"False"
Skip to content
printicon
Main menu hidden.

Image: Mattias Pettersson

Intelligent Robotics

Research group The research group Intelligent Robotics tries to figure out how robots should be designed to interact in the best way with humans, other robots, and the environment.

Our current main track of research is Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). We work on two projects funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR):

  • ROCC - Robots with Causal Capabilities
  • SCAI - Socially Competent AI

Here are some videos exemplifying our work: understandable robot teams, adaptive HRI communication, robots in health care, polite and not-so-polite robots (coming soon). 

We have coordinated several EU projects in the area:

  • INTRO (FP7) on general HRI, and
  • SOCRATES (H2020) - with a focus on robotics for older adults

Our research contributions in these projects are in the areas of sensory-motor learning [1], Learning From Demonstration [1] [2] [3], behavior/intent recognition [1] [2].

A recent field of activity concerns Understandability in robotics [1], i.e. how robots should communicate the contents of their artificial minds to interacting humans. In this work, we combine natural language understanding, dialogue management, intention recognition, and task planning.

For many years we worked intensively in the area of Field Robotics, with research on automation in forestry. In particular, we developed techniques for autonomous forest machines, with generous financial support from the Kempe Foundations. In the FP7 project CROPS we developed robots for harvesting and spraying of fruit and vegetable crops, and continued in the H2020 project SWEEPER, where the consortium with joint efforts succeeded in developing the first sweet-pepper harvesting robot demonstrated in greenhouse environments.

When we feel the urge, we also contribute to the public debate on AI and robots in society [1] [2] [3] [5].

Research leader

Overview

Participating departments and units at Umeå University

Department of Computing Science

Research area

Computing science
Bias-free chatbots
Research area: Computing science
Duration 2 September 2019 until 28 August 2020
Type of project Research project
PRECISION
Research area: Computing science
Duration 23 April 2018 until 31 December 2021
Type of project Research project
SOCRATES
Research area: Computing science
Duration 1 November 2016 until 30 October 2020
Type of project Research project
SWEEPER
Research area: Computing science
Duration 1 January 2015 until 31 December 2018
Type of project Research project
Intelligent rollator
Research area: Computing science
Duration 1 January 2014
Type of project Research project
CROPS
Research area: Computing science
Duration 1 October 2010 until 30 September 2014
Type of project Research project
INTRO
Research area: Computing science
Duration 1 January 2010 until 31 December 2013
Type of project Research project
Intelligent forest machines
Research area: Computing science
Duration 1 January 2002 until 31 December 2011
Type of project Research project

Latest publications

WARN workshop at the 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, RO-MAN, Busan, Korea, August 28-31, 2023
Bensch, Suna; Sun, Jiangeng; Bandera Rubio, Juan Pedro; et al.
Neural Computing & Applications, Springer 2023, Vol. 35, (23) : 16781-16790
Persiani, Michele; Hellström, Thomas
Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, Frontiers Media S.A. 2023, Vol. 6
Hellström, Thomas
2023 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), IEEE 2023 : 1731-1736
Edström, Filip; Hellström, Thomas; de Luna, Xavier
AI & Society: The Journal of Human-Centred Systems and Machine Intelligence
Hellström, Thomas; Bensch, Suna
Proceedings of Cultu-Ro 2022, Workshop on Cultural Influences in Human-Robot Interaction: Today and Tomorrow: 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (Ro-Man 22)
Bensch, Suna; Dignum, Frank; Hellström, Thomas
Explainable and transparent AI and multi-agent systems: 4th international workshop, EXTRAMAAS 2022, virtual event, may 9–10, 2022, revised selected papers, Springer Nature 2022 : 111-123
Persiani, Michele; Hellström, Thomas
Advances in practical applications of agents, multi-agent systems, and complex systems simulation: the PAAMS collection, Springer 2022 : 332-344
Persiani, Michele; Hellström, Thomas
Paladyn - Journal of Behavioral Robotics, De Gruyter Open 2021, Vol. 12, (1) : 238-255
Hellström, Thomas
Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Frontiers Media S.A. 2021, Vol. 8
Rietz, Finn; Sutherland, Alexander; Bensch, Suna; et al.
AI collaboration will give robots "common sense"

A new AI collaboration will now give robots "common sense".

Master student receives Women's STEM Award

Adna Bliek at Umeå University, awarded for her Master's thesis in AI.

Latest update: 2023-09-11