Fully-funded PhD studentships in intelligent robotics

Background

Mobile and autonomous robots can relieve humans from carrying out dull, dangerous, and dirty activities. Robots are, however, complex systems involving technologies that make decisions, potentially taking agency away from humans. This raises challenges in terms of our ability to design these systems and verify them to ensure their trustworthiness.

Experience in the development of these systems is very limited. Existing approaches and regulations are for controlled systems, where behaviour can be determined from a set of rules. Although this can potentially be a very large set of rules, it means that the behaviour of the system can be predicted. For systems that can learn, evolve and make autonomous decisions, regulations do not provide enough guidance.

Understanding the impact of human behaviours on the system and taking into account the properties of the hardware and software is essential when evaluating the design. This informs the development of training support, new human-robot interfaces, and the design of the hardware and software.

Aims and objectives

The main objectives of the research are to provide automated support for:

• Elicitation of system-level requirements.
• Design validation and verification via early virtual experimentation of an autonomous drone that can assist emergency services in providing medical relief or evacuation infrastructure.
• Identifying how the techniques can generalized to apply to additional applications of mobile and autonomous systems.

Approach

In this project, we will explore the use of models to automatically generate simulations with humans in the loop. We will carry out the work with autonomous uncrewed air vehicles (UAV) for emergency assistance, and will study how the notations, techniques and process is more widely applicable. The case study builds on work already ongoing for a search-and-rescue drone. 

Funding Notes

• A. L. C. Cavalcanti, W. Barnett, J. Baxter, G. Carvalho, M. C. Filho, A. Miyazawa, P. Ribeiro, and A. C. A. Sampaio. RoboStar Technology: A Roboticist's Toolbox for Combined Proof, Simulation, and Testing, pages 249--293. Springer International Publishing, 2021.
• A. Shepherd, “HTA as a framework for task analysis,” Ergonomics, vol. 41, pp. 1537–52, 12 1998.
• H. Hendry, A. L. C. Cavalcanti, C. McCall, and M. Chattington. Verification of a search-and-rescue drone with humans in the loop. In 14th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2023.
• A. L. C. Cavalcanti, A. C. A. Sampaio, A. Miyazawa, P. Ribeiro, M. Conserva Filho, A. Didier, W. Li, and J. Timmis. Verified simulation for robotics. Science of Computer Programming, 174:1--37, 2019.

Background

Mobile and autonomous robots can relieve humans from carrying out dull, dangerous, and dirty activities. Robots are, however, complex systems involving technologies that make decisions, potentially taking agency away from humans. This raises challenges in terms of our ability to design these systems and verify them to ensure their trustworthiness.

Experience in the development of these systems is very limited. Existing approaches and regulations are for controlled systems, whose behaviour can be determined from a set of rules. Although this can potentially be a very large set of rules, it means that the behaviour of the system can be predicted. For systems that can learn, evolve and make autonomous decisions, regulations do not provide enough guidance.

Understanding the impact of human behaviours on the system and taking into account the properties of the hardware and software is essential when evaluating the design. This informs the development of training support, new human-robot interfaces, and the design of the hardware and software.

Aims and Objectives

The main objectives of the research are to:

• Provide automated support for automatic generation of field tests
• Design and carry out experiments with a variety of classes of stakeholders in the loop for an autonomous drone that can assist emergency services in providing medical relief or evacuation infrastructure 
• Identify how the techniques can be generalized to apply to additional applications of mobile and autonomous systems

Approach

In this project, we will explore the use of models to automatically generate tests involving real robots for use in the field. The result of the experiments will be used to validate the models of human behaviour, and improve the designs if needed.

Further reading

• A. L. C. Cavalcanti, W. Barnett, J. Baxter, G. Carvalho, M. C. Filho, A. Miyazawa, P. Ribeiro, and A. C. A. Sampaio. RoboStar Technology: A Roboticist's Toolbox for Combined Proof, Simulation, and Testing, pages 249--293. Springer International Publishing, 2021.
• A. Shepherd, “HTA as a framework for task analysis,” Ergonomics, vol. 41, pp. 1537–52, 12 1998.
• H. Hendry, A. L. C. Cavalcanti, C. McCall, and M. Chattington. Verification of a search-and-rescue drone with humans in the loop. In 14th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2023.
• A. Miyazawa, P. Ribeiro, W. Li, A. L. C. Cavalcanti, J. Timmis, and J. C. P. Woodcock. RoboChart: modelling and verification of the functional behaviour of robotic applications. Software & Systems Modeling, 18(5):3097--3149, 2019.
• A. L. C. Cavalcanti, J. Baxter, and G. Carvalho. Roboworld: Where can my robot work? In R. Calinescu and C. S. Păsăreanu, editors, Software Engineering and Formal Methods, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 3--22. Springer, 2021.

Background

In this project, we will apply state of the art technology for modelling, simulation and testing for analysis and verification of robots that can be used with gloveboxes. Gloveboxes are sealed containers used to manipulate hazardous materials.

Supervision of this project will be provided jointly by RoboStar and the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s RACE (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) robotics and remote handling centre.

RACE was founded in 2014 as part of the UKAEA’s Fusion Research and Development Programme to design and test robots for operating in some of the most challenging environments imaginable. UKAEA’s wider mission is to lead the commercial development of fusion power and related technology and position the UK as a leader in sustainable nuclear energy.

Aims and objectives

The main objectives of the research are to:

• Consider existing technology to evaluate the limits of what can be achieved with existing robots and existing software engineering techniques.
• Consider advanced testing techniques that support evaluation of the designs for a variety of experiments.

Contributions of the work will span from improvements to automation to novel techniques for testing. Our challenge is to enable and promote development approaches that provide evidence that the robot can be trusted to work in the lab around humans, while dealing with sensitive materials and experiments.

Funding Notes

Further Reading

• A. L. C. Cavalcanti, W. Barnett, J. Baxter, G. Carvalho, M. C. Filho, A. Miyazawa, P. Ribeiro, and A. C. A. Sampaio. RoboStar Technology: A Roboticist's Toolbox for Combined Proof, Simulation, and Testing, pages 249--293. Springer International Publishing, 2021.
• W. Barnett, A. L. C. Cavalcanti, and A. Miyazawa. Architectural Modelling for Robotics: RoboArch and the CorteX example. Frontiers of Robotics and AI, 2022.
• O. Tokatli, P. Das, R. Nath, L. Pangione, A. Altobelli, G. Burroughes, E. T. Jonasson, M. F. Turner, R. Skilton. Robot-Assisted Glovebox Teleoperation for Nuclear Industry. Robotics, 2021.

Background

Robots can perform repetitive, difficult and time-consuming jobs, increasing operational efficiency across industries. The nuclear industry relies on physical protections to ensure robotic safety, creating a barrier to innovation.

Aims and objectives

The proposed research focuses on the development and demonstration of automated testing techniques for design and evidencing of robotic control software for nuclear decommissioning. The goal is to improve assessment of reliability for operational confidence, and to support safety cases. 

Working with the UK National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL), the research will provide guidance on good practice, and associated techniques and tools to implement it, demonstrated in the development of a robot for nuclear decommissioning. The research will:

• Investigate how to mitigate the risks of using software;
• Establish a pathway to certifying software;
• Identify practices of programming suitable to the nuclear sector (architectures and languages);
• Address scalability and usability of advanced and automated testing techniques in the nuclear sector;
• Demonstrate robotic remote manipulation at National Nuclear User Facility (NNUF) using techniques developed in this work.

The advances will enable adoption of innovative solutions to nuclear decommissioning, accelerating the pathway to deploy demonstrably trustworthy robots according to industry-relevant good practice.

The project will utilise the industrial-scale National Nuclear User Facility (NNUF) Hot Robotics Facility at the United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory, Workington.

Approach

The proposed research will use foundational work undertaken by RoboStar to provide tailored practical support to the nuclear sector. 

Further reading

• A. L. C. Cavalcanti, W. Barnett, J. Baxter, G. Carvalho, M. C. Filho, A. Miyazawa, P. Ribeiro, and A. C. A. Sampaio. RoboStar Technology: A Roboticist's Toolbox for Combined Proof, Simulation, and Testing, pages 249--293. Springer International Publishing, 2021.
• A. Miyazawa, P. Ribeiro, W. Li, A. L. C. Cavalcanti, J. Timmis, and J. C. P. Woodcock. RoboChart: modelling and verification of the functional behaviour of robotic applications. Software & Systems Modeling, 18(5):3097--3149, 2019.