Bio
Vadim Tikhanoff graduated in Computer Science at the University of Essex, UK in 2004, presenting a study based on Artificial Intelligence and in particular Multi-Agent Systems. In 2005 he accomplished his MSc in Interactive Intelligent Systems presenting a work in Interactive Entertainment Robotics at the University of Plymouth UK, under the supervision of Prof. Eduardo Reck Miranda. In 2009 he accomplished his PhD at the University of Plymouth with the thesis "Development of Cognitive Capabilities in Humanoid Robots."
During his PhD he was a visiting student at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) for 10 months working in the Robotics, Brain & Cognitive Sciences Department under the supervision of Prof. Giorgio Metta where, appart from his research, he developed the prototype simulator of the iCub Humanoid Robot used by European Projects (RobotCub and ITALK) and Universities research.
Currently he has a post-doc position at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) working in the Cognitive Humanoids Laboratory.
Vadim Tikhanoff has a background in Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Systems and is now focusing on the development of innovative techniques and approaches for the design of skills in a robot to interact with the surrounding physical world and manipulate objects in an adaptive, productive and efficient manner.
Projects
L'attuale progetto di ricerca verterà sullo sviluppo di tecniche e approcci innovativi per ricreare, in un robot, le abilità che permettono di interagire con il mondo fisico che lo circonda e poter manipolare gli oggetti in maniera adattiva produttiva ed efficiente.
Lo scopo principale è quello di sviluppare un controllo che impari a usare i possibili effectors per risolvere problemi cognitivi, potenzialmente trasferendo e generalizzando le capacità appena acquisite. Gli esperimenti, a livello cognitivo, verranno svolti su iCub Robot sfruttando e implementando le sue capacità visive, uditive, tattili e sensoriali.
The current research project deals with the development of innovative techniques and approaches for the design of skills in a robot to interact with the surrounding physical world and manipulate objects in an adaptive, productive and efficient manner.
In particular, one key element of this research is the integration between the representation of the peripersonal space (tactile, proprioceptive, visual and motor) and the ability to move different effectors. The goal is to develop a controller that learns to use any of the available effectors to solve cognitive tasks (tool use), potentially by transferring and generalizing already acquired skills. Cognitive experiments will focus on the humanoid iCub robot with vision, touch, audition, and proprioceptive sensorial abilities
Other Publications
• Tikhanoff V, Cangelosi A. & Metta G. (in press). Language understanding in humanoid robots: Simulation experiments with iCub platform. Proceedings of 2009 International Conference on Integration of Knowledge Intensive Multi-Agent Systems (KIMAS’09), St. Louis MA, October 2009
• Fontanari J.F., Tikhanoff V., Cangelosi A., Ilinc R. & Perlovsky L. (in press). Crosssituational learning of object-word mapping using Neural Modeling Fields. Neural Networks 2009
• Borisyuk R., Kazanovich Y., Chik D., Tikhanoff V. & Cangelosi A. (in press). A neural model of selective attention and object segmentation in the visual scene: An approach based on partial synchronization and star-like architecture of connections. Neural Networks
• Courtney P., Michel O., Cangelosi A., Tikhanoff V., Metta G., Natale L., Nori F., & Kernbach S. (in press). Cognitive systems platforms using open source. In: R. Madhavan, E. Tunstel & E. Messina. Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Intelligent Systems, Springer.
• Fontanari F, Tikhanoff V, Cangelosi A, Perlovsky L. (in press). A cross-situational algorithm for learning a lexicon using Neural Modelling Fields. Proceedings of IJCNN09, International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, Atlanta June 2009
• Tikhanoff V, Fitzpatrick P, Nori F, Natale L, Metta G, Cangelosi A. The iCub Humanoid Robot Simulator. International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems IROS’08, Nice France 2008
• Tikhanoff V, Fitzpatrick P, Nori F, Metta G, Natale L, Cangelosi A, An Open Source Simulator for Cognitive Robotics Research: The Protorype of the iCub Humanoid Robot Simulator. Performance Metrics for Intelligent Systems Workshop. PerMIS’08, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD, 20899 August 2008
• Tikhanoff V, Cangelosi A, Metta G. Towards language acquisition in autonomous robots. Alife XI Winchester August 2008
• Tikhanoff V, Cangelosi A, Metta G. Emergence of Communication in Autonomous Robots. European Society for the study of cognitive systems ESSCS, Genoa Italy 2008
• Nava N, Tikhanoff V, Metta G, Sandini G, Kinematic and Dynamic Simulations for the design of RobotCub Upper-Body Structure ESDA Israel 2008
• Cangelosi A, Tikhanoff V, Fontanari J, Hourdakis E. Integrating Language and Cognition: A Cognitive Robotics Approach. IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine August 2007
• Tikhanoff V, Cangelosi A, Fontanari J, Perlovsky L. Scaling up of action repertoire in linguistic cognitive agents. KIMAS 07 Integration of Knowledge Intensive Multi- Agent Systems. Waltham April 2007
• Tikhanoff V, Fontanari J, Cangelosi A, Perlovsky L. Language and Cognition Integration through Modeling Field Theory: Simulations on category formation for symbol grounding. ICANN 06 International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks Athens, September 2006
• Cangelosi A, Tikhanoff V. Integrating Action and Language in Cognitive Robots: Experiments with Modeling Field Theory. Fusion 2006 Conference Satellite EOARD workshop Firenze July 2006
• Cangelosi A, Hourdakis E, Tikhanoff V. Language acquisition and symbol grounding transfer with neural networks and cognitive robots. Proceedings of IJCNN2006. International Joint Conference on Neural Networks Vancouver July 2006
• Miranda E, Tikhanoff V, Music Composition by an Autonomous Robot: An Approach to AIBO interaction. Proceedings of TAROS’05. Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems. Imperial College London 2005
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