Welcome to Robotics!

Spring 2007

Sarah Lawrence College

Professor Jim Marshall

Robots Have Many Uses

Welding Assembly

Pumping gas

Packaging Eating cars

Dancing

What Is Robotics About?

● Robot: A physical system that autonomously senses the environment and acts in it

● Engineering and industrial applications

● AI and cognitive science research

● Both hardware and software

Some Early Robots

Shakey (SRI, 1969)

The Stanford Cart (1977)

Cartland

Cartland

Behavior-Based Robotics

Genghis (Rodney Brooks, MIT) Hannibal

The Cog Project

(Rodney Brooks, MIT)

The Cog Project

Kismet

(Rodney Brooks, Cynthia Breazeal, MIT)

Roomba Vacuuming Robot

(Rodney Brooks, iRobot Corp.)

Handyboard/LEGO Robots

Other Popular Platforms

Khepera II

Koala

Pioneer 3

HemissonAIBO

ASIMO

CocoAnts

Wheelsley

AIBOs Playing Soccer

Outline of the Course

● Web page (up by Monday)

http://science.slc.edu/~jmarshall/courses/2007/spring/robotics

● Software tools we’ll use this semester– Linux– Emacs– Python– Pyro– Interactive C

Outline of the Course● Introduction

– Overview of AI and robotics research– Getting comfortable with Linux, Emacs,

and Python– Robot morphology, sensors, and actuators

● Part I: Direct Control– Midterm project demos

● Part II: Learning and Development– Final project presentations

Part I: Direct Control

● Reactive control– Braitenberg vehicles– Handyboards, LEGOs, and Interactive C

● State-based control– Finite-state machines– Subsumption architecture

● Vision● