A  n  t  h  r  o  p  o  s 
Social Robot Research @ Media Lab Europe
Brian Duffy

Dr. Duffy's research aims to develop an amicable anthropomorphic socially capable robot embodied in the Media Lab Europe’s office environment. This robot integrates such real-world technologies as mobile robotics, social interaction, and smart buildings in a robust integrated whole. The robot is designed to be expressive, communicative, social and interact with people and the physical environment (via ubiquitous computing techniques).

This seeks to research the fine line between observed and designed behaviour and form. Anthropomorphism in robotics becomes an important issue when social interaction with people is an objective. Here the issue of what a physical robot could be good at influences its function and form. This seeks to develop from existing research on the Social Robotics by embracing the field of human machine interaction through the implementation those social features conducive to rich social functaionality between robots and people. It is an exploration of the illusion of life and intelligence in artificial entities.

Brian's interest in designing and building social humanoid robots has developed from previous research at the Department of Computer Science at University College Dublin where he completed a doctoral thesis entitled " The Social Robot."

Prior to this, Brian spent two years in artificial intelligence research and building robot prototypes at The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft's Institute for Autonomous intelligent Systems. Before moving to Germany in 1994, two years were spent at Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon in France working in the field of Distributed Artificial Intelligence and Multi-Agent Systems.

Brian also holds a Masters of Engineering Science Degree from University College Dublin, Ireland and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering from Trinity College Dublin (undertaken at Bolton St. C.O.T.

Current Projects:

   ANTHROPOS

   AGENT CHAMELEONS

  


Contact
Media Lab Europe
Tel: +353 (01) 4742800
brd@media.mit.edu

   
Interests
racing motorbikes, mountaineering, valve amplifiers, restoring old Nortons, diving, kung fu
Links
ManMachine.Org
MIT Media Lab
 The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft's Institute
University College Dublin
 
Research Papers/Presentations

    Research Publications: 2004

  • Duffy, B.R., “Social Embodiment in Autonomous Mobile Robotics”, (submitted), International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2004
  • Duffy, B.R., “Man Machine“, IEI Engineers Journal (to appear), 2004
  • Duffy, B.R., O’Hare, G.M.P., A.G. Campbell, “NEXUS: Mixed Reality Experiments with Embodied Intentional Agents”, (submitted) 17th International Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents (CASA 2004), University of Geneva, Switzerland, July 7-9 2004
  • Duffy, B.R., O’Hare, G.M.P., Martin, A.N., Bradley, J.F., Schön, B., "Future Reasoning Machines: Mind & Body", Kybernetes Journal (in press), 2004.
  • Duffy, B.R., Joue, G., "I, Robot Being", Intelligent Autonomous Systems Conference (IAS8) 10-13 March 2004, The Grand Hotel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    • Research Publications: 2003

  • Duffy, B.R., "The Human and the Machine", Robotics and Machine Perception Vol 12, No.2, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), September 2003
  • Duffy, B.R., O’Hare, G.M.P. , Martin, A.N., Bradley, J.F., Schön, B., "Agent Chameleons: Moving Minds", IEEE Systems, Man & Cybernetics Workshop (UK&ROI Chapter), Reading, September 2003
  • Bourke, J., Duffy, B.R., “Emotion Machines: Projective Intelligence and Emotion in robotics”, IEEE Systems, Man & Cybernetics Workshop (UK&ROI Chapter), Reading, September 2003
  • Gregory M.P. O’Hare, Brian R. Duffy, Bianca Schoen, Alan N. Martin, John F. Bradley "Agent Chameleons: Virtual Agents Real Intelligence" 4th International Working Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) 2003, 15-17 September 2003 at Kloster Irsee, Germany.
  • Jacobus, E., Duffy, B.R., "The Language of Machines", Digital Interaction, International Symposium on Information and Communication Technologies, 24-26 September 2003, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
  • Bourke, J., Duffy, B.R., “Emotion Machines”, AIKED, WSEAS Multiconference, published in WSEAS Transactions 2003, Crete, August 13, 2003
  • Duffy, B.R., O’Hare, G.M.P. , Martin, A.N., Bradley, J.F., Schön, B. "Agent Chameleons: Agent Minds and Bodies", 16th International Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents (CASA 2003), Rutgers University, New Jersey, May 7-9, 2003
  • Duffy, B.R., "Anthropomorphism and The Social Robot", Special Issue on Socially Interactive Robots, Robotics and Autonomous Systems 42 (3-4), 31 March 2003, pp170-190 (extended version of IROS02 paper)
  • O'Hare, G.M.P., Duffy, B.R., Bradley J.F., Martin, A.N., "Agent Chameleons: Moving Minds from Robots to Digital Information Spaces", 2nd International Symposium on Autonomous Minirobots for Research and Edutainment (AMiRE), February 18-21, 2003, Brisbane, Australia

