Title : The Emergence of Multi-Robot Organisms using On-line On-board Evolution
| Presenter | Berend Weel |
| Abstract | While there is ample research on swarm-robotics and self-reconfigurable robot systems as separate subjects, little research is done to the transition from a robot swarm into an organism. Furthermore research to the transition from a swarm to a robot organism is mostly based on designed and programmed procedures, as opposed to an evolved controller. Our research is focused on the transition of a robot swarm into a multi-robot organism, using an on-line on-board evolutionary algorithm. The approach is one where the environment, rather than a fitness function, determines the benefit of aggregating into a multi-robot organism. We show that in these environments even a small advantage for an organism leads to con- trollers which favour organisms. Furthermore, we show that differences in the environment lead to differences in the longevity and size of the created organisms. |
Title : Introducing myself and the project 'decision making under stress'
| Presenter | Jeroen de Man |
| Abstract | The main focus of this presentation will be to introduce myself, tell you some of my (research) interests and cover some of the things I did during my study. Furthermore, I shall describe the project I will be working on: 'a training environment for decision making under stress'. The main goal of this project is to develop an intelligent system that is able to analyse human decision making processes in stressful circumstances, and analyse the causes of incorrect decisions. In addition, the system will be incorporated in an electronic training environment for emergency workers. In this environment, trainees will be placed in a virtual emergency scenario, in which they have to make difficult decisions, while negative emotions are induced. During the scenario, various existing techniques will be applied to measure their mental state (i.e., stress level and anxiety). This information will then be used as input for the intelligent system, to determine why they made certain incorrect decisions and teach them how to improve this. |