joe saunders

• introduction
• research interests
• publications
• papers that bear my name
• contact
• contact details
• links
• interesting links

News

Mar 09 | National Science Week
Oct 09 | Festival of Robotics, Manchester

introduction

Welcome to my research pages. I'm currently working at the University of Hertfordshire as part of the Adaptive Systems Research Group. Part of my research is also within the European Framework 7 Project italk ("Integration and Transfer of Action and Language Knowledge in Robots"). My research focuses on imitation, language acquisition and social robotics. I am especially interested in the relationships within imitation between the observation of an act and the experience or feeling of carrying out an act. My practical research uses physical robots to study the relationship between a demonstrator and an imitator and includes topics such as observational learning, self-imitation, task scaffolding and early language acquisition.

publications

Joe Saunders, Caroline Lyon, Frank Förster, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv and Kerstin Dautenhahn (2009),A Constructivist Approach to Robot Language Learning via Simulated Babbling and Holophrase Extraction, Proc. 2nd International IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life (Nashville, Tennessee, USA (in press)

Joe Saunders, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2008), What is an Appropriate Theory of Imitation for a Robot Learner? Proc. ECSIS Symposium on Learning and Adaptive Behavior in Robotic Systems, LAB-RS 2008 (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK), IEEE Computer Society Press

Nuno Otero, Joe Saunders, Kerstin Dautenhahn and Chrystopher L. Nehaniv (2008),Teaching Robot Companions: The Role of Scaffolding and Event Structuring, Connection Science, Vol. 20(2/3): 111-134

Joe Saunders, Nuno Otero, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv (2007), Issues in Human/Robot Task Structuring and Teaching Special Session on Human Robot Interactive Teaching, Proc. 16th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE Ro-Man 2007), Korea, August 26-29, 2007, pp. 708-713

Joe Saunders, (2006), Observational Imitation, Self-Imitation and Environmental Scaffolding in Robotic Systems, PhD Thesis.

Joe Saunders, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Kerstin Dautenhahn and Aris Alissandrakis (2007), Self-Imitation and Environmental Scaffolding for Robot Teaching,International Journal of Advanced Robotics Systems, Vol. 4, Issue 1, pp. 109-124,[ISSN 1729-8806]

Joe Saunders, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv and Kerstin Dautenhahn (2007), Experimental Comparisons of Observational Learning Mechanisms for Movement Imitation in Mobile Robots, Interaction Studies: Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems,Vol. 8, Issue 2, pp. 307-335

Joe Saunders, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2006), Using Self-Imitation to Direct Learning Special Session on Learning Through Imitation, Proc. 15th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE Ro-Man 2006), Hatfield, September 6-9, 2006, pp. 244-250 UK, IEEE Press (Winner of 2nd Prize, Best Paper Competition)

Joe Saunders, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv and Kerstin Dautenhahn (2006), Teaching Robots by Moulding Behavior and Scaffolding the Environment. 1st Annual Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI2006), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, March 2-4, 2006, pp. 142-150.

Aris Alissandrakis, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Kerstin Dautenhahn and Joe Saunders (2006), Evaluation of Robot Imitation Attempts: Comparison of the System's and the Human's Perspectives. 1st Annual Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI2006), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, March 2-4, 2006, pp. 134-141.

Nuno Otero, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Joe Saunders and Aris Alissandrakis (2005), Naturally Occuring Gestures in a Human-Robot Teaching Scenario: An Exploratory Study. UH Computer Science technical report number 443, December 2005.

Joe Saunders, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2005), An Examination of the Static to Dynamic Imitation Spectrum. Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Imitation in Animals and Artifacts, The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour, Hatfield, UK, April 12-15, 2005, pp.109-118

Aris Alissandrakis, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Kerstin Dautenhahn and Joe Saunders (2005), An Approach for Programming Robots by Demonstration: Generalization Across Different Initial Configurations of Manipulated Objects. 6th IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (CIRA'05), pp. 61-66.

Aris Alissandrakis, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Kerstin Dautenhahn and Joe Saunders (2005), Achieving Corresponding Effects on Multiple Robotic Platforms: Imitating in Context Using Different Effect Metrics. Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Imitation in Animals & Artifacts, The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour, pp. 10-19.

M. Finke, K. L. Koay, K. Dautenhahn, C. L. Nehaniv, M. L. Walters, J. Saunders (2005) Hey, I'm over here - How can a robot attract people's attention?, 2005 IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2005, August 13-15, 2005, Nashville, TN) pp. 7-12, 2005.

Joe Saunders, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2004), An Experimental Comparison of Imitation Paradigms used in Social Robotics Proc. IEEE Ro-man 2004, 13th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication September 20-22, 2004 Kurashiki, Okayama Japan, IEEE Press, pp. 691-696