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Adaptive Systems Research Group

The Adaptive Systems Research Group in Hertfordshire is a multidisciplinary group of faculty, students, and friends of the University of Hertfordshire who have a connection to research in Adaptive Systems and related areas. The group was founded and is co-organized by Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn and Prof. Chrystopher Nehaniv. Other core faculty members of the group include Dr. Lola Cañamero, Dr. Daniel Polani and Dr. Farshid Amirabdollahian.

  
 

About the Group

The group has a strong research profile in the following areas:

    Artificial Life

    Constructive Biology; Bioinformatics & Biologically-Inspired Systems; Theoretical Biology; Evolution; Self-Re/production; Evolvability; Self-Maintaining Systems; Symbiosis & Hierarchies; Understanding through Building; Sensor Evolution; Evolution of Communication; Appropriate Mathematics for Evolutionary and Developmental Biology; Evolutionary Computation; Transitions in Biological Complexity.

    Socially Intelligent Agents

    Human-Robot Interaction; Social Robotics; Human-Computer Interaction; Intelligent Virtual Environments; Social Agents in Rehabiliation and Education; Embodiment; Social Learning and Imitation; Animal Minds; Meaning and Communication; Narrative Intelligence; Cognitive Technology; Intelligent Virtual Environments; Social Agents in Rehabiliation and Education; Historical Grounding in Post-Reactive Agents; Episodic Information, Temporal Scope, and Story-Telling in Biological, Robotic and Software Agents.

    Artificial Intelligence

    Cognitive Science; Mobile and Behaviour-Based Robotics; Intelligent Agents; Biological and Artificial Neural Networks; Growth and Evolution of Artificial Neurons and Neural Networks; Recurrent & Automata Networks; Self-Organization; Algebraic Methods in Artificial Intelligence; Analogies & Metaphor; Information in the Perception-Action Loop; Affective Robotics.

    Rehabilitation, Assistive and Assessment Robotics

    Neurorehabilitation robots, motivational therapies, game-based interaction, robot-assisted play, assessment robots, functional assessment, and finally assistive and socially assistive robots. We are also currently leading a UK network for assistive and rehabilitation robotics.http://rehabilitationrobotics.net

Latest News

  • Following on from the UH team's success in winning the 3D Humanoid Simulation competition at the Robocup German Open 2009, we are pleased to report that they were runners-up in the 3D Simulation competition at the RoboCup 2009 robot soccer world championships (http://www.robocup2009.org). RoboCup is one of the largest Robotics and AI competitions in the world, and is dedicated to create a push of the boundaries of science and technology in the field of AI and Robotics beyond the state-of-the-art. The Bold Hearts team, programmed by Sander van Dijk (PhD student), Peter Snow (MSc AI & Robotics student) and Vinny Pindoria (2nd yr BSc Computer Science student), under the tutelage of Dr. Daniel Polani, reached the final of the 3D Simulation League on Sunday in a dramatic and exciting competition, ahead of 19 other teams (in all there were 21 teams in the competition). In a tightly fought final, the Bold Hearts were beaten (3 - 1 after extra time; 0 - 0 after regular time) by a team from Southeastern University (SEU) in China, the Bold Hearts having scored first. Had the final been decided according to the golden goal rule, Bold Hearts would even have won. The other team from a UK university participating in a Robocup soccer event this year was Oxblue from Oxford, who came 6th out of 19 in the 2D Simulation League.(link)
  • A demonstration in the University of Robot House on 27 May 2009 showcased our work in the LIREC project, this has been covered widely, see e.g. New Scientist news story including a video and interviews with researchers and a British Satellite news story including interviews with the research team.(link)
  • The UH RoboCup team "Bold Hearts", lead by Daniel Polani, has just won the RoboCup German Open 2009 with 4-0 against the second runner in the 3D humanoid simulation soccer finals. RoboCup aims at boosting science, technology and education in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics through competitions and is one of the leading series of robotic competitions of its kind. The grand challenge of RoboCup for the year 2050 is to have a humanoid robot soccer team play against the human world champion.(link)
  • Kerstin Dautenhahn and her team's work on socially assistive robots has been discussed by the Washington Post (09/03/2009)(link)
  • On 24 November 2009 Dr. Farshid Amirabdollahian and Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn organised a workshop in Ramada Jarvis Hotel entitled "Robots for Rehabilitation and Personal Independence" sponsored by KT-EQUAL. The event attracted more than 70 participants from UH Universities, Spain, Denmark, and the Netherlands. It was a very successful networking event for one of our key research areas, namely Social and Healthcare robotics. (link)
  • Mick Walters, Kheng Lee Koay and Ben Robins were interviewed on BBC Radio 4"Leading Edge" program.(link)
  • On 31 August Kerstin Dautenhahn was interviewed for "Voices in the Family" hosted by psychologist Dr. Dan Gottlieb, a radio show produced at WHYY - Philadelphia's NPR-affiliate in US, in a show on Artificial Intelligence and psychology (interviewees were Kerstin and Dr. Marvin Minsky).(link)

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