Christos Melidis

Project: A Framework for Intuitive Remote Robotic Control

A novel idea for the creation of an intelligent interface that allows the remote control of arbitrary complex robotic morphologies by translating intuitive human behaviours into purposeful robotic actions.

Research Interests

My research interests are mainly focused on Robotics and Human Machine Interaction, Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Neural Networks, Dynamical Systems and Self Organisation. In my project I am trying for a combination of the above, in order to support and ease the control of robotic morphologies. At the same time, for the computational demands of the above, my research extends to the use of GPGPU and parallelised algorithms.

Research Experience

Being a computer scientist by training my research spans across Database Management and Information Retrieval systems, Web Applications and Data Mining systems, either as a contributor or a project leader. Most important though, being my BSc thesis in Reinforcement Learning applications in Robotics.

Technical skills

I develop with programming languages such as C, C++, Python. Javascript together with HTML and CSS for web. Currently working mostly with Python and C; for web, parallel computations and GPGPU implementations.

Publications:

A list of publications can be found here

Lectures:

  • Invited lecture on "Self Organisation of Robot Behaviours" to the Master Students of the Autonomous Systems Engineering Lab, in Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, May 2015

Public Engagement:

  • "How to drive your robot", exhibition during the British Science Week, Plymouth University, March 2014

Conference Talks:

  • "An Exploration on Intuitive Interfaces for Robot Control Based on Self Organisation", Artificial Life and Intelligent Agents Symposium, Bangor, UK, November 2014
  • "A Human Centric Approach to Robotic Control", IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Hong Kong, October 2015

Workshops/ Summer Schools:

  • iCub Summer School, Genova, July 2014

Projects:

Background

I graduated in Computer Science at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, presenting a study about Reinforcement Learning applications in Robotics. While there I took part in the “Logic Programming and Intelligent Systems” (LPIS) and the “Online Sourced – Web INformation Distributed Systems” (OSWINDS) groups, both part of the “Programming Languages and Software Engineering” (PLaSE) lab. During my BSc, I visited the Centre of Robotics and Neural Systems, of Plymouth University, as a research student working with the iCub robot.

Currently, a PhD candidate in Plymouth University, working on a CogNovo project, searching for an intuitive interface for robotic remote control.