Experts from across the disciplines come together at new center to push the boundaries of smart robotics and AI
Inaugural summit that looks to the future of smart machines marks opening of new robotics center
Meeting AnnouncementIMAGE: LIVING AND WORKING WITH SMART ROBOTS ... RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER ARE LOOKING AT THE FUTURE OF HUMAN-ROBOT RELATIONSHIPS. view more
CREDIT: MARKETING MANCHESTER
How humans and super smart robots will live and work together in the future will be among the key issues being scrutinised by experts at a new centre of excellence for AI and autonomous machines based at The University of Manchester.
The Manchester Centre for Robotics and AI will be a new specialist multi-disciplinary centre to explore developments in smart robotics through the lens of artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous machinery.
The University of Manchester has built a modern reputation of excellence in AI and robotics, partly based on the legacy of pioneering thought leadership begun in this field in Manchester by legendary codebreaker Alan Turing.
Manchester’s new multi-disciplinary centre is home to world-leading research from across the academic disciplines – and this group will hold its first conference on Wednesday, Nov 23, at the University’s new engineering and materials facilities.
A highlight will be a joint talk by robotics expert Dr Andy Weightman and theologian Dr Scott Midson which is expected to put a spotlight on ‘posthumanism’, a future world where humans won’t be the only highly intelligent decision-makers.
Dr Weightman, who researches home-based rehabilitation robotics for people with neurological impairment, and Dr Midson, who researches theological and philosophical critiques of posthumanism, will discuss how interdisciplinary research can help with the special challenges of rehabilitation robotics – and, ultimately, what it means to be human “in the face of the promises and challenges of human enhancement through robotic and autonomous machines”.
Other topics that the centre will have a focus on will include applications of robotics in extreme environments.
For the past decade, a specialist Manchester team led by Professor Barry Lennox has designed robots to work safely in nuclear decommissioning sites in the UK. A ground-breaking robot called Lyra that has been developed by Professor Lennox’s team - and recently deployed at the Dounreay site in Scotland, the “world’s deepest nuclear clean up site” – has been listed in Time Magazine’s Top 200 innovations of 2022.
Angelo Cangelosi, Professor of Machine Learning and Robotics at Manchester, said the University offers a world-leading position in the field of autonomous systems – a technology that will be an integral part of our future world.
Professor Cangelosi, co-Director of Manchester’s Centre for Robotics and AI, said: “We are delighted to host our inaugural conference which will provide a special showcase for our diverse academic expertise to design robotics for a variety of real world applications.
"Our research and innovation team are at the interface between robotics, autonomy and AI – and their knowledge is drawn from across the University's disciplines, including biological and medical sciences – as well the humanities and even theology.
“This rich diversity offers Manchester a distinctive approach to designing robots and autonomous systems for real world applications, especially when combined with our novel use of AI-based knowledge.”
Delegates will have a chance to observe a series of robots and autonomous machines being demoed at the new conference.
The University of Manchester’s Centre for Robotics and AI will aim to:
- design control systems with a focus on bio-inspired solutions to mechatronics, eg the use of biomimetic sensors, actuators and robot platforms;
- develop new software engineering and AI methodologies for verification in autonomous systems, with the aim to design trustworthy autonomous systems;
- research human-robot interaction, with a pioneering focus on the use of brain-inspired approaches to robot control, learning and interaction; and
- research the ethics and human-centred robotics issues, for the understanding of the impact of the use of robots and autonomous systems with individuals and society.
Living and working with smart robots ... researchers at The University of Manchester are looking at the future of human-robot relationships.
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Marketing Manchester
Self-organization: What robotics can learn from amoebae
Peer-Reviewed PublicationLMU researchers have developed a new model to describe how biological or technical systems form complex structures without external guidance.
Amoebae are single-cell organisms. By means of self-organization, they can form complex structures – and do this purely through local interactions: If they have a lot of food, they disperse evenly through a culture medium. But if food becomes scarce, they emit the messenger known as cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). This chemical signal induces amoebae to gather in one place and form a multicellular aggregation. The result is a fruiting body.
“The phenomenon is well known,” says Prof. Erwin Frey from LMU’s Faculty of Physics. “Before now, however, no research group has investigated how information processing, at a general level, affects the aggregation of systems of agents when individual agents – in our case, amoebae – are self-propelled.” More knowledge about these mechanisms would also be interesting, adds Frey, as regards translating them to artificial technical systems.
Together with other researchers, Frey describes in Nature Communications how active systems that process information in their environment can be used – for technological or biological applications. It is not about understanding all details of the communication between individual agents, but about the specific structures formed through self-organization. This applies to amoebae – and also to certain kinds of robots. The research was undertaken in collaboration with Prof. Igor Aronson during his stay at LMU as a Humboldt Research Award winner.
From biological mechanism to technological application
Background: The term “active matter” refers to biological or technical systems from which larger structures are formed by means of self-organization. Such processes are based upon exclusively local interactions between identical, self-propelled units, such as amoebae or indeed robots.
Inspired by biological systems, Frey and his co-authors propose a new model in which self-propelled agents communicate with each other. These agents recognize chemical, biological, or physical signals at a local level and make individual decisions using their internal machinery that result in collective self-organization. This orientation gives rise to larger structures, which can span multiple length scales.
The new paradigm of communicating active matter forms the basis of the study. Local decisions in response to a signal and the transmission of information, lead to collectively controlled self-organization.
Frey sees a possible application of the new model in soft robots – which is to say, robots that are made of soft materials. Such robots are suitable, for example, for performing tasks in human bodies. They can communicate with other soft robots via electromagnetic waves for purposes such as administering drugs at specific sites in the body. The new model can help nanotechnologists design such robot systems by describing the collective properties of robot swarms.
“It’s sufficient to roughly understand how individual agents communicate with each other; self-organization takes care of the rest,” says Frey. “This is a paradigm shift specifically in robotics, where researchers are attempting to do precisely the opposite – they want to obtain extremely high levels of control.” But that does not always succeed. “Our proposal, by contrast, is to exploit the capacity for self-organization.”
JOURNAL
Nature Communications
ARTICLE TITLE
Multi-scale organization in communicating active matter
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