    • Research Publications: 2002

  • Duffy, B.R., "Anthropomorphism and The Social Robot", Robot as Partner: An Exploration of Social Robots, 2002 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, September 30 - October 4, EPFL, Switzerland, 2002.
  • Duffy, B.R., Joue, G., Bourke, J. "Issues in Assessing Performance of Social Robots", 2nd WSEAS International Conference on Robotics, Distance Learning and Intelligent Communication Systems, Skiathos Island, Greece, September 25-28, 2002.
  • Duffy, B.R. "Anthropomorphism and Robotics", The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour - AISB 2002, Imperial College, England, April 3-5, 2002
  • O'Hare, G.M.P., Duffy, B.R. "Agent Chameleons: Migration and Mutation within and between Real and Virtual Spaces", The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour - AISB 2002, Imperial College, England, April 3-5, 2002

    • Research Publications: 2001

  • Duffy, B.R. "Anthropomorphism and Social Robots: A Discussion", 12th Irish Conference on Artifical Intelligence and Cognitive Science - AICS2001, Maynooth, Ireland, September 5-7, 2001
  • Duffy, B.R. "Social Empowerment Of Autonomous Mobile Robotics", 1st International Conference on Autonomous Minirobots for Research and Edutainment - AMiRE2001, Paderborn, Germany, October 22-25, 2001
  • Duffy, B.R., Joue, G. " Embodied Mobile Robots", 1st International Conference on Autonomous Minirobots for Research and Edutainment - AMiRE2001, Paderborn, Germany, October 22-25, 2001
  • Duffy, B.R., "Towards Social Intelligence in Autonomous Robotics: A Review", Robotics, Distance Learning and Intelligent Communication Systems 2001 (RODLICS 2001), Malta, September 1-6, 2001

    • Research Publications: 2000

  • Duffy, B.R The Social Robot Ph.D Thesis, November 2000, Department of Computer Science, University College Dublin
  • Duffy, B.R. Garcia, C., Rooney, C.F.B., O'Hare, G.M.P. (2000). "Sensor Fusion for Social Robotics" 31st International Symposium on Robotics (ISR2000), May 14-17, 2000, Palais des congrès, Montréal, Canada
  • Duffy, B.R. & Joue, G.. (2000). "Intelligent Robots: The Question of Embodiment", BRAIN-MACHINE 2000 December 20-22, 2000, Ankara, Turkey

    • Research Publications: 1999

  • Collier, R. W. , O'Hare, G. M. P. , Duffy, B. R. , Rooney, C. S. B, O'Donoghue, R. P. S. "Agent Factory: Building Social Robots", Cognitive Science For The New Millenium, Dublin, 1999
  • Duffy, B.R. , Collier, R.W., O'Hare, G. M. P. , Rooney, C.F.B. , O'Donoghue, R.P.S. (1999) "SOCIAL ROBOTICS: Reality and Virtuality in Agent-Based Robotics", Bar-Ilan Symposium on the foundations of Artificial Intelligence: Bridging theory and practice (BISFAI),Ramat Gan, Israel
  • Duffy, B.R., Rooney, R.W, O'Donoghue, C.F.B., Collier, , R.P.S., O'Hare, G.M.P. "Towards Social Robots" Cognitive Science For The New Millenium, Dublin, 1999
  • Duffy, B.R., Rooney, C.F.B, O'Hare, G.M.P., O'Donoghue, R.P.S. "What is a Social Robot?" 10th Irish Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Cognitive Science, 1-3 Sept., 1999 University College Cork, Ireland
  • Duffy, B.R., O'Hare, G.M.P., O'Donoghue, R.P.S., Rooney, C.F.B., and Collier, R.W "Reality and virtual reality in mobile robotics", 1st International Workshop on Managing Interactions in Smart Environments MANSE'99, Dublin December 1999
  • O'Hare, G.M.P., Duffy, B.R., Collier, R.W, Rooney,C.F.B., O'Donoghue, R.P.S., (1999) "Agent Factory: Towards Social Robots", First International Workshop of Central and Eastern Europe on Multi - agent Systems (CEEMAS'99), St. Petersburg, Russia
  • Rooney, C.F.B., O'Donoghue, R.P.S., Duffy, B.R., O'Hare, G.M.P., Collier, R.W (1999) "The Social Robot Architecture: Towards Sociality in a Real World Domain", Towards Intelligent Mobile Robots 99, Bristol, UK.
  • Rooney, C.F.B., Collier, R. W., O'Hare, G. M. P., Duffy, B. R, R. O'Donoghue, P. S.(1999) "Teanga: A Language for Social Robots" Cognitive Science For The New Millenium, Dublin. Dublin, 1999

Media Articles

See one of our robots on the cover of ERCIM News special issue on Cognitive Systems with an article on Anthropos research.

BBC News Online:

Robots with a friendly manner

  
Courses
Masters of Cognitive Science: Embodiment
Department of Computer Science, UCD
(Brian Duffy, Gina Joue)
  • Embodiment 1: The Artificial Intelligence Perspective
  • Embodiment 2: Natural vs. Artificial Systems
  • Embodiment 3: Embodiment in Action
  • Embodiment 4: Social Embodiment
  • Embodiment 5: Anthropomorphism in Robotics
Master of Science degree in Media Arts and Sciences, MIT
Lectures for The Social Life of Groups
  • The Social Robot
  • Anthropomorphism
  • Smart Buildings
Graduate Diploma in Computer Sciences, GCD
Lectures for Multimedia and Internet Development, and Knowledge Based Systems

Masters Degree in Computer Science, GCD
Lectures in Artificial Intelligence


Please email any questions or comments to Brian