External Funding
In progress
BIOTACT: BIOmimetic Technology for vibrissal ACtive Touch.
Funding details: European Union Framework 7 ICT project 215910.ABRG Investigators: Tony Prescott (project co-ordinator and Sheffield P.I.), Paul Dean, John Porrill, Jim Stone, Kevin Gurney.
ABRG Researchers: Ben Mitchinson, Charles Fox, Robyn Grant (Project Manager).
Summary: Collaboration between 9 laboratories in 6 countries to develop artificial tactile sensors models on the vibrissae of whiskered animals such as rats and shrews. Research at the ABRG is focused on computational modelling of brain systems involved in active touch sensing, and ethological studies of rat whisking behaviour.
CARMEN
Formal title: Code Analysis, Repository and Modelling for e-NeuroscienceFunding details: EPSRC e-science grant
ABRG Investigators: Kevin Gurney & Paul Overton
ABRG Researchers: Antoniya Georgieva
Summary: The objective of the project is to create an e-science infrastructure in which data on neuronal activity (electrical and optical measures) can be shared, stored, manipulated and modelled. The project currently involves a consortium of 19 academic investigators from 11 universities as well as commercial partners, but will expand to include new partners over the coming years. CARMEN is a 4 year project, involving 11 Universities, and with 19 Investigators, starting on 1 October 2006. The Sheffield component comprises the development of a deterministic parameter optimisation tool used in building conductance-based neuronal models.
REVERB: Reverse Engineering the VERtebrate Brain.
Formal title: Integrative computation for autonomous agents: a novel approach based on the vertebrate brain.Funding details: EPSRC Research Grant no. EP/C516303/1, April 2005-April 2010.
ABRG Investigators: Kevin Gurney (Grant P.I.), Tony Prescott, Peter Redgrave, Paul Overton.
ABRG Researchers: Jon Chambers, Ric Wood.
Summary: Collaboration across 6 UK universities and one industrial partner to develop, implement, and evaluate novel biologically inspired methods of systems integration for the flexible and adaptable control of behaviour. Research at the ABRG is focused on computational modelling of the primate orienting system and on the role of the basal ganglia in action selection and reinforcement learning.
Official summary
ICEA: Integrating Cognition Emotion and Autonomy.
Funding details: European Union Framework 6 Project no. IST-027819-IP, January 2006-December 2009.ABRG Investigators: Tony Prescott (Sheffield P.I.), Kevin Gurney, Peter Redgrave.
ABRG Researchers: Mark Humphries, Ben Mitchinson, Charles Fox, Tak-Shing Chan.
Summary: Project across 6 EU countries including 8 research groups and 3 industrial partners to develop a cognitive systems architecture integrating cognitive, emotional and bioregulatory (self-maintenance) processes, based on the architecture and physiology of the mammalian brain. Research at the ABRG is focused on computational modelling of brain substrates for spatial cognition, and tactile sensing.
Completed
Whiskerbot: A robot whisker system modelled on the rat mystacial vibrissae.
Funding details: EPSRC Research Grant no. GR/S19639/01, September 2003-August 2006.ABRG Investigators: Tony Prescott (Sheffield P.I.), Kevin Gurney, Peter Redgrave.
ABRG Researchers: Ben Mitchinson.
Summary: Project in collaboration with Bristol Robotics Laboratory concerned with computational, behavioural, and robotic studies of tactile sensing in the rat whisker system.
Official summary
ROCOCO: Robot control using a model of the central structures in the vertebrate brain.
Funding details: EPSRC Research Grant no. GR/R95722/01. September 2002-August 2005.ABRG Investigators: Tony Prescott (Grant P.I.), Kevin Gurney, Peter Redgrave.
ABRG Researchers: Mark Humphries.
Summary: Computational and robotic modelling of the "integrative core" of the vertebrate brain, including the basal ganglia and the brainstem reticular formation.
Official summary
Final report