Dr Samuele Vinanzi PhD
Senior Lecturer in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
Summary
I am a Senior Lecturer in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at Sheffield Hallam University. I am specialized in the area of Cognitive Robotics, which is an interdisciplinary field that combines principles from robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive science, and psychology to develop intelligent robotic systems capable of perceiving, reasoning, and interacting with the environment in a human-like manner.
About
I studied Computer Engineering at the University of Palermo, Italy, where I obtained my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in 2013 and 2016, respectively. For my Master's dissertation, I developed a system that enabled a humanoid robot to conduct a live orchestra based on the emotions expressed by the audience. We publicly showcased this system in October 2016 at the concert hall of the Musical School "Bellini" in Palermo.
In 2018, I relocated to the UK to work as a Research Assistant at the University of Plymouth. My research focused on Artificial Trust, where I explored a robot's ability to determine the trustworthiness of the human it collaborates with. This project was funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).
Following this, I pursued my doctoral studies at the University of Manchester under the supervision of Prof Angelo Cangelosi, supported by sponsorship from the Honda Research Institute. During my doctoral program, I developed computational models for intention reading and collaboration in humanoid robots. In 2021, I successfully completed my PhD. Subsequently, I continued my research as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Manchester for several years. Once again, my work was sponsored by AFOSR, and I focused on developing symbolic cognitive architectures for human-robot interaction.
In 2023, I joined Sheffield Hallam University as a Senior Lecturer in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. In this role, I continue my research endeavours and lead the Cognitive Systems and Robotics MSc AI module.
Senior Lecturer
Teaching
School of Computing and Digital Technologies
College of Business, Technology and Engineering
Games and Artificial Intelligence
Courses taught:
MSc Artificial Intelligence
Modules taught:
Cognitive Systems and Robotics
AI Research and Development Projects
Dissertations for Computing
Research
Research Interests
• Cognitive robotics
• Human-robot interaction
• Social robotics
• Artificial cognitive architectures
• Human-robot collaboration
• Symbolic artificial intelligence
• Machine learning
Selected publications
• Vinanzi, Samuele, et al. "Would a robot trust you? Developmental robotics model of trust and theory of mind." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 374.1771 (2019): 20180032
• Vinanzi, Samuele, et al. "The collaborative mind: intention reading and trust in human-robot interaction." Iscience 24.2 (2021): 102130.
Publications
Journal articles
Tavella, F., Manzi, F., Vinanzi, S., Di Dio, C., Massaro, D., Cangelosi, A., & Marchetti, A. (2024). Towards a computational model for higher orders of Theory of Mind in social agents. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 11. http://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2024.1468756
Vinanzi, S., & Cangelosi, A. (2024). CASPER: Cognitive Architecture for Social Perception and Engagement in Robots. International Journal of Social Robotics. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-024-01116-2
Vinanzi, S., Cangelosi, A., & Goerick, C. (2021). The collaborative mind: intention reading and trust in human-robot interaction. iScience, 24 (2). http://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102130
Vinanzi, S., Patacchiola, M., Chella, A., & Cangelosi, A. (2019). Would a robot trust you? Developmental robotics model of trust and theory of mind. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 374 (1771). http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0032
Conference papers
Hellou, M., Vinanzi, S., & Cangelosi, A. (2024). Where is My Favourite Toy? Inferring the Mental States of Users in False Belief Understanding. 2024 IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL). http://doi.org/10.1109/icdl61372.2024.10644973
Hellou, M., Vinanzi, S., & Cangelosi, A. (2023). Bayesian Theory of Mind for False Belief Understanding in Human-Robot Interaction. 2023 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 1893-1900. http://doi.org/10.1109/ro-man57019.2023.10309356
Vinanzi, S., Cangelosi, A., & Goerick, C. (2020). The Role of Social Cues for Goal Disambiguation in Human-Robot Cooperation. 2020 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 971-977. http://doi.org/10.1109/ro-man47096.2020.9223546
Vinanzi, S., Goerick, C., & Cangelosi, A. (2019). Mindreading for Robots: Predicting Intentions via Dynamical Clustering of Human Postures. 2019 Joint IEEE 9th International Conference on Development and Learning and Epigenetic Robotics (ICDL-EpiRob), 272-277. http://doi.org/10.1109/DEVLRN.2019.8850698
Lanza, F., Vinanzi, S., Seidita, V., Cangelosi, A., & Chella, A. (2019). A global workspace theory model for trust estimation in human-robot interaction. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2483, 104-112.
Giardina, M., Tramonte, S., Gentile, V., Vinanzi, S., Chella, A., Sorce, S., & Sorbello, R. (2017). Conveying audience emotions through humanoid robot gestures to an orchestra during a live musical exhibition. In Conference on Complex, Intelligent, and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS 2017). Springer Cham: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61566-0
Tarakli, I., Vinanzi, S., & Di Nuovo, A. (2024). Interactive Reinforcement Learning from Natural Language Feedback. In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 14 October 2024 - 18 October 2024.
Books
Barolli, L., & Terzo, O. (Eds.). (2018). Complex, Intelligent, and Software Intensive Systems. Springer International Publishing. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61566-0
Reports
Marchang, J., Di Nuovo, A., Elliott, C., Meese, H., Vinanzi, S., & Zecca, M. (2023). Security and privacy in assistive robotics: cybersecurity challenges for healthcare. EPSRC UK-RAS Network. https://www.ukras.org.uk/publications/white-papers/security-and-privacy-in-assistive-robotics/
Other activities
Associate Editor for the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems