Intelligent Robotics and Smart Device Ecologies

This research area aims to advance the area of intelligent robotics and smart device ecologies within the domain of intelligent environments.  Robots are envisioned as being at the forefront of the next social revolution, taking over the mantle from the internet and the information revolution we are currently experiencing.  It is expected that robots will form an integral part of the intelligent environments of the future, along with humans.  Together they will form the new ecosystem or smart-device-ecology, acting in synergy to provide intelligent seamless services.  Intelligent robotics, in particular domestic robotics, has been the focus of applied research over recent years, while research into smart-device-ecologies is a new, emerging, paradigm for intelligent environments.  The robots operating in tomorrow’s smart environments maybe represented by a diverse range of instances and maybe autonomous, fixed or mobile, specialised for a specific task within a specific environment, or generalised devices capable of performing a number of general or specialised services.  Such robots will need to operate and co-operate with humans and other robots within the smart device ecology of the smart environment.  Both robots and the ecology may have to learn, adapt and modify their behaviours along with the changing environment and needs of the human occupants, with a goal of maintaining a synergy between all devices within the ecology to provide useful and optimal services.

To conduct research into the following and related areas,
•    Smart device ecology connectivity
•    Event and transaction models for the smart device ecology
•    Smart device ecology service models, especially adaptive and emergent paradigms
•    Data mining contextual information from live video feeds within an intelligent environment, with an emphasis on retrieving human behavioural information to aid the environment to provide better service responses  
•    Biologically-inspired approaches to smart devices ecologies and robots
•    All aspects of robot interaction within the ecology, but especially with humans
•    Behavioural paradigms and architectures for intelligent robots, covering traditional controllers (IQ based) and socially orientated controller’s (EQ based) i.e. exploring various psychometric traits such as the irrational, rational, ego centric and so on
•    Psychological and practical impacts of intelligent robots working alongside humans, particularly in the envisioned domestic environment, exploring the adaptations of space and human behaviour with case studies and other experimental evidences.