This page gives a comprehensive summary of all the people and organisations involved in the AuRoRA Project.
People
| PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR | |
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Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn Adaptive Systems Research Group Telephone: +44-01707-284-333 |
Research Interests My general research interest is how animals and agents become social beings and what it means to understand the (social) world. This work is applied to the fields of socially intelligent agents and social robotics. Important research questions in this context are imitation, narrative, mindreading, empathy and the nature of autism. |
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| RESEARCH STAFF | |
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Megan Davis Senior Lecturer E-mail: m.davis@herts.ac.uk |
Research Interests Narrative and autism |
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Dr. Ben Robins Senior Research Fellow Telephone: +44-(0)1707-281150 |
Research Interests Autism and Robotics, |
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Dr. Ester Ferrari Research Fellow Telephone: +44-(0)1707-286198 |
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| RESEARCH STUDENTS | |
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Dorothee Francois Adaptive Systems Research Group E-mail: D.Francois@herts.ac.uk
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Research Interests My current research focuses on facilitating play between children with autism and an autonomous robot, in order to help the children develop play, communication and social interaction skills. More precisely, I focus both, on the methods to facilitate play (such as play scenarios and the development of new approaches to robot assisted play) and on the development of pattern recognition techniques to enable a robot to recognize and adapt in real-time to each child’s specific play styles. |
| Josh Wainer | |
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| ASSOCIATED RESEARCHERS | |
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Prof. Aude Billard EPFL, Autonomous Systems Lab E-mail: aude.billard@epfl.ch |
Research Interests Artificial neural networks, computational neuroscience, learning by imitation, social learning in autonomous robots, educational toys. |
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Dr Paul Dickerson School of Human & Life Sciences Home page: http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/pauldickerson/index.asp |
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Dr Janek Dubowski School of Psychology & Theraputic Studies E-mail: J.Dubowski@roehampton.ac.uk |
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Prof. Stuart Powell University of Hertfordshire E-mail: S.D.Powell@herts.ac.uk |
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Dr John Rae School of Psychology and Counselling Home page: http://www.roehamptonac.uk/staff/JohnRae/ |
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Penny Stribling School of Psychology and Counselling
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| PREVIOUS PROJECT MEMBERS | |
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Dr. Iain Werry Lecturer E-mail: I.P.Werry@herts.ac.uk |
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Tamie Salter Home page: http://www.tamie.org
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Dr William Harwin Department of Cybernetics Home page: http://www.cyber.reading.ac.uk/W.Harwin/
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Sponsors
From 1999 to 2002 The AuRoRA project was funded by EPSRC grant GR/M62648. Currently the project is supported by University of Hertfordshire. We collaborate with several schools in the Hertfordshire area, including Radlett Lodge School of the National Autistic Society, Colnbrook School, and Bentfield Primary school. The EPSRC grant involved trials with a Labo-1 robot that has been donated by Applied AI Systems for use in the project.
We express our gratitude to Takashi Gomi (AAI), Patricia Loveman (Radlett Lodge School) and Mr. Draper (Bentfield Primary School) for supporting the project, and their encouragement and enthusiasm.
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| EPSRC | National Autistic Society | Radlett Lodge School | Applied AI Systems |