Dr Manolis Chiou PhD

Dr Manolis Chiou

School of Metallurgy and Materials
Research Fellow

I am a research fellow in the Extreme Robotics Lab at the University of Birmingham, where I lead the Human-Robot Teaming research group.

My work aims to advance human-robot systems by combining AI, human-robot interaction, and human factors, enabling humans and robots to cooperate efficiently using their complementing capabilities to assist each other during task execution. I am particularly interested in variable autonomy robotic systems with a human-in-the-loop deployed in hazardous or remote environments, keeping humans out of harm’s way.

I received my PhD from the School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, where I was supervised by Prof. Rustam Stolkin, Prof. Nick Hawes and Prof. Kimron Shapiro. I have been actively involved in teaching, supervising students, and public communication and engagement of robotics. Among others, I was delivering “robotics masterclasses” for the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the flagship organisation for science outreach and education in the UK and leading the Birmingham autonomous robotics club, winning several prizes in international robotics competitions.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Robotics and AI, University of Birmingham, 2017
  • MSc in Computational Intelligence, University of Sheffield, 2012
  • BEng in Automation Engineering, University of West Attica, 2011

Research

I aim to develop AI for effective and fluent Human-Robot Teaming using the complementing competencies of robot AI and humans. My research is cross-disciplinary, drawing on methods from AI, robotics, human factors, and cognitive science. I emphasise application-driven research on Human-Robot Teaming and Human-Robot Interaction in safety-critical and hazardous environments via variable autonomy paradigms where humans collaborate with intelligent robots capable of dynamically self-regulating their level of autonomy.

Research interests include:

  • Human-Robot Teaming
  • Human-Robot Interaction
  • Variable Autonomy (i.e., Mixed-Initiative, Human-Initiative, Supervisory, and Shared Control
  • Robotics in hazardous environments
  • Human Factors and Cognitive Science for HRT and HRI

Publications

For an updated list of publications please visit my Google Scholar profile.

View all publications in research portal