Our Team

DIRECTOR

Helmut Hauser is Associate Professor in Robotics at the University of Bristol and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. His research is focused on morphological computation and embodiment, especially in the context of soft robotics. He is interested in understanding the underlaying principles of how complex physical properties of biological systems are exploited to facilitate learning and controlling tasks, and how these principles can be employed to design better robots.

CO-DIRECTOR

Weiru Liu is currently Professor in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bristol and research director for the faculty of engineering. She was previously Director of Research for Knowledge and Data Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast. Her research on data-driven multi-agent autonomous systems is at the interface of robotics and AI.

CO-DIRECTOR

Professor Jonathan Rossiter's research interests include bio-mimetics, artificial intelligence, robotics and sensors. In my robotic actuator and artificial muscle research I have been developing new polymer-composite actuators involving principles of buckling and bi-stability and robots which are inspired by bio-mimetic study of swimming organisms, including bacteria and fish.

CO-DIRECTOR

Dr Paul Bremner's main areas of research are virtual reality teleoperation, and human-robot interaction study design for system evaluation. His research interests include social HRI, telepresence, machine learning, genetic algorithms, and robots for nuclear decommissioning.

PRINCIPAL

Chris Melhuish BSc MSc PhD C.Eng FBCS FIET, is Professor of Robotics and Autonomous Systems at the University of Bristol and also Professor of Intelligent Autonomous Systems at the University of the West of England. He is the Director and founding member of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory and Vice chair of BARA-AFR. Prof. Melhuish has served on advisory Committees for EU Future Emerging Technologies, Information Society Advisory Group and the Public Private Partnership in Robotics.

PRINCIPAL

Professor Arthur Richards graduated with a PhD from MIT in Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2004, and subsequently joined University of Bristol as a lecturer. He is now a Professor of Robotics and Control and Co-Director of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. He specializes in the application of trajectory optimization to problems in aerospace.

CO-DIRECTOR

Marcela Munera is an Associate Professor in Assistive Robotics at Bristol Robotics Lab, University of West England (UK) and Visiting professor at EPF - Ecole d'Ingenieurs (Cachan, France). Her research focuses on the design, development and objective assessment of robotic devices and systems in different rehabilitation scenarios. Here projects are carried out with a human-centred approach using strategies like participatory design, repeated feedback to stakeholders and perception assessment post-experimental tests.

CO-DIRECTOR

Mark works as a Professor of Machine Vision and Machine Learning in the Centre for Machine Vision. He has a keen interest in agri-tech and is currently part of the JPIAMR Farmcare project which uses his pig face stress detection to identify piglets that have a higher probability of illness as well as a BBSRC funded project into long term (weeks) pig tracking via biometric recognition. Previous related work includes pig face and expression recognition, monitoring of dairy herds in 3D for welfare, as well as several applied commercial projects including the detection of broad leaf weeds in pasture and in-field 3D metrology of potatoes.

CDT MANAGER

Rebecca joins FARSCOPE from a role in the CoSEM (Advanced Composites) CDT at the University of Bristol. Prior to that she worked in marketing, managing a broad range of campaigns and marketing activity. Rebecca manages the day-to-day running of the centre, and works with the CDT Directors and Management team to develop and deliver on the FARSCOPE strategy.

CDT SENIOR RESEARCH SUPPORT ENGINEER

Patrick, after spending time in industry working in the field of medical robotics, became the Senior technician for UWE’s flagship Urinetricity project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he was responsible for the design and implementation of Digital acquisition systems and energy harvesters. Since then he has become the Senior Research Support Engineer for the FARSCOPE CDT, helping our PhD students with the technical aspects of the programme and other research activities.

CDT ADMINISTRATOR

Oscar has been a member of the FARSCOPE team since 2022, having previously worked in the legal and third sectors as a housing caseworker. He works part-time providing administrative support to staff and students at FARSCOPE, and spends the rest of his time studying for a master's in Public Policy.