

This research project aims at emerging a new type of Community based Cyber-Physical-Social Eco-Society of systems that seamlessly merges the real with virtual worlds and is applicable to a plethora of domains using XR, Robotics and Social Networking technologies.


This collaboration research is interested in developing a new type of Cyber-Physical-Social EcoSystem (CPSeS) that encompasses both physical and virtual environments capable of interacting dynamically and engendered by human behaviour. However our aim is to go beyond current Augmented and VR trends, by merging the physical with the virtual worlds using cutting edge Robotics, VR and Social Networking technologies. The research group is particularly interested to develop such system for Cultural Heritage. Such system would provide a more engaging and in- formation rich “Virtual Museum” environment that merge the virtual with the physical space, for visitors of all ages and interests to interact throughout their visit. But the developed CPSeS will be also applicable to a plethora of socio-spatial domains with heterogeneous actors.
To investigate this concept, a small demonstrator has been developed – the RoboSHU virtual museum. RoboSHU provides information about the history of robotics, and features work of students from the Centre of Automation and Robotics Research of Sheffield Hallam University. RoboSHU allows visitors to observe the robots ‘in action’ and interact with them, which would not be always possible because of safety concerns
This project is a collaboration between The Center of Automation and Robotics Research (CARR) at Sjeffiled Hallam University and the University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus Campus. The project provides many student opportunities for undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD projects.
Interested in finding out more? Contact us here!
Meet the Team:
Social Media:

Dr Lyuba Alboul
Senior Research Fellow - Sheffield Hallam University

Dr Louis Nisiotis
Lecturer in Computing - University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus Campus


Publications:
Nisiotis, Louis; Alboul, Lyuba; Beer, Martin. (2020) "A Prototype that Fuses Virtual Reality, Robots, and Social Networks to Create a New Cyber–Physical–Social Eco-Society System for Cultural Heritage." Sustainability 12, no. 2: 645.
With the rapid development of technology and the increasing use of social networks, many opportunities for the design and deployment of interconnected systems arise that could enable a paradigm shift in the ways we interact with cultural heritage. The project described in this paper aims to create a new type of conceptually led environment, a kind of Cyber–Physical–Social Eco-Society (CPSeS) system that would seamlessly blend the real with virtual worlds interactively using Virtual Reality, Robots, and Social Networking technologies, engendered by humans’ interactions and intentions. The project seeks to develop new methods of engaging the current generation of museum visitors, who are influenced by their exposure to modern technology such as social media, smart phones, Internet of Things, smart devices, and visual games, by providing a unique experience of exploring and interacting with real and virtual worlds simultaneously. The research envisions a system that connects visitors to events and/or objects separated either in time or in space, or both, providing social meeting points between them. To demonstrate the attributes of the proposed system, a Virtual Museum scenario has been chosen. The following pages will describe the RoboSHU: Virtual Museum prototype, its capabilities and features, and present a generic development framework that will also be applicable to other contexts and sociospatial domains. Available from here
Nisiotis, L., Alboul, L., & Beer, M (2019). Virtual Museums as a New Type of Cyber-Physical-Social System. In The 6th International Conference on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Computer Graphics
Museums are institutions that primarily care for cultural heritage exhibition, preservation and conservation of historical artifacts. However, simply displaying artifacts and provide complex information to describe them is simply not sufficient to effectively engage museum visitors. To improve visitors engagement and their overall museum experience, the use of technology utilized by museums, introducing the concept of Virtual Museums. This paper discusses the use of Virtual Reality through the use of smart phone devices as a mean of a Cyber-Physical-Social system to support, improve and enhance the visitors' experience.
The RoboSHU prototype, its current development stage and future work are presented, together with the future research directions of the research team. Available from here.
Alboul, L., Beer, M., & Nisiotis, L. (2019). Merging Realities in Space and Time: Towards a New Cyber-Physical Eco-Society In: M. Dimitrova (ed.) Cyber-Physical Systems for Social Applications. IGI Global
The rapid developments in online technology have provided young people with instant communication with each other and highly interactive and engaging visual game playing environments. The traditional ways of presenting museum and heritage assets no longer, therefore, hold their attention and provide them with an exciting and dynamic visitor experience. There is considerable interest in the use of augmented reality to allow visitors to explore worlds that are not immediately accessible to them and relating them to the real worlds around them. These are very effective in providing much needed contextual information, but appear rather static when compared with multi-player games environments where players interact with each other and robotic characters (non-player characters) in real time. By fusing these technologies, the authors postulate a new type of conceptually-led environment (cyber museum) that fuses real (physical), virtual worlds and cyber-social spaces into a single dynamic environment that provides a unique experience of exploring both worlds simultaneously. Available from here
Alboul, L., Beer, M., & Nisiotis, L. (2019). Robotics and Virtual Reality Gaming for Cultural Heritage Preservation. In: F. Dorban, ed. Resilience and Sustainability of Cities in Hazardous Environments, Napoli
This paper reports on the open session help during the International Conference on Resilience and Sustainability of Cities in Hazardous Environments, where the aim was to discuss how the modern technology of robotics, virtual reality, and gaming could help in preserving cultural heritage sites. There is a plethora of achievements in this technology, but how and whether their fusion can add a new dimension to the preservation of cultural heritage sites and untimely contribute to their resilience and sustainability in our rapidly changing world is open to discussions and further research incestigations. Available from here.
How to Access the RoboSHU Multi User Environment Through your Laptop or Desktop
Account Registration
In order to access RoboSHU, you first need to create a user account.
Click HERE to create your RoboSHU account. Please choose use your First and Last Name. Also please provide your real email.
Viewer Download and Configuration
To connect to the environment from HOME, you need to download the Firestorm Viewer from here: HERE (Available for all platforms).
You then need to launch and configure the viewer as follows:
- Click on Viewer menu on the top left of your screen, and choose Preferences
- Choose Opensim menu.
- In the Grid Manager tab, where Add a New Grid, add the following address: http://salonen.hallam.shu.ac.uk:9000
- Press Apply, then OK
- Use your username (First Name and Last Name) and password to connect.
Enjoy!
Notes
* Please respect the environment and the other users
* Please note that there may be changes to the environment’s layout as students are using it for several projects.
How to Access the RoboSHU Multi User Museum in Virtual Reality Using Oculus Rift
Account Registration
In order to access RoboSHU, you first need to create a user account.
Click HERE to create your RoboSHU account. Please choose use your First and Last Name. Also please provide your real email.
Viewer Download and Configuration
To connect to the environment from HOME, you need to download the CTRL ALT Studio Viewer from here: HERE .
You then need to launch and configure the viewer as follows:
- Oculus Runtime installed from https://www.oculus.com/ and your Rift (CV1 or DK2) set up.
- Oculus Rift output turned on: Preferences > Graphics > Display Output > Oculus Rift. And restart the viewer.
- Click on Viewer menu on the top left of your screen, and choose Preferences
- Choose Opensim menu.
- In the Grid Manager tab, where Add a New Grid, add the following address: http://salonen.hallam.shu.ac.uk:9000
- Press Apply, then OK
- Use your username (First Name and Last Name) and password to connect.
Enjoy!
Notes
* Please respect the environment and the other users
* Please note that there may be changes to the environment’s layout as students are using it for several projects.
How to Access the RoboSHU Multi User Museum in Virtual Reality Through Your Android Smart Phone
More info soon