In this article we describe the ethological inspired architecture we have developed and how it has been used to implement a humanoid goalkeeper according to the regulations of the two-legged Standard Platform League of the RoboCup Federation. We present relevant…

The Workshop on Physical Agents intends to be a forum for information and experience exchange in different areas regarding the concept of embodied agents, especially applied to the control and coordination of autonomous systems: robots, mobile robots, domotics, agents, industrial…

An adaptive attention mechanism is a requirement when an autonomous robot has to deal with real world environments. In this paper we present a novel cognitive architecture which enables integrated and efficient filtering of multiple modality sensory information. The proposed…

When mining vehicle operators take risks, there is a increased probability of an accident that can cause injuries, fatalities and large financial costs to the mine operators. It can be assumed that the operators do not intentially take unnecessarily high…

This paper presents a probabilistic framework for unmarked roads estimation using radar sensors. The algorithm models the sensor likelihood function as a Gaussian mixture model. This sensor likelihood is used in a Bayesian approach to estimate the road edges probability…

This paper considers the task reallocation problem, where k robots are to be extracted from a coordinated group of N robots in order to perform a new task. The interaction between the team members and the cost associated with this…

In this paper we present a scalable machine learning approach to mobile robots visual localization. The applicability of machine learning approaches is constrained by the complexity and size of the problem’s domain. Thus, dividing the problem becomes necessary and two…

This special issue of the Journal of Physical Agents is devoted to human interaction with domestic robots. The form, features and future, of domestic robotic devices, from entertainment-based agents through to robotic cleaners, companions, assistants and helpers, are considered and…

Can you imagine a useful task you would like a social robot to perform for you? This paper presents an Internet survey where participants were asked this question to identify applications for social robots. The applications mentioned by the participants…

If robotic companions are to be used in the near future by aging adults, they have to be accepted by them. In the process of developing a methodology to measure, predict and explain acceptance of robotic companions, we researched the…