 for specifying trustworthy autonomous swarm robots. We were able to address a few technical questions from the audience. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.tas.ac.uk/bigeventscpt/all-hands-meeting/ |
Description | Trustworthiness in Autonomous Systems with Evolving Functionality: a scoping review (Poster). |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Trustworthiness in Autonomous Systems with Evolving Functionality: a scoping review poster presented at the TAS All Hands Meeting September 2021. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Trustworthy Systems Lab Seminar Series |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A regular seminar series attracting around 25 attendees where topics on trustworthiness in computer science, robotics and autonomous systems are discussed informally. Invited speakers are academics, PhD students and industry professionals. The series is an open group so anyone can attend and we publicise widely across UoB and UWE. The series has been running for 2 years during the academic calendar and often runs weekly. The series has promoted lively discussion and let to long-lasting partnerships and joint bids on future research projects with international groups, e.g. formal verification methods with University of Oldenburg and Federal University of Technology - Paraná, Brazil. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
URL | https://www.bristol.ac.uk/engineering/research/trustworthy-systems-laboratory/seminar-series/ |
Description | UKRI TAS Node in Functionality Twitter profile |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Twitter page dedicated to promoting the work of the UKRI TAS Node in Functionality research project. Regular (weekly) posting of news including project-related vacancies, events, publications and presentations, public engagement activities and other relevant research outputs, aiming to boost the profile of the research work and share knowledge to as wide a network as possible. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022,2023 |
URL | https://twitter.com/tas_function |
Description | University of Bristol Alumni Lecture |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presentation on Swarms for People at the University of Bristol Alumni Lecture. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alumni/events/2021/swarms-for-people.html |
Description | Workshop on "Safety and Desirability Constraints for Machine Learning Systems" |
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 | Workshop held with project partners, Foster + Partners, focusing on the societal relevance and design constraints for the use of drones in construction. The workshop included 20 participants from 13 organizations across industry and academia. Resulted in ongoing conversations about requirements of industry for aerial robotics. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/471553 |
Description | Workshop on specification of autonomous systems for project partners |
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 | Workshop with 12 commercial and industrial partner organizations identifying their needs and current practices for specifying autonomous systems. Outcome was identification of future areas of research collaboration and plans for collaborative work between industrial partners and the Node. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Workshop on verification of autonomous systems for project partners |
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 | Workshop with 12 commercial and industrial partner organizations identifying their needs and current practices for verifying autonomous systems. Outcome was identification of future areas of research collaboration and plans for collaborative work between industrial partners and the Node. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Would you trust a RoboDoc? The potential ethical pitfalls of autonomous systems with evolving functionality deployed in healthcare |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Online conference organised by the TAS hub - "Trusting Machines? Cross-sector lessons from healthcare and security" to bring academics together with the third sector and policy makers in healthcare and security. "In partnership with RUSI, the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub is organising an online conference that brings together academic experts, policy leaders, industry professionals and the public to discuss a future where autonomous machines integrate into two of our most vital sectors: healthcare and security. Trusting Machines? Cross-sector lessons from healthcare and security Each year governments, corporations and individuals delegate more authority to autonomous systems. The UKRI TAS - Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub - and RUSI, the UK's leading defence and security think tank, present Trusting Machines?, a three-day conference that brings together academic experts, policy leaders, industry professionals and the public to discuss a future where autonomous machines integrate into two of our most vital sectors. To stimulate debate and spark new conversations, artworks and creative provocations will be presented between sessions. Background Autonomous systems (robotic and software) are being deployed at an accelerating pace thanks to significant advances in robotics and artificial intelligence technologies. However, their adoption by the wider society and industry is undermined by the trust issues they raise. In recognition of this challenge, UKRI constructed a bid to the UK Treasury to secure funds for the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) Programme. The TAS programme is funded as part of the Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF) that specifically aims to address fundamental research challenges that require a multi-disciplinary approach and are strategic to the UK economy. £33m were secured to fund a Hub (£11.7m) and 7 Research Nodes (~£3m each) to focus on notions of Functionality, Responsibility, Governance & Regulation, Resilience, Trust, Verifiability, and Security. The programme will last 48 months starting 1st of September 2020. To inform the research projects within the programme, TAS Hub and RUSI are organising this event to bring together the research community and key stakeholders and the public to exchange views, research outputs, and concerns they have about the adoption of autonomous systems, focusing on two sectors: Defence & Security and Health & Social Care. The juxtaposition of these two application areas will serve to surface cross sectoral research challenges as well as existing solutions to regulatory and compliance issues." |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |