Barbara Webb

Reader
Institute for Perception, Action and Behaviour
School of Informatics
University of Edinburgh
Room: IF 1.27     Phone: +44 (0)131 651 3453 
Email: bwebb@inf.ed.ac.uk
Address: Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton St, Edinburgh EH8 9AB, U.K.

Background

I joined the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh in May 2003. Previously I have lectured at the University of Stirling (1999-2003), the University of Nottingham (1995-1998) and the University of Edinburgh (1993-1995). I received my Ph.D. (in Artificial Intelligence)  from the University of Edinburgh in 1993, and my B.Sc. (in Psychology) from the University of Sydney in 1988.

Research

My main research interest is in perceptual systems for the control of behaviour. The work is largely concerned with building computational and physical models of these mechanisms to explicate and evaluate hypotheses. In particular, I have developed and tested a robot model of the auditory localization behaviour of the cricket. Current work is concerned with integrating additional sensorimotor systems onto the same robot, to study problems of interaction of basic behaviours. I  also have an interest in theoretical issues of methodology; in particular the problems of measurement, modeling and simulation.

There is more information about research in my lab here.

Teaching

Intelligent Autonomous Robotics
Human Computer Interaction

Selected Publications

Webb, B. (2008) Using robots to understand animal behavior. Advances in the Study of Behavior, 38:1-58

Wessnitzer J., Mangan M., and Webb B. (2008) Place memory in crickets. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 275:915-921

Wessnitzer, J., Webb, B. and Smith, D. (2007) A model of non-elemental associative learning in the Mushroom Body neuropil of the insect brain. Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive and Natural Computing Algorithms. LNCS 4431,4432. ICANNGA'07. (pdf preprint)

Rosano, H. and Webb, B. (2007) A dynamic model of thoracic differentiation for the control of turning in the stick insect. Biological Cybernetics, 97:229-246.

Webb, B., Wessnitzer, J., Bush, S., Schul, J., Buchli, J. and Ijspeert, A. (2007) Resonant neurons and bushcricket behaviour. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 193:285-288. DOI:10.1007/s00359-006-0199-1

Chapman, T.P. and Webb, B. (2006) A model of antennal wall-following and escape in the cockroach. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 192:949-969.

Rosano, H. and Webb, B. (2006) The control of turning in real and simulated stick insects. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence volume 4095.

Wessnitzer, J. and Webb, B. (2006) Multimodal sensory integration in insects - towards insect brain control architectures. Bioinspiration and Biomimetics 1 63-75 doi:10.1088/1748-3182/1/3/001

Webb, B. (2006) Validating biorobotic models Journal of Neural Engineering 3 R25-R35 doi:10.1088/1741-2560/3/3/R01 ( pdf preprint)

Zampoglou, M., Szenher, M. and Webb, B. (2006) Adaptation of Controllers for Image-Based Homing. Adaptive Behavior, Vol. 14, No. 4, 381-399 DOI: 10.1177/1059712306072338

Webb, B. (2006) Transformation, encoding and representation. Current Biology 6 R184-R185. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.02.034

Russo, P., Webb, B., Reeve, R., Arena, P., Patane, L. A Cricket-Inspired Neural Network for FeedForward Compensation and Multisensory Integration. IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and European Control Conference (2005) (pdf preprint)

Torben-Nielsen, B., Webb, B, and Reeve, R. New ears for a robot cricket. Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (2005)

Horchler, A., Reeve, R., Webb, B. and Quinn, R. Robot phonotaxis in the wild: a biologically inspired approach to outdoor sound localization. Advanced Robotics (2004), 18(8):801-816 (pdf)

Webb, B. (2004) Neural mechanisms for prediction: do insects have forward models? Trends in Neurosciences 27:278-282 (pdf preprint)

Webb, B. & Reeve, R. (2003) Reafferent or redundant: How should a robot cricket use an optomotor reflex? Adaptive Behaviour 11:137-158 (pdf preprint)

Reeve, R. & Webb, B. (2002) New neural circuits for robot phonotaxis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 361:2245-2266 (pdf preprint)

Webb, B. (2002) Robots in invertebrate neuroscience Nature 417:359-363 (pdf preprint)

Webb, B. (2001) Can robots make good models of biological behaviour? Target article for Behavioural and Brain Sciences 24 (6) 1033-1050 (html pre-print)

Webb, B (2000) What does robotics offer animal behaviour? Animal Behaviour, 60, 545-558 (pdf file)

Webb, B. & Harrison, R. (2000) Integrating sensorimotor systems in a robot model of cricket behaviour, Sensor Fusion And Decentralized Control In Robotic Systems III November 5-8, Boston. (Editors: McKEE GT, Schenker PS) Proceedings of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), 4196, 113-124, 2000 (pdf file) Webb, B., & Scutt, T. (2000) A simple latency dependent spiking neuron model of cricket phonotaxis. Biological Cybernetics 82(3):247-269