Anders Lyhne Christensen

Associate Professor at MMMI, University of Southern Denmark, founder and former head of BioMachines Lab, staff member at IT

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  Overview


I am the founder and former head of BioMachines Lab, I am a staff member at Institute of Telecommunications, and associate professor at MMMI, University of Southern Denmark. My research focuses on artificial intelligence, machine learning, autonomous robots, and multirobot systems.

Curriculum vitae:

    




  Publications




Last updated: October 2018.

International Journal Publications

  • M. Duarte, J. Gomes, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2018), "Evolution of Repertoire-based Control for Robots with Complex Locomotor Systems", IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation 22(2):314-328, DOI: 10.1109/TEVC.2017.2722101
  • D. Tarapore, A. L. Christensen, and Jon Timmis (2017), "Generic, scalable and decentralized fault detection for robot swarms", PLoS ONE 12(8):e0182058.
    [ Read on publisher's site ]
  • F. Silva, L. Correia, and A. L. Christensen (2017), "Evolutionary Online Behaviour Learning and Adaptation in Real Robots", Royal Society Open Science 4(7):160938.
    [ Read on publisher's site ]
  • F. Silva, L. Correia, and A. L. Christensen (2017), "Hyper-Learning Algorithms for Online Evolution of Robot Controllers", ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems, in press.
  • F. Silva, L. Correia, and A. L. Christensen (2017), "Evolutionary Online Learning in Multirobot Systems", AI Matters, 3:(1):14-16.
  • M. Duarte, V. Costa, J. Gomes, T. Rodrigues, F. Silva, S. Oliveira, A. L. Christensen (2016), "Evolution of Collective Behaviors for a Real Swarm of Aquatic Surface Robots", PLoS ONE 11(3):e0151834.
    [ View article on online ]
  • J. Gomes, P. Mariano, and A. L. Christensen (2016), "Challenges in Cooperative Coevolution of Physically Heterogeneous Robot Teams", Natural Computing, in press.
  • N. Mathews, G. Valentini, A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, A. Brutschy, M. Dorigo (2015), "Spatially Targeted Communication in Decentralized Multirobot Systems", Autonomous Robots, 38(4):439-457.
    [ Journal's page for the paper ]
  • D. Tarapore, P. Lima, J. Carneiro, and A. L. Christensen (2015), "To Err is Robotic, to Tolerate Immunological: Fault Detection in Multirobot Systems", Bioinspiration & Biomemetics, 10:016014.
    [ Journal's page for the paper ]
  • M. Duarte, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2015), "Evolution of Hybrid Robotic Controllers for Complex Tasks", International Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 78(3):463-484.
  • J. Gomes, P. Urbano, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "PMCNS: Using a Progressively Stricter Fitness Criterion to Guide Novelty Search", International Journal of Natural Computing Research, 4(2):1-19.
  • F. Silva, P. Urbano, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "Online Evolution of Adaptive Robot Behaviour", International Journal of Natural Computing Research 4(2):59-77.
  • M. Dorigo, M. Birattari, C. Blum, A. L. Christensen , A. Engelbrecht, R. Gross, and T. Stuetzle (2013), "ANTS 2012 Special Issue", Guest Editorial, Swarm Intelligence, 7(2-3):79-81.
  • C. Pinciroli, R. O'Grady, A. L. Christensen, M. Birattari, and M. Dorigo (2013), "Parallel Formation of Differently Sized Groups in a Robotic Swarm". SICE Journal of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers, 52(3):213-226, invited paper
  • M. Dorigo, D. Floreano, L. M. Gambardella, F. Mondada, S. Nolfi, T. Baaboura, M. Birattari, M. Bonani, M. Brambilla, A. Brutschy, D. Burnier, A. Campo, A. L. Christensen, A. Decugnière, G. Di Caro, F. Ducatelle, E. Ferrante, A. Fröster, J. M. Gonzales, J. Guzzi, V. Longchamp, S. Magnenat, N. Mathews, M. Montes de Oca, R. O'Grady, C. Pinciroli, G. Pini, J. Roberts, V. Sperati, T. Stirling, A. Stranieri, T. Stutzle, V. Trianni, E. Tuci, A. E. Turgut and F. Vaussard (2013), "Swarmanoid: a novel concept for the study of heterogeneous robotic swarms", IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, 20(4):60-71
  • A. L. Christensen (2012), "Self-reconfigurable Robots - An Introduction (book review)". Artificial Life 18(2):237-240
  • R. O'Grady, R. Gross, A. L. Christensen, and M. Dorigo (2010), "Self-assembly Strategies in a Group of Autonomous Mobile Robots". Autonomous Robots 28(4):439-455.
    [ Download .pdf (1.5MB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, and M. Dorigo (2009), "From Fireflies to Fault Tolerant Swarms of Robots". IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation 13(4):754-766.
    [ Download .pdf (1.1MB) ]
  • C. Ampatzis, E. Tuci, V. Trianni, A. L. Christensen and M. Dorigo (2009), "Evolution of Autonomous Self-Assembly in Homogeneous Robots". Artificial Life 15(4):465-484.
    [ Download .pdf (360KB) ]
  • R. O'Grady, A. L. Christensen, and M. Dorigo (2009), "SWARMORPH: Multi-Robot Morphogenesis Using Directional Self-Assembly". IEEE Transactions on Robotics 25(3):738-743.
    [ Download .pdf (400KB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, and M. Dorigo (2008), "SWARMORPH-script: A Language for Arbitrary Morphology Generation in Self-Assembling Robots". Swarm Intelligence 2(2):143-165.
    [ Download .pdf (1.2MB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, M. Birattari and M. Dorigo (2008), "Fault Detection in Autonomous Robots Based on Fault Injection and Learning". Autonomous Robots 24(1):49-67.
    [ Download .pdf (800KB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, and M. Dorigo (2007), "Morphology Control in a Multirobot System". IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 14(4):18-25.
    [ Download .pdf (2.1MB) ]

Edited Books and Special Issues

  • M. Dorigo, M. Birattari, C. Blum, A. L. Christensen, A. Engelbrecht, R. Gross, and T. Stuetzle (2013), "ANTS 2012 Special Issue", Swarm Intelligence 7(2-3).
  • Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS2012), Brussels, Belgium, September 12-14, 2012, LNCS volume 7461, editors: Marco Dorigo, Mauro Birattari, Christian Blum, Anders Lyhne Christensen, Andries P. Engelbrecht, Roderich Gross, and Thomas Stutzle, Springer, Berlin, Germany. ISBN 978-3-642-32650-9

Book Chapters

  • T. Rodrigues, M. Duarte, M. Figueiro, V. Costa, S. M. Oliveira, A. L. Christensen (2016) "Overcoming Limited Onboard Sensing in Swarm Robotics through Local Communication", Transactions on Computational Collective Intelligence XX (TCCI), LNCS 9420, Springer, Berlin, Germany, ISBN 978-3-319-27542-0, pages 201-233.
  • F. Silva, L. Correia, and A. L. Christensen (2015), "Modelling Synchronisation in Multirobot Systems with Cellular Automata", Robots and Lattice Automata edited by G. Sirakoulis and A. Adamatzky, Springer International Publishing, Cham Switzerland, ISBN 978-3-319-10923-7, Chapter 12, pages 267--293.
  • R. Gross, R. O'Grady, A. L. Christensen and M. Dorigo (2013), "The Swarm-bot experience: Strength and Mobility through Physical Cooperation", Handbook of Collective Robotics edited by Serge Kernbach, Pan Stanford Publishing, ISBN 978-9-814-31642-2. Chapter 2, pages 49-80.
  • R. O'Grady, A. L. Christensen and M. Dorigo (2013), "SWARMORPH: Morphogenesis with Self-Assembling Robots", Morphogenetic Engineering, edited by Rene Doursat, Hiroki Sayama, and Olivier Michel, Springer, Berlin, Germany. ISBN 978-3-642-33901-1, Chapter 2, pages 27-60.

Peer-reviewed Videos

  • A. L. Christensen, M. Duarte, V. Costa, T. Rodrigues, J. Gomes, F. Silva, and S. Oliveira (2016), "A Sea of Robots". 30th Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-16). Phoenix, Arizona
    • [ Watch on YouTube ]
    • Best Robot Video Award @ AAAI-16 Video Competition (AIVC 2016). Phoenix, Arizona. February 2016
  • N. Mathews, A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady and M. Dorigo (2012), "Spatially Targeted Communication and Self-Assembly in a Heterogeneous Swarm of Robots", Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS2012), IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, pages 2551-2552.
  • M.Dorigo, M. Birattari, R. O'Grady, L. M. Gambardella, F. Mondada, D. Floreano, S. Nolfi, T. Baaboura, M. Bonani, M. Brambilla, A. Brutschy, D. Burnier, A. Campo, A. L. Christensen, A. Decugnière, G. Di Caro, F. Ducatelle, E. Ferrante, J. Martinez Gonzales, J. Guzzi, V. Longchamp, S. Magnenat, N. Mathews, M. Montes de Oca, C. Pinciroli, G. Pini, F. Rey, P. Rétornaz, J. Roberts, F. Rochat, V. Sperati, T. Stirling, A. Stranieri, T. Stutzle, V. Trianni, E. Tuci, A. E. Turgut, and F. Vaussard (2011), "Swarmanoid, The Movie". 25th Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-11). San Francisco.
    • [ Watch on YouTube ]
    • Best Video Award @ AAAI-11 Video Competition (AIVC 2011). San Francisco, USA. September 2011.
    • Botsker Award for the Most Innovative Technology @ 2nd Annual Robot Film Festival. New York City, USA. July 2012.
    • Prix Wernaers 2012, Brussels, August 2012.
    • More than 400,000 views on YouTube.
  • A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, and M. Dorigo (2008), "Synchronization and Fault Detection in Autonomous Robots". Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems 2008. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA, pages: 4139-4140. [ Watch ]
    [ Download .pdf (30KB) ]
    [ Download video MPEG4 (46MB) ]

