Helmut Hauser (Director)
Helmut Hauser is an Associate Professor in Robotics at the University of Bristol and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. Helmut is also the Director of the EPSRC Centre of Doctoral Training for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (FARSCOPE TU) with over 50 PhD students. He leads the UK-RAS Strategic Task Group for Soft Robotics, which promotes Soft Robotics in the UK. Helmut’s research is focused on morphological computation and embodiment, especially in the context of soft robotics. He is interested in understanding the underlying principles of how complex physical properties of biological systems are exploited to facilitate learning and controlling tasks, and how these principles can be employed to design better robots. He has published over 90 publications in international conferences as well in high-impact journals including Science Robotics, Nature Machine Intelligence, and Scientific Reports (Google Scholar). Helmut has won various publications awards at international conferences including 3 best paper awards and the “Highly Commended - Industrial Robot Journal award for practical innovation in the field of robotic.” Helmut was the project manager of the EU project LOCOMORPH and he lead the Leverhulme Trust Project “Computing with Spiders’ Webs.” He was co-organizer of the 2nd and 3rd international conference on morphological computation, the Monte Verità workshop on Soft Robotics and Morphological Computation. He also led 5 special issues on morphological computation. He is Associate Editor for Journal of Soft Robotics, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Frontiers Soft Robotics, the editor of the e-book "Opinions and Outlooks on Morphological Computation”. Helmut is also the author of the popular RoboHub article on morphological computation.
Current Group Members
Valentina Lo Gatto
Valentina Lo Gatto is a final year PhD candidate in Robotics and Autonomous Systems – within the FARSCOPE CDT program - at the Bristol Robotics Lab (BRL), where she joined the Morphological Computation Group and the SoftLab. Before moving to the UK, Valentina obtained a BSc in Aerospace Engineering and an MSc in Space Engineering at the Sapienza University of Rome, with top marks. Her passion for Space dates back to her childhood (when she decided she was going to be the first woman on Mars), and while she loves all areas of Space Engineering, her main interest lies in Space Exploration Systems Design. The aim of her research at BRL is to investigate the applicability and benefits of the innovative concepts of Morphological Computation, Bioinspiration and Soft Robotics, in the field of space probes design for the exploration of extreme marine environments such those hidden under the icy surfaces of some of the moons of the outer solar system (e.g., Europa, Enceladus, Ganymede). Valentina has developed a jellyfish robot (on the cover of the SoRo December 2022 issue) and then moved her focus on salp-inspired, multi-unit, soft robotic systems, where the units can chain together in a colony formation, letting complex behaviours emerge from the different configurations and their interaction with the environment.
Valentina was selected to participate in a workshop on Concurrent Design Engineering organised and sponsored by the European Space Agency in 2020. She also spent six months as a visiting researcher at JPL, within the JVSRP program, from January to July 2022.
A trip to Mars is still the number one thing on her “long-term” to-do list.
Email: valentina.logatto@bristol.ac.uk
Ridhi Bansal
Ridhi Bansal is a PhD candidate with the FARSCOPE centre for doctoral training, hosted jointly by the University of Bristol, the University of the West of England and Bristol Robotics Laboratory. She graduated with a 1st class BEng Hons Mechanical Engineering degree (top 5% of the department) from University of Nottingham. She is also a part of the soft robotics group at the University of Bristol. For her PhD research she is investigating on creating a soft cellular robot, where the individual units ‘cells’ can merge or break-off from the main robot. The aim is to structurally reconfigure the robot into most advantageous shape to maximise robot locomotion, based on the locomotion surface and robot parameters. Cellbot can be used for rescue missions and explorations of hazardous and inaccessible environments such as, outer space.
LinkedIn: Ridhi Bansal | LinkedIn
Twitter: @ridhibansal_
Email: ridhi.bansal@bristol.ac.uk
Matthew Uppington
Matthew Uppington is a PhD candidate with the FARSCOPE centre for doctoral training, hosted jointly by the University of Bristol, the University of West England and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. He graduated from the University of Bristol with a 1st class degree in Engineering Mathematics, and now continues to support the program as a Lead Teaching Assistant. He is also part of the Swarm Robotics research team and has ongoing collaborations with researchers in the School of Chemistry and the Bio-Medical Sciences in the University of Bristol. His PhD research focuses on small-scale robotics and light reactive materials, such as proto-cellular tissues that contract when illuminated. His aim is to understand how morphology and light-stimulation can be optimised for locomotion, leading to new forms of mobile robotic agents. is a PhD candidate with the FARSCOPE centre for doctoral training, hosted jointly by the University of Bristol, the University of West England and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. He graduated from the University of Bristol with a 1st class degree in Engineering Mathematics, and now continues to support the program as a Lead Teaching Assistant. He is also part of the Swarm Robotics research team and has ongoing collaborations with researchers in the School of Chemistry and the Bio-Medical Sciences in the University of Bristol. His PhD research focuses on small-scale robotics and light reactive materials, such as proto-cellular tissues that contract when illuminated. His aim is to understand how morphology and light-stimulation can be optimised for locomotion, leading to new forms of mobile robotic agents.
Email: mu15531@bristol.ac.uk
Miranda Lowther
Miranda Lowther is a PhD candidate at the FARSCOPE-TU Centre for Doctoral Training, a joint venture between University of Bristol, University of West of England, and Bristol Robotics Laboratory. She also works as a Teaching Assistant for the Robotics and Biorobotics MSc programmes. She began her PhD with a 1st class MEng Hons in Electronic Engineering (with a year in industry) from University of York, during which she completed a 12-month placement at Renesas Electronics Corporation. Her dissertation focused on creating proprioceptive twisted string actuators using conductive yarn, primarily for aerospace applications. Now, as a member of the SoftLab, the Morphological Computation, and the Dextrous Manipulation and Wearables groups, she is pursuing her passion for using soft robotics and morphological computation to help people in healthcare and other areas, specifically prosthetics. She has also helped lead and run multiple Morphological Computation outreach events over the past year with universities alongside other Morphological Computation team members, for both undergraduate students and 16-18 year olds.
For her PhD, she is investigating how soft e-skins and morphological computation concepts can be used to improve prosthetic user health, comfort, and happiness, through sensing and adaptation. She is working with a Reconstructive Scientist team at Southmead Hospital to gain a more in-depth understanding of the issues users face, and she has presented as part of their Reconstructive Science Study Day. She has also presented her initial designs and work at the Soft Sensing: Environment, Morphology, Brain in Biology and Robotics Workshop, at the RoboSoft 2022 conference.
While eager to pursue her research in soft robotic prosthetic solutions, her research interests include bio-inspiration, morphological computation, medical robotics, rehabilitation technology, assistive technology, prosthetics, wearable technology, e-skins, machine learning, metamaterials, soft electronics, and environmental robotics. Her main aim is to conduct robotics research and create technology to improve people’s quality of life.
LinkedIn: Miranda Lowther | LinkedIn
Twitter: @MyraLowther
Email: gi20361@bristol.ac.uk
Vijay Chandiramani
Vijay Chandiramani joined the FARSCOPE programme in September 2021, directly in the second year after completing MSc Robotics with Distinction rom University of Bristol. He has entered academia after a rather long and fruitful career in the industry, culminating in leadership positions in the consulting industry, focused on transformation and automation in the public sector. His undergraduate degree was in Electronics Engineering, with a specialisation in process control and automation systems. Vijay’s MSc Dissertation was on optimizing the performance of a legged locomotion robot and understanding the impact of morphological computation. The entire quadruped was simulated in Simscape with a high level of fidelity using real components and material properties, leading him into the world of dynamics, biomimetics, artificial muscles and tendons. He is building on this research with the aim of designing a legged robot using a blend of morphological computation and active control, where a research gap has been felt. His most recent paper on quantifying morphological computation was accepted at a workshop at the Robotic Science and Systems Conference (RSS22). T&W @ RSS22 - Extended Abstracts (google.com)
He is a visiting faculty at a leading management institute in Mumbai, India. In addition, he is a Teaching Assistant at UoB for AI and Electromechanical Systems Design.
Email: ld19487@bristol.ac.uk
ORCID profile: Vijay Chandiramani (0000-0002-2430-0740) (orcid.org)
Emanuele Pulvirenti
Emanuele is a 2nd year PhD candidate in Robotics and Autonomous Systems – within the FARSCOPE CDT program - at the Bristol Robotics Lab (BRL), member of the SoftLab. His research focuses on the development of a soft exosuit for hypogravity adaptation and muscle health maintenance in space. Before joining the SoftLab, he obtained a Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Bristol in 2019 and worked at Jaguar Land Rover as a development engineer for electric vehicles. As an aspiring spaceman since his early days, he is involved in several space-related projects and activities. He is currently a part-time Research Associate within SoftLab working on the METAFit project, a collaboration with Fosters+Partners to develop soft, safe and effective body interfacing for space users. He is also involved in the FREEHAB project, which aims at developing soft, wearable rehabilitative devices with a view to helping elderly and disabled people walk and move from sitting to a standing position in comfort and safety. These involvements reflect his vision that technology developed for space can greatly benefit life on Earth, and in a few words, help us to still boldly go (and stay).
Email: ep15603@bristol.ac.uk
Twitter: @EmanuelePulvi
LinkedIn: Emanuele Pulvirenti | LinkedIn.
Estelle Raffy
Estelle Raffy is a PhD student in robotics and autonomous systems (FARSCOPE CDT) at the University of Bristol and Bristol Robotics Laboratory. She completed a bachelor's degree in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex as well as a master’s and university’s degree in philosophy of science in Bordeaux. Inspired by the embodied intelligence of the octopus, she has been investigating how concepts of "embodied minds" can be evaluated for soft-bodied animals with infinite motor flexibility. She went on to address, from an epistemological perspective, what the implications of embodiment principles are for the study of cognition in cognitive science. Most recently, her PhD is about exploring ideal architectures for life-like qualities such as self-organization, resilience and homeostasis. She is building a multilevel tensegrity-based robotics platform and seeks to exploit the equilibrium-seeking properties of tensegrity to navigate between stable shapes and contribute to the development of novel adaptive structures made of adaptive components. Her research is inspired by embodiment, and what minimal or unconventional examples of adaptive behaviour tell us about cognition, intelligence, even consciousness and minds. She is also the co-leader of the seminar series MorphoTalks, aiming at encouraging discussions and potential research collaborations in the field of Morphological Computation and associated terms.
Email: om21104@bristol.ac.uk
Twitter: @NeuroPhiloRobot
LinkedIn: Estelle Raffy | LinkedIn
Dawood Basharat
Dawood Basharat is a PhD student at the FARSCOPE centre of doctoral training, based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. His main research interests lie within evolutionary and swarm robotics, currently applying the concept of biological plasticity to swarm-level performance. This plasticity can be applied to the behaviour, physiology and morphology of the robots within the swarm, to identify the optimal plasticity distribution among the swarm for the best group-level performance via artificial evolution. Utilising a plasticity-based method will allow for the robots to adapt to disparate, hazardous and dynamics environments.
Email: fe20023@bristol.ac.uk
Isabelle Ormerod
Isabelle Ormerod is a PhD candidate with the FARSCOPE centre for doctoral training, hosted jointly by the University of Bristol, the University of West England and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. She graduated from the University of Bristol with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2020, after which she worked in medical product design.
Being close to how design decisions were made and witnessing how ergonomic designs were envisioned, she wanted to explore how we can prioritise ergonomics as a design driver. This is envisioned by examining how people interact with products and equipment, therefore determining more appropriate designs for dexterity-limited users. Currently, her research is centred around optical emitters and sensors to explore muscle activation within the hands and forearms.
Alongside her PhD, Isabelle maintains her connection to Industry by working part-time within the Future Space of the BRL. As the previous president of the mechanical engineering society at the University of Bristol and one of the founding members of the D & I Taskforce at Crux Product Design, she continues with Outreach as a chair of Women in Robotics UK.
Email: io16231@bristol.ac.uk
LinkedIn: Isabelle Ormerod | LinkedIn
Jed Preist
Jed Preist is a PhD candidate working jointly with the Bristol Interaction Group and the Bristol Robotics Lab. He is currently investigating how the use ofcompliant materials can affect the way that robots are perceived by and interact with people. He takes inspiration from the ways touch and gesture are used for communication in the animal kingdom, as well as disciplines such as animation and puppetry.
Email: jed.preist@bristol.ac.uk
Ajmal Roshan
Ajmal Roshan is a PhD student in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (FARSCOPE CDT) at the University of Bristol and Bristol Robotics Laboratory. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering at National Institute of Technology Calicut – India as well as Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering Design at the University of Manchester, England. He is quite inspired about exploring living systems, particularly on works that traverse between the living kingdom and the engineering domain. His PhD is on exploring and extending the concepts of Central Pattern Generator (CPGs – the group of neurons that are responsible for rhythmic activities in living organisms) for locomotion and incorporate them to build an exo-suit that will enable people with mobility issues to move independently and comfortably while providing with an extra support.
Email: do22482@bristol.ac.uk
Twitter: @roshanedassery
LinkedIn: https://ae.linkedin.com/in/ajmalroshan
Alumni
Martin Garrad
Martin Garrad is a PhD candidate with the FARSCOPE centre for doctoral training, hosted jointly by the University of Bristol, the University of the West of England and Bristol Robotics Laboratory. He is also a part of the soft robotics group at the University of Bristol. For his PhD research he is investigating robots that can adapt their morphology in response to a change in task or environment and algorithms which can learn to make these changes autonomously.
Martin is now Lecturer in Robotics at the University of Bristol.
Euan Judd
Euan Judd uses machine learning and optimisation techniques for the coadaptation of the morphology and controller of soft robots. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher working under the supervision of Professor Dario Floreano in the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He is a contributor to the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (MERGING). Previously, he was a PhD candidate in the Soft Robotics Group at the University of Bristol, supervised by Professor Helmut Hauser and Professor Jonathan Rossiter.
Twitter: @EuanJudd Website: euanjudd.github.io
Kathryn (Katt) Walker
Previously a PhD candidate at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory within the FARSCOPE scheme, Kathryn Walker now works at the IT University in Copenhagen as a postdoctoral researcher. Her research centres around distributed control in modular robots, neural cellular automata and using machine learning techniques to design soft modular robots. She is a co-organiser of the annual Virtual Creatures competition and a member of the team behind the ALIFE newsletter.
Yiheng Zhu
Yiheng Zhu is a PhD candidate of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Autonomous and Robotic Systems (FARSCOPE CDT), hosted jointly by the University of Bristol, the University of the West of England and Bristol Robotics Laboratory. He was also a part of the Soft Robotics Group at the University of Bristol. Inspired by the metamorphosis of amphibians, his PhD research focuses on robotic morphosis and embodied intelligence.
Yiheng is now working with Alibaba in China.
Seyedmohammadhadi Hadi Sadati
S.M.Hadi Sadati received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in 2010 from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran, and his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in 2012 from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. In 2017, he received his Ph.D. in Robotics at King’s College London, University of London, London, UK. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Morphological Computation at the University of Bristol, working within the Leverhulme Trust Research Project “Computing with spiders’ webs – An inspiration for new sensors and robots”. He also was a visiting researcher at Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London during 2017 and has been a member of IEEE Soft Robotics newsletter team since 2015. His research experience is in the fields of rescue robots, nonholonomic system path planning, dynamic system modeling, stiffness controllable continuum manipulators, and morphological computation and control. His research interests include bio-inspired robotics, morphological computation, continuum robotics, robot dynamics, control and design.
Hadi is now working at King’s College London as Fellow.