Whisking with robots from rat vibrissae to biomimetic technology for active touch

This article summarizes some of the key features of the rat vibrissal system, including the actively controlled sweeping movements of the vibrissae known as whisking, and reviews the past and ongoing research aimed at replicating some of this functionality in biomimetic robots

MiRo: An animal-like companion robot with a biomimetic brain-based control system

© 2017 Authors.The MiRo robot is a new pet-sized mobile platform with an emotionally-engaging personality and appearance that has been developed for research on companion robotics and robot-assisted therapy. MiRo has six senses and eight degrees of freedom that are designed to promote human-robot interaction. A distinctive feature is the use of a biomimetic brain-based control system consisting of a layered control architecture alongside centralized mechanisms for integration and action selection. MiRo has been developed by Consequential Robotics, a spin-out of the University of Sheffield, and aims to provide the HRI community with a flexible platform for research and education

Multiple-model approach to non-linear kernel-based adaptive filtering

Kernel methods now provide standard tools for the solution of function approximation and pattern classification problems. However, it is typically assumed that all data are available for training. More recently, various approaches have been proposed for extending kernel methods to sequential problems whereby the model is updated as each new data point arrives. Whilst these approaches have proven successful in estimating the basic parameters, the problem of estimating the hyperparameters which determine the overall model behaviour, remains essentially unsolved. In this paper a novel approach to the hyperparameters is presented based on a multiple model framework. An ensemble of models with different hyperparameters is trained in parallel, the outputs of which are subsequently combined based on a predictive performance measure. This new approach is sucessfully demonstrated in a standard benchmark time series problem

Reduction of kernel models

Kernel models can be expensive to compute and in a non-stationary environment can become unmanageably large. Here we present several previously reported techniques for reducing the complexity of these models in a common framework. This reformulation leads to the development of further related reduction techniques and clarifies the relationships between these and the existing techniques

Saying It with Light: A Pilot Study of Affective Communication Using the MIRO Robot

Recently, the concept of a ‘companion robot’ as a healthcare tool has been popularised, and even commercialised. We present MIRO, a robot that is biomimetic in aesthetics, morphology, behaviour, and control architecture. In this paper, we review how these design choices affect its suitability for a companionship role. In particular, we consider how emulation of the familiar body language and other emotional expressions of mammals may facilitate effective communication with na¨ıve users through the reliable evocation of intended perceptions of emotional state and intent. We go on to present a brief pilot study addressing the question of whether shared cultural signals can be relied upon, similarly, as components of communication systems for companion robots. Such studies form part of our ongoing effort to understand and quantify human responses to robot expressive behaviour and, thereby, develop a methodology for optimising the design of social robots by accounting for individual and cultural differences

MIRO: A Versatile Biomimetic Edutainment Robot

Here we present MIRO, a companion robot designed to engage users in science and robotics via edutainment. MIRO is a robot that is biomimetic in aesthetics, morphology, behaviour, and control architecture. In this paper, we review how these design choices affect its suitability for a companionship role. In particular, we consider how MIRO's emulation of familiar mammalian body language as one component of a broader biomimetic expressive system provides effective communication of emotional state and intent. We go on to discuss how these features contribute to MIRO's potential in other domains such as healthcare, education, and research

IntelliTable: Inclusively-Designed Furniture with Robotic Capabilities

IntelliTable is a new proof-of-principle assistive technology system with robotic capabilities in the form of an elegant universal cantilever table able to move around by itself, or under user control. We describe the design and current capabilities of the table and the human-centered design methodology used in its development and initial evaluation. The IntelliTable study has delivered robotic platform programmed by a smartphone that can navigate around a typical home or care environment, avoiding obstacles, and positioning itself at the user's command. It can also be configured to navigate itself to pre-ordained places positions within an environment using ceiling tracking, responsive optical guidance and object-based sonar navigation

The Emergence of Action Sequences from Spatial Attention: Insight from Rodent-Like Robots

Animal behaviour is rich, varied, and smoothly integrated. One plausible model of its generation is that behavioural sub-systems compete to command effectors. In small terrestrial mammals, many behaviours are underpinned by foveation, since important effectors (teeth, tongue) are co-located with foveal sensors (microvibrissae, lips, nose), suggesting a central role for foveal selection and foveation in generating behaviour. This, along with research on primate visual attention, inspires an alternative hypothesis, that integrated behaviour can be understood as sequences of foveations with selection being amongst foveation targets based on their salience. Here, we investigate control architectures for a biomimetic robot equipped with a rodent-like vibrissal tactile sensing system, explicitly comparing a salience map model for action guidance with an earlier model implementing behaviour selection. Both architectures generate life-like action sequences, but in the salience map version higher-level behaviours are an emergent consequence of following a shifting focus of attention

Empirically inspired simulated electro-mechanical model of the rat mystacial follicle-sinus complex

In whiskered animals, activity is evoked in the primary sensory afferent cells (trigeminal nerve) by mechanical stimulation of the whiskers. In some cell populations this activity is correlated well with continuous stimulus parameters such as whisker deflection magnitude, but in others it is observed to represent events such as whisker-stimulator contact or detachment. The transduction process is mediated by the mechanics of the whisker shaft and follicle-sinus complex (FSC), and the mechanics and electro-chemistry of mechanoreceptors within the FSC. An understanding of this transduction process and the nature of the primary neural codes generated is crucial for understanding more central sensory processing in the thalamus and cortex. However, the details of the peripheral processing are currently poorly understood. To overcome this deficiency in our knowledge, we constructed a simulated electro-mechanical model of the whisker-FSC-mechanoreceptor system in the rat and tested it against a variety of data drawn from the literature. The agreement was good enough to suggest that the model captures many of the key features of the peripheral whisker system in the rat

MiRo: Social Interaction and Cognition in an Animal-like Companion Robot

Future companion and assistive robots will interact directly with end-users in their own homes over extended periods of time. To be useful, and remain engaging over the long-term, these technologies need to pass a new threshold in social robotics-to be aware of people, their identities, emotions and intentions and to adapt their behavior to different individuals. Our immediate goal is to match the social cognition ability of companion animals who recognize people and their intentions without linguistic communication. The MiRo robot is a pet-sized mobile platform, with a brain-based control system and an emotionally-engaging appearance, which is being developed for research on companion robotics, and for applications in education, assistive living and robot-assisted therapy. This paper describes new MiRo capabilities for animal-like perception and social cognition that support the adaptation of behavior towards people and other robots