Peer-reviewed International Conference Publications

  • J. Gomes and A. L. Christensen (2018), "Task-agnostic Evolution of Diverse Repertoires of Swarm Behaviours", Proceedings of ANTS 2018, in press.
  • G. Martins, P. Urbano and A. L. Christensen (2018), "Using Communication for the Evolution of Scalable Role Allocation in Collective Robotics", Proceedings of IBERAMIA, in press.
  • J. Gomes and A. L. Christensen (2018), "Comparing Approaches for Evolving High-level Robot Control based on Behaviour Repertoires", Proceedings of the the 2018 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), IEEE Press, in press, Nominated for Best Paper Award.
  • J. Gomes, M. Duarte, P. Mariano, and A. L. Christensen (2016), "Cooperative Coevolution of Control for a Real Multirobot System", PPSN 2016, Springer, Berlin, Germany, , pages 591-601, Nominated for Best Paper Award.
  • F. Silva, L. Correia, and A. L. Christensen (2016), "Online Hyper-Evolution of Controllers in Multirobot Systems", SASO 2016, IEEE Press, Won Best Student Paper Award
  • S. M. Trenkwalder, Y. K. Lopes, A. Kolling, A. L. Christensen, R. Prodan, R. Gross (2016), "OpenSwarm: An Event-Driven Embedded Operating System for Miniature Robots", IROS 2016, IEEE Press.
  • M. Duarte, J. Gomes, and A. L. Christensen (2016), "EvoRBC: Evolutionary Repertoire-based Control for Robots with Arbitrary Locomotion Complexity", Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), ACM Press, New York, NY, pages 93-100.
  • R. Ramos, M. Duarte, S. M. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2016), "Evolving Controllers for Robots with Multimodal Locomotion", From Animals to Animats 14 (SAB), Springer, Berlin, Germany, pages 340-351.
  • M. Duarte, V. Costa, J. Gomes, T. Rodrigues, F. Silva, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2016). "Unleashing the Potential of Evolutionary Swarm Robotics in the Real World", Proceedings of the 2016 on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion (GECCO), ACM Press, New York, NY, pages 159--160.
  • M. Duarte, J. Gomes, V. Costa, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2016). "Hybrid Control for a Real Swarm Robotics System in an Intruder Detection Task". Proceedings of European Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation (EvoApplications, EvoRobot track), Springer, Berlin, Germany, pages 213-230.
  • F. Silva, L. Correia, and A. L. Christensen (2016). "Leveraging Online Racing and Population Cloning in Evolutionary Multirobot Systems". Proceedings of European Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation (EvoApplications, EvoRobot track), Springer, Berlin, Germany, pages 165-180, Won Best Paper Award.
  • V. Costa, M. Duarte, T. Rodrigues, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2016). "Design and Development of an Inexpensive Aquatic Swarm Robotics System". Proceedings of OCEANS, Shanghai, MTS/IEEE, IEEE, DOI: 10.1109/OCEANSAP.2016.7485496.
  • M. Duarte, J. Gomes, V. Costa, T. Rodrigues, F. Silva, V. Lobo, M. M. Marques, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2016). "Application of Swarm Robotics Systems to Marine Environmental Monitoring". Proceedings of OCEANS - Shanghai, MTS/IEEE, IEEE, pages 1-8. DOI: 10.1109/OCEANSAP.2016.7485429.
  • P. Romano, L. Nunes, A. L. Christensen, M. Duarte, and S. Oliveira (2015). "Genome Variations: Effects on the robustness of neuroevolved control for swarm robotics systems". Proceedings of the Second Iberian Robotics Conference (ROBOT), Springer, Berlin, Germany, in press.
  • D. Tarapore, A. L. Christensen, and J. Timmis (2015). "Abnormality Detection in Robots Exhibiting Composite Swarm Behaviours". Proceedings of the European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL), MIT Press, Boston, MA, pages 406-413.
    [ Download .pdf (900KB) ]
  • J. Gomes, P. Mariano, and A. L. Christensen (2015). "Cooperative Coevolution of Morphologically Heterogeneous Robots". Proceedings of the European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL), MIT Press, Boston, MA, pages 312-319. Nominated for best paper.
    [ Download .pdf (900KB) ]
  • J. Gomes, P. Mariano, and A. L. Christensen (2015). "Devising Effective Novelty Search Algorithms: A Comprehensive Empirical Study". Proceedings of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), ACM Press, New York, NY, pages 943--950.
  • F. Silva, L. Correia, and A. L. Christensen (2015). "R-HybrID: Evolution of Agent Controllers with a Hybridisation of Indirect and Direct Encodings". In: International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2015). IFAAMAS, pages 735-744.
  • J. Gomes, P. Mariano, and A. L. Christensen (2015), "Cooperative Coevolution of Partially Heterogeneous Multiagent Systems", In: International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2015). IFAAMAS, pages 297-305.
  • T. Rodrigues, M. Duarte, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2015), "Beyond Onboard Sensors in Robotic Swarms: Local Collective Sensing through Situated Communication". Proccedings of the 7th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART), volume 2, SciTePress, Lisboa, Portugal, pages 111-118
  • A. L. Christensen, S. Oliveira, O. Postolache, M. J. de Oliveira, S. Sargento, P. Santana, L. Nunes, F. Velez, P. Sebastião, V. Costa, M. Duarte, J. Gomes, T. Rodrigues, and F. Silva (2015), "Design of Communication and Control for Swarms of Aquatic Surface Drones". Proccedings of the 7th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART), volume 2, SciTePress, Lisboa, Portugal, pages 548-555
  • J. Gomes, P. Mariano, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "Novelty Search in Competitive Coevolution", Proceedings of the International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN), LNCS 8672, Springer, Berlin, Germany, pages 233-242
  • M. Duarte, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "Hybrid Control for Large Swarms of Aquatic Drones", Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE), MIT Press, Boston, MA, pages 785-792
  • M. Duarte, F. Silva, T. Rodrigues, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "JBotEvolver: A Versatile Simulation Platform for Evolutionary Robotics", Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE), MIT Press, Boston, MA, pages 210-211
  • J. Gomes, P. Mariano, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "Systematic Derivation of Behaviour Characterisations in Evolutionary Robotics", Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE), MIT Press, Boston, MA, pages 212-219
  • M. Duarte, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "Evolution of Hierarchical Controllers for Multirobot Systems", Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE), MIT Press, Boston, MA, pages 657-664
  • F. Silva, M. Duarte, L. Correia, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "The Case for Engineering the Evolution of Robot Controllers", Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE), MIT Press, Boston, MA, pages 703-710
  • D. Tarapore, P. U. Lima, J. Carneiro, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "Optimizing the Crossregulation Model for Scalable Abnormality Detection", Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE), MIT Press, Boston, MA, pages 734-735
  • T. Rodrigues, M. Duarte, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "What You Choose to See is What You Get: An Experiment with Learnt Sensory Modulation in a Robotic Foraging Task", Proceedings of European Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation (EvoApplications, EvoRobot track), LNCS 8602, Springer, Berlin, Germany, pages 765-776
  • F. Silva, L. Correia, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "Speeding up Online Evolution of Robotic Controllers with Macro-neurons", Proceedings of European Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation (EvoApplications, EvoRobot track), LNCS 8602, Springer, Berlin, Germany, pages 765-776
  • J. Gomes, P. Mariano, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "Avoiding Convergence in Cooperative Coevolution with Novelty Search", Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), IFAAMAS, pages 1149-1156
    [ Download .pdf (900KB) ]
  • J. Gomes, A. L. Christensen (2013), "Generic Behaviour Similarity Measures for Evolutionary Swarm Robotics", Proceedings of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), ACM Press, New York, NY, pages 199-206, Nominated for Best Paper Award.
    [ Download .pdf (200KB) ]
  • D. Tarapore, A. L. Christensen, P. U. Lima, and J. Carneiro (2013), "Abnormality Detection in Multiagent Systems Inspired by the Adaptive Immune System", Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), IFAAMAS, pages 23-30.
    [ Download .pdf (900KB) ]
  • M. Duarte, S. Oliveira, A. L. Christensen (2012), "Hierarchical Evolution of Robotic Controllers for Complex Tasks", Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Development and Learning and Epigenetic Robotics (ICDL-EpiRob), IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, pages 1-6. Paper of Excellence Award
    [ Download .pdf (400KB) ]
  • N. Mathews, A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady and M. Dorigo (2012), "Spatially Targeted Communication and Self-Assembly in a Heterogeneous Swarm of Robots", Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, pages 2551-2552.
    [ Download .pdf (2MB) ]
  • F. Silva, P. Urbano and A. L. Christensen (2012), "Adaptation of Robot Behaviour through Online Evolution and Neuromodulated Learning", Proceedings of the 13th Ibero-American Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IBERAMIA), Springer, Berlin, Germany, pages 300-309.
    [ Download .pdf (250KB) ]
  • J. Gomes, P. Urbano and A. L. Christensen (2012), "Progressive Minimal Criteria Novelty Search", Proceedings of the 13th Ibero-American Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IBERAMIA), Springer, Berlin, Germany, pages 281-290.
    [ Download .pdf (600KB) ]
  • D. Tarapore, A. L. Christensen, P. U. Lima, and J. Carneiro (2012), "Clonal expansion without self-replicating entities", Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems (ICARIS), Springer, Berlin, Germany, pages 191-204.
    [ Download .pdf (400KB) ]
  • J. Gomes, P. Urbano, and A. L, Christensen (2012), "Introducing Novelty Search in Swarm Robotics", Proceedings of the Eight International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS), Springer, Berlin, Germany, pages 85-96.
    [ Download .pdf (400KB) ]
  • F. Silva, P. Urbano, S. Oliveira and A. L, Christensen (2012), "odNEAT: An Algorithm for Distributed Online, Onboard Evolution of Robot Behaviours", Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE), pages 251-258. Tied for Best Paper Award in the Collective Dynamics Track.
    [ Download .pdf (200KB) ]
  • J. Gomes, P. Urbano, and A. L, Christensen (2012), "Diverse Behaviors in Swarm Robotics with Novelty Search", Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE), MIT Press, Boston, MA, pages 553-554.
  • D. Tarapore, A. L. Christensen, P. Lima, and J. Carneiro (2012), "Environment classification in multiagent systems inspired by the adaptive immune system", Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE), MIT Press, Boston, MA, pages 275-282.
    [ Download .pdf (150KB) ]
  • M. Duarte, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2012), "Automatic synthesis of controllers for real robots based on preprogrammed behaviors", Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive Behavior (SAB), Springer, Berlin, Germany, pages 249-257.
    [ Download .pdf (150KB) ]
  • N. Mathews, A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, P. Rétornaz, M. Bonani, F. Mondada, M. Dorigo (2011), "Enhanced Directional Self-Assembly based on Active Recruitment and Guidance", Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, pages 4762-4769.
    [ Download .pdf (2MB) ]
  • S. Oliveira, L. Nunes, A. L. Christensen (2011), "An Experiment in Mixing Evolving and Preprogrammed Robots". Proceedings of the European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL), Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 605-612.
    [ Download .pdf (300KB) ]
  • H . Silva, S. Oliveira, A. L. Christensen (2011), "Conillon: A Lightweight Distributed Computing Platform for Desktop Grids". Proceedings of the 6th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI), pages 1-6.
  • N. Mathews, A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, and M. Dorigo (2010), "Cooperation in a Heterogeneous Robot Swarm through Spatially Targeted Communication". Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence (ANTS), pages 400-407.
    [ Download .pdf (700KB) ]
  • C. Pinciroli, R. O'Grady, A. L. Christensen, M. Dorigo (2010), "Controlling Heterogeneous Swarms Through Minimal Communication Between Homogeneous Sub-Swarms". Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence (ANTS), Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany, pages 558-559.
  • N. Mathews, A. L. Christensen, E. Ferrante, R. O'Grady, and M. Dorigo (2010), "Establishing Spatially Targeted Communication in a Heterogeneous Robot Swarm", Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), IFAAMAS, pages 939-946. Nominated for Best Robotics Paper Award.
    [ Download .pdf (1MB) ]
  • R. O'Grady, A. L. Christensen, C. Pinciroli, and M. Dorigo (2010), "Robots Autonomously Self-Assemble into Dedicated Morphologies to Solve Different Tasks (extended abstract)", Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), IFAAMAS, pages 1517-1518.
  • J. N. Pereira, A. L. Christensen, P. Silva, and P. Lima (2010), "Coordination Through Institutional Roles in Robot Collectives (extended abstract)", Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), IFAAMAS, pages 1507-1508
  • R. O'Grady, C. Pinciroli, Roderich Gross, A. L. Christensen, F. Mondada, M. Bonani, and M. Dorigo (2009), "Swarm-bots to the Rescue". Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL)., Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany, pages 165-172
    [ Download .pdf (11MB) ]
  • C. Pinciroli, R. O'Grady, A. L. Christensen, and M. Dorigo (2009), "Self-Organised Recruitment in a Heteregeneous Swarm". Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Advanced Robotics - ICAR 2009. CD-ROM, paper ID 176, 8 pages.
    [ Download .pdf (750KB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, and M. Dorigo (2009), "Parallel Task Execution, Morphology Control and Scalability in a Swarm of Self-Assembling Robots". Proceedings of 9th Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions (ROBOTICA), IPCB-Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, Portugal, pages 127-133
    [ Download .pdf (2.9MB) ]
  • R. O'Grady, C. Pinciroli, A. L. Christensen, and M. Dorigo, (2009), "Supervised Group Size Regulation in a Heterogeneous Robotic Swarm". Proceedings of 9th Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions (ROBOTICA), IPCB-Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, Portugal, pages 113-119
    [ Download .pdf (800KB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, and M. Dorigo (2008), "Synchronization and Fault Detection in Autonomous Robots". Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems 2008. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA, pages: 4139-4140.
    [ Download .pdf (30KB) ]
    [ Download video MPEG4 (46MB) ]
  • R. O'Grady, A. L. Christensen, and M. Dorigo (2008), "Autonomous Reconfiguration in a Self-Assembling Multi-Robot System". Proceesings of ANTS2008. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany, pages: 259-266.
    [ Download .pdf (4.0MB) ]
  • E. Tuci, C. Ampatzis, V. Trianni, A. L. Christensen, and M. Dorigo (2008), "Self-Assembly in Physical Autonomous Robots: the Evolutionary Robotics Approach". Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior 2008. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pages 616-623.
    [ Download .pdf (210KB) ]
  • R. O'Grady, A. L. Christensen and M. Dorigo (2007), "Self-Assembly and Morphology Control in a Swarm-Bot (VIDEO)". 2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA. Pages 2551-2552.
    [ Download .pdf (60KB) ]
    [ Download video MPEG4 (50MB) ]
  • R. O'Grady, R. Gross, A. L. Christensen, F. Mondada, M. Bonani, M. Dorigo (2007), "Performance Benefits of Self-Assembly in a Swarm-Bot". Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems., IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA. Pages 2381-2387.
  • A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, M. Birattari and M. Dorigo (2007), "Exogenous Fault Detection in a Collective Robotic Task". Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL2007). Volume LNAI 4648 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany. Pages 555-564. [ Download .pdf (1.3MB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, and M. Dorigo (2007), "A Mechanism to Self-Assemble Patterns with Autonomous Robots". Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL2007). Volume LNAI 4648 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany. Pages 716-725.
    [ Download .pdf (1.5MB) ]
  • V. Trianni, C. Ampatzis, A. L. Christensen, E, Tuci, M. Dorigo and S. Nolfi (2007), "From Solitary to Collective Behaviours: Decision Making and Cooperation". Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL2007). volume LNAI 4648 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany. Pages 575-584.
    [ Download .pdf (250KB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, M. Birattari and Dorigo, M. (2007), "Automatic Synthesis of Fault Detection Modules for Mobile Robots", Proceedings of NASA/ESA Conference on Adaptive Hardware and Systems (AHS-2007), IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA. Pages 693-700.
    [ Download .pdf (250KB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen and M. Dorigo (2006), "Incremental Evolution of Robot Controllers for a Highly Integrated Task", Proceedings of The Ninth International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior SAB'06, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany. Pages 473-484.
    [ Download .pdf (370KB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen and M. Dorigo (2006), "Evolving an Integrated Phototaxis and Hole-avoidance Behavior for a Swarm-bot", Proceedings of Tenth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (ALIFEX). MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Pages 248-254.
    [ Download .pdf (450KB) ]
    
  • A. L. Christensen, J. Brito and J. G. Silva (2004), "The Architecture and Performance of WMPI II", Proceedings of 11th European PVM/MPI Users' Group Meeting - Recent Advances in Parallel Virtual Machine and Message Passing Interface, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany. Pages 112-121.
    [ Download .pdf (140KB) ]

Peer-reviewed International Workshop Publications

  • J. Gomes, P. Mariano, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "Diversity-based Coevolution of Behaviourally Heterogeneous Multirobot Systems". Proceedings of the Workshop on Nature-inspired Techniques at PPSN 2014, in press.
  • F. Silva, L. Correia, and A. L. Christensen (2014), "Towards Online Evolution of Control for Real Robots with odNEAT". Proceedings of the Workshop on Evolution of Physical Systems at ALIFE 2014, in press.
  • J. P. R. Alves, S. Oliveira, A. L. Christensen (2013), "NXTTour: an Open Source Robotic System Operated over the Internet". Proceedings of the Workshop on Open Source and Design of Communication (OSDOC), ACM, New York, NY, pages 13-18.
  • R. O'Grady, A. L. Christensen, R. Gross, and M. Dorigo (2012), "Self-organised Computational Structures for Real Time Analysis in Highly Distributed Environmental Monitoring", Proceedings of the IROS2012 Workshop on Robotics for Environmental Monitoring.
  • M. Duarte, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2012), "Structured Composition of Evolved Robotic Controllers", Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Evolutionary and Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Robot Systems, N. Siebel, Berlin, Germany, pages 19-25, ISSN 2190-5576 (print), ISSN 2190-5746 (online)
  • F. Silva, P. Urbano and A. L. Christensen (2012), "Continuous Adaptation of Robot Behaviour through Online Evolution and Neuromodulated Learning", Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Evolutionary and Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Robot Systems, N. Siebel, Berlin, Germany, pages 9-18, ISSN 2190-5576 (print), ISSN 2190-5746 (online)
  • H. Silva, A. L. Christensen, S. Oliveira (2011), "Performance study of Conillon - a platform for distributed computing". Proceedings of the Workshop on Open Source and Design of Communication (OSDOC), ACM, New York, NY, pages 13-18.
  • H. Silva, A. L. Christensen, S. Oliveira (2010). "Building and designing a distributed computing platform". Proceedings of the Workshop on Open Source and Design of Communication (OSDOC), ACM, New York, NY, pages 55-58.
  • A. L. Christensen, R. O'Grady, and M. Dorigo (2008), "Towards Adaptive Morphogenesis in Self-Assembling Robots". Extended abstract accepted for The Workshop on Self-Reconfigurable Robots/Systems and Applications, held as part of 2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.
    [ Download .pdf (2.2MB) ]
  • R. O'Grady, A. L. Christensen, and M. Dorigo (2007), "SWARMORPH: Morphology Control with a Swarm of Self-Assembling Robots". Extended abstract accepted for The Workshop on Self-Reconfigurable Robots/Systems and Applications, held as part of 2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Diego, CA.

Peer-reviewed National Conference Publications

  • F. Silva, L. Correia, and A, L, Christensen (2015), "A Case Study on the Scalability of Online Evolution of Robotic Controllers". Proceedings of the 17th Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence (EPIA), LNAI 9273, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany, pages 189-200.
  • A. L. Christensen, S. Oliveira, O. Postolache, M. J. de Oliveira, S. Sargento, P. Santana, L. Nunes, F. Velez, P. Sebastião, V. Costa, M. Duarte, J. Gomes, T. Rodrigues, and F. Silva (2014), "Communication and Control for Swarms of Aquatic Surface Drones: the HANCAD and CORATAM projects". Proceedings of the 8º Congresso do Comité Português da URSI, ANACOM, Lisbon, Portugal.
  • F. Silva, L. Correia, and A, L, Christensen (2013), "Dynamics of Neuronal Models in Online Neuroevolution of Robotic Controllers". Proceedings of the 16th Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence (EPIA), LNAI 8154, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany. pages 90-101.
  • C. Duque, M. Duarte, M. Ribeiro, S. Oliveira, A. L. Christensen, and N. Souto (2013), "Real-time Control of a Mobile Robot Using Electrooculography". Proceedings of the 9th Conference on Telecommunications (CONFTELE), IT, Coimbra, Portugal, pages 137-140.
  • P. Szczawinski, M. Duarte, S. Oliveira, and A. L. Christensen (2013), "Toward Evolved Vision-based Control for a Quadrocopter". Proceedings of the 9th Conference on Telecommunications (CONFTELE), IT, Coimbra, Portugal, pages 153-156.
  • M. Duarte, A. L. Christensen, S. Oliveira (2011), "Towards Artificial Evolution of Complex Behavior Observed in Insect Colonies". Proceedings of the Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence (EPIA), 2011, Lisbon. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany, pages 153-167.

Theses and Technical Reports

  • A. L. Christensen (2008), "Fault Detection in Autonomous Robots", Ph.D. dissertation, IRIDIA, CoDE, ULB
    [ Download .pdf (2MB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen (2005), "Efficient Neuro-Evolution of Hole-avoidance and Phototaxis for a Swarm-bot", Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies en Sciences Appliquees thesis (DEA/MSc. Engineering thesis), IRIDIA TR/IRIDIA/2005-014
    [ Download .ps (30MB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen (2003), "A Test Framework for WMPI II", Aalborg University/Critical Software SA.
    [ Download .ps (390KB) ]
  • A. L. Christensen and J. I. Rasmussen (2002), "A New Approach to Multi Point Linkage Analysis", Cand.scient.dat/MSc. Computer Science thesis, Aalborg University/deCode Genetics
    [ Download .ps (1.6MB) ]
  • A. Ingolfdottir, A. L. Christensen, J. A. Hansen, J. Johnsen, J. Knudsen, and J. I. Rasmussen (2002), "A Formalization of Linkage Analysis", Basic Research in Computer Science (BRICS), Technical Report, RS-02-7
    [ Download .pdf (800KB) ]
    




  Videos


A Sea of Robots

Spatially Targeted Communication and Self-Assembly in a Heterogeneous Swarm of Robots

Morphogenesis: Shaping Swarms of Intelligent Robots

Firefly synchronization and exogenous fault detection

Go to the the following link for a page dedicated to details on firefly synchronization and exogenous fault detection

Self-assembly and morphology control

Ok, the s-bots can self-assemble, that is grip on to one another, but so far no one has been able to control the morphology of the resulting connected structure. Using color codes and novel coordination mechanisms, we have been able to build different prespecified morphologies. Check out the dedicated page on morphology control for more information. We have recently generalized morphogenesis to allow arbitrary morphology formation, morphology replication and formation of multiple morphologies (click here for more information on arbitrary morphogenesis and videos).

    

Video of 7 robots forming a line. MPEG1 ~20MB
    

Video of 7 robots forming an arrow. MPEG1 ~22MB
    

Video of 7 robots forming a rectangle morphology. MPEG1 ~32MB
    

Video of 7 robots forming a star morphology. MPEG1 ~27MB
    

Simulation of 29 robots forming a star morphology. MPEG1 ~21MB
    

Simulation of 29 robots forming a star morphology as seen from one of the robots. (.avi) MPEG4 ~41MB

Evolutionary Swarm-Robotics - Phototaxis and hole-avoidance

Videos of s-bots doing integrated hole-avoidance and phototaxis. The robots can sense the ground and the direction of the light source. They are also equipped with traction sensors so that one s-bot can sense where the rest of the group is going.

The controllers are homogeneous and reactive and have been artificially evolved in my own simulator (the robots have "learnt" how to solve the task).

6 s-bots in swarm-bot formation performing integrated hole-avoidance and phototaxis
(XViD .avi ~6.0MB)
4 s-bots in swarm-bot formation performing integrated hole-avoidance and phototaxis (XViD .avi ~10.1MB)

Evolutionary Robotics - Evolved functional self-assembly

The term "functional self-assembly" in this context refers to tasks where a group of robots connect to each other if and when needed. We have used reinforcement learning techniques to obtain homogeneous neural controllers for two robots that perform phototaxis. A gap is present in some environments, and the gap can only be crossed if the s-bots assemble before attempting to cross it. Hence, the robots should learn to self-assemble (connect to one another) if required given the environmental features. The focus of this work is to obtain neural controllers that can be transferred to real robots. This is ongoing work - but we are almost there!
2 s-bots in an environment where a gap is present. The robots move towards the light source, detect the presence of a gap, self-assemble and cross the gap.
(XViD .avi ~2.2MB)
2 s-bots in an environment with no gap between the robots and the light source. The robots perform phototaxis without self-assembling first.
(XViD .avi ~1.1MB)

Chaining

I have done a couple of components for a chaining controller. The work was performed in collaboration with Shervin Nouyan.
A swarm of robots form chains from the center to a prey and retrieve the prey.
(XViD .avi ~5.5MB)
A swarm of robots form chains from the center to a prey and retrieve the prey. Same controller and same run as above, but with the original environment .
(XViD .avi ~5.0MB)



  Contact


GSM: (+351) 918727774
email: anderslyhne [at] gmail [dot] com
skype: anderslyhne