We’ve curated articles on where MiRo has been studied in the university sector, giving insight into the use of companion/petoid robots from therapy dogs, hospital visits, emotional support to fall detection.
Small Robots With Big Tasks: A Proof of Concept Implementation Using a MiRo for Fall Alert
Heriot-Watt fall-detection study
A significant portion of the over 65 population experience a fall at least once a year. This puts a faller under significant health risks and adds to the financial burden of the care services. This report explores a proof of concept implementation of a fall alert system that uses MiRo (a small mobile social robot) in the home environment. Read more
Design and Evaluation of Affective Expressions of a Zoomorphic Robot
Waterloo (Canada) evaluation of MiRo emotional expression
Social robots capable of showing affective expressions can improve human-robot interaction and users’ experiences in many ways. This capability is important in many application areas. In this paper, they describe the design and evaluation of 11 affective expressions for Miro, an animal-like robot. Read more
Children’s Evaluations of a Therapy Dog and Biomimetic Robot: Influences of Animistic Beliefs and Social Interaction
Portsmouth study of MiRo with children
Social robots are being used increasingly across a range of settings. While research has shown that interaction with live therapy dogs can be calming and enjoyable for children, it is currently unclear whether social robots can produce similar outcomes. In this study, they investigate levels of social interaction on two potential therapy adjuncts: a living dog (TD) and the MiRo-E robot (TR). Read more
Fast and Robust Bio-inspired Teach and Repeat Navigation
Queensland study of MiRo “teach and repeat” robot navigation
In this work they create a novel asynchronous formulation for teach and repeat navigation that fully utilises odometry information, paired with a correction signal driven by much more computationally lightweight visual processing than is typically required. This correction signal is also decoupled from the robot’s motor control. They evaluate this approach on two different robotic platforms, the Consequential Robotics Miro and the Clearpath Jackal robots. Read more
An Explorative Study on Robotics for Supporting Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder during Clinical Procedures
Sheffield Hallam study using MiRo with children with autism
A study on robotic service for supporting children with developmental disabilities to increase the efficiency of routine procedures that may create distress, e.g. having blood taken or an orthopaedic plaster cast applied. Five children with confirmed diagnoses of ASD interacted with two social robots: the small humanoid NAO and the pet-like MiRo. Parents/carers convincingly support the introduction of robots in hospital procedures to their help children. Read more
Obstacle Avoidance Using Stereo Vision and Deep Reinforcement Learning in an Animal-like Robot
Obstacle avoidance learning with MiRo
In this paper they develop an obstacle avoidance behavior for the biomimetic robot MiRo that combines stereo vision with deep reinforcement learning. We further show that avoidance strategies, learned for a simulated robot and environment, can be effectively transferred to a physical robot. Read more
A Window into the Robot ‘mind’: Using a Graphical Real-Time Display to Provide Transparency of Function in a Brain-Based Robot
A graphical interface to MiRo’s control system
Biomimetic robots are often given a humanoid or animaloid form. This has raised concerns about the potential for deception by creating the expectation of human- or animal-like intentional states that cannot (supposedly) be generated in artefacts. Here we report on the design of a graphical user interface (GUI) to the brain-based control system of the MiRo animal-like robot. Read more
Fast Reverse Replays of Recent Spatiotemporal Trajectories in a Robotic Hippocampal Model
MiRo bio-inspired navigation algorithm (simulation only)
A number of computational models have recently emerged in an attempt to understand the dynamics of hippocampal replay, but there has been little progress in testing and implementing these models in real-world robotics settings. Presented here is a bioinspired hippocampal CA3 network model. For the sake of computational efficiency, the model is composed of continuous-rate based neurons, but incorporates two biophysical properties: intrinsic plasticity and short-term plasticity. Read more
