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EU perspectives
Robotics needs to get political
Alan Winfield
27 Jan 2015
A couple of weeks ago I was a panelist on a public debate at the 2014 Battle of Ideas. The title of the debate was The robots are coming: friends or foes? with a focus not on the technology but the ...
Open science: Preaching what I practice
Alan Winfield
22 Jan 2015
Open science isn't one thing - it is a set of practices that range from making sure your papers are openly accessible (which is relatively easy), to open notebook science, which makes the process ope...
Philae: A proof of concept for cometary landing
Alan Winfield
01 Dec 2014
We asked Alan Winfield what the first successful landing on a comet means for the future of space mining. Find out his answer below.
The successful landing of Philae on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasim...
RoboLaw: Why and how to regulate robotics
Andrea Bertolini
29 Oct 2014
The issue is often raised whether robotics needs to be regulated. While some believe that there is no need to intervene because regulation may stifle innovation, others believe that indeed there is ne...
Driven by care needs, will it be the booming senior population that spurs wider acceptance of robots?
Abate De Mey
19 Oct 2014
Tony Prescott, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of the Sheffield Center of Robotics believes that [tweetquote]the medical industry could be at the forefront of changing the public per...
The feeling of what it is like to be a robot
Alan Winfield
17 Oct 2014
Philosopher Thomas Nagel famously characterised subjective experience as “something that it is like to be…” and suggested that for a bat, for instance, there must be something that it is like to...
Experiments designing an ethical robot
Alan Winfield
30 Sep 2014
In my last post I wrote about our work on robots with internal models: robots with a simulation of themselves and their environment inside themselves. I explained that we have built a robot with a ...
In praise of robot football
Alan Winfield
09 Sep 2014
Republished here is a short piece for The Conversation reflecting on robot football: 4-4-2 becomes 0101: inside the competitive world of robot football, published 4 August 2014.
This summer the ...
On internal models, consequence engines and Popperian creatures
Alan Winfield
08 Sep 2014
So. We've been busy in the lab the last few months. Really exciting. Let me explain.
For a couple of years I've been thinking about robots with internal models. Not internal models in the classical...
We should not be privileging the singularity hypothesis | Alan Winfield via The Guardian
Alan Winfield
03 Sep 2014
By worrying unnecessarily [about the Singularity hypothesis] I think we’re falling into a trap: the fallacy of privileging the hypothesis. And – perhaps worse – taking our eyes off other risks ...
Your robot doggie could really be pleased to see you
Alan Winfield
02 Sep 2014
There have been several stories in the last few weeks about emotional robots - robots that feel. Some are suggesting that this is the next big thing in robotics. It's something I wrote about in t...
What would be the energy cost of artificially evolving human-equivalent AI?
Alan Winfield
28 Jul 2014
Want to create human-equivalent AI? Well, broadly speaking, there are three approaches open to you: design it, reverse-engineer it or evolve it. The third of these - artificial evolution - is attrac...
The next big things in robotics
Alan Winfield
08 Jul 2014
Last week I attended the launch event for a new NESTA publication called Our work here is done: Visions of a Robot Economy....
Schunk Manipulators, with Henrik A. Schunk
Per Sjöborg
20 Apr 2014
Link to audio file (27:49)In this episode Per Sjoborg speaks with Henrik Schunk about his company’s work in gripping technology, modular robotics and dexterous manipulation. They then look at se...
Schunk to Google: Welcome to the robotics game
Henrik A. Schunk
12 Mar 2014
The continuing interest of Google in robotics over the last years and its newest activities in this regard confirms what all players active in robotics will confirm: service robotics is on the thresho...
Machine consciousness: Fact or fiction?
Igor Aleksander and Footnote
10 Mar 2014
My workday is over. What do I want to do now? I picture calling my wife to suggest dinner at that nice Italian restaurant and imagine the taste of gnocchi quattro formaggi. Then I remember promising ...
Why robots will not be smarter than humans by 2029
Alan Winfield
07 Mar 2014
Statue of Alan Turing. Photo credit: Neil Crosby
In the last few days we've seen a spate of headlines like 2029: the year when robots will have the power to outsmart their makers, all occasioned by ...
Alan Winfield on “What does it mean to have giants like Google, Apple and Amazon investing in robotics?”
Alan Winfield
12 Feb 2014
Judging by the levels of media coverage and frenzied speculation that has followed each acquisition, the short answer to what does it mean is: endless press exposure. I almost wrote 'priceless exp...
Soft robotics in space
Alan Winfield
14 Dec 2013
Space robotics is understandably conservative. When the cost of putting a robot on a planet, moon or asteroid runs into the billions we need to be sure the technology will work. And with very long pro...
Noisy imitation speeds up group learning
Alan Winfield
03 Dec 2013
Broadly speaking there are two kinds of learning: individual learning and social learning. Individual learning means learning something entirely on your own, without reference to anyone else who might...
Ethical robots: Some technical and ethical challenges
Alan Winfield
19 Nov 2013
I've been talking about robot ethics for several years now, but that's mostly been about how we roboticists must be responsible and mindful of the societal impact of our creations. Two years ago I w...
A close(ish) encounter with Voyager 2
Alan Winfield
27 Oct 2013
It is summer 1985. I'm visiting Caltech with colleague and PhD supervisor Rod Goodman. Rod has just been appointed in the Electrical Engineering Department at Caltech, and I'm still on a high from ...
Don’t build robots, build robot systems
Alan Winfield
07 Oct 2013
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Why aren't there more intelligent mobile robots in real world applications? It's a good question, and one I'm often asked. The answer I give most often is tha...
The triangle of life: Evolving robots in real-time and real-space
Alan Winfield
20 Sep 2013
At the excellent European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL) a couple of weeks ago we presented a paper called The Triangle of Life: Evolving Robots in Real-time and Real-space (this links...
Memories of Skyrim
Alan Winfield
26 Aug 2013
From time to time I like to visit Skyrim. I've been going there for about 2 years - completed the main quest a year or so ago, and since then go back to undertake a side quest or, more often that not,...
The scourge of the RoboTroll is already upon us
Alan Winfield
22 Aug 2013
When a robot ethics working group met nearly three years ago one of the things we fretted about was privacy. We were concerned especially about personal companion robots. Whatever their purpose, be it...
When robots start telling each other stories…
Alan Winfield
31 Jul 2013
About 6 years ago the late amazing Richard Gregory said to me, with a twinkle in his eye, "when your robots start telling each other stories, then you'll really be onto something". It was a remark wit...
Robotics has a new kind of Cartesian Dualism, and it’s just as unhelpful
Alan Winfield
22 Jul 2013
I believe robotics has re-invented mind-body dualism.
At the excellent European Robotics Forum earlier this year, I attended a workshop called AI meets Robotics....
euRathlon and the DARPA Robot Challenge: A difference of approach
Alan Winfield
22 Jul 2013
A week ago the DARPA Robotics Challenge unveiled the ATLAS humanoid robot, which will be used by seven competing teams. Developed by Boston Dynamics, ATLAS is an imposing 1.8m 150Kg bipedal humano...
New Robotics and new opportunities
Alan Winfield
28 May 2013
Here are the slides of my talk at the BARA Academic Forum for Robotics meeting Robotics: from innovation to service, on Monday 20 May 2013:...
Alan Winfield on “What is the single biggest obstacle preventing robotics from going mainstream?”
Alan Winfield
15 May 2013
Well it depends on what you mean by mainstream. For a number of major industry sectors robotics is already mainstream. In assembly-line automation, for instance; or undersea oil well maintenance and...
What is the single biggest obstacle preventing robotics from going mainstream?
RBI Editors
15 May 2013
It has been said that we are on the edge of a 'robotic tipping point' … but where, exactly, is this edge? And what's holding us back? This month we asked our panelists to weigh in on what's keepin...
Could we experience the workings of our own brains?
Alan Winfield
08 May 2013
One of the oft quoted paradoxes of consciousness is that we are unable to observe or experience our own conscious minds at work; that we cannot be conscious of the workings of consciousness. I've alwa...
A crisis of expectations
Alan Winfield
29 Apr 2013
At the first UK Robot Ethics workshop on 25th March 2013, I offered — for discussion — the proposition that robotics is facing a Crisis of Expectations. And not for the first time. I argue that on...
euRathlon is go!
Alan Winfield
07 Feb 2013
I'm very excited to be leading a new project called euRathlon - which is short for European Robotics Athlon. Up until now the project has been under wraps, but now - finally - we can go public. I'll e...
Robot know thyself
Alan Winfield
27 Jun 2012
How can we measure self-awareness in artificial systems?...
