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Science Robotics paper published

Sheffield Robotics. Kilobots. Reina

The DiODe team has published their latest study on collective robotics in the prestigious journal Science Robotics. The study shows how information spreads in large robot populations. The research has brought to a counterintuitive finding: the less the robots were connected, the more the information spread within the population; Less was more. On the contrary, globally-connected robots were unable to discard outdated beliefs and adopt better available alternatives. This work lays the foundations for the design of large swarms of minimalistic robots that can operate hazardous and remote locations, such as nano-robots in blood vessels, or biodegradable robots for ocean cleaning.

View the video here

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New paper published in Computational Brain & Behavior

T. Bose, F. Bottom, A. Reina & J.A.R.Marshall, (2019) Frequency-Sensitivity and Magnitude-Sensitivity in Decision-Making: Predictions of a Theoretical Model-Based Study. Computational Brain & Behavior (Online First).

In this paper we study how decisions can be affected by varying frequencies and magnitudes of a perceptual stimulus in a simulated binary choice task. As a result we find that reaction time distributions may resemble the periodicity of the external stimulus. The article is fully open access.

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New paper published in Neural Computation

Bose, T., Reina, A., Marshall, J. A. R. (2019) Inhibition and Excitation Shape Activity Selection: Effect of Oscillations in a Decision-Making Circuit. Neural Computation 31:870-896.

This paper studies a model animal choosing between different food sources in an ongoing decision-making process. The decision-making circuit regulating the response is implemented via a generic neural hardware motif. Nonlinearities in the circuit influence the behaviour of the model animal. We find the unexpected result that inherent oscillations of neuronal activity may enhance decision-making performance.

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Two articles at the ANTS 2018 conference

We just published two papers in the Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2018) which will be held in Rome on October 29th-31st, 2018.

The paper Quality-sensitive foraging by a robot swarm through virtual pheromone trails by Anna Font Llenas, M. Salah Talamali, Xu Xu, James Marshall, and Andreagiovanni Reina showcases the functioning of ARK, our new super-cool infrastructure of Augmented Reality for Kilobots.

Check the video below!

The paper Simulating Kilobots within ARGoS: models and experimental validation by Carlo Pinciroli, M. Salah Talamali, Andreagiovanni Reina, James Marshall, and Vito Trianni proposes a new plugin for the ARGoS simulator that allows users to simulate Kilobots in a fast and realistic way, to use the same code in simulation and on robots, and to simulate the ARK infrastructure along with the Kilobots.

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No War: A robot film

Giovanni co-ordinated a team of University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University students who produced a new short film using our Kilobots. This was premiered at the Sheffield Robotics Showcase on June 26th, and is available to watch on the DiODe project You Tube channel…