Public Computing Group

There's has been a lot of work done on humanoid robotics recently. Much of it addresses the problems of locomotion, navigation, perception, and manipulation. What concerns us here at Bristol University is human-robot interaction:

• How do humans and robots need to communicate to collaborate.

Key concepts are non-linguistic communication and engagement. When we converse with other people we maintain eye contact, nod, gesticulate, point, pose, etc. Getting robots to behave this way is really difficult, but it's probably essential to forming some kind of communicative bond.

The Bristol Robotics Laboratory has recently been launched, December 2005, as a collaborative research partnership funded by the University of Bristol, the University of the West of England and HEFCE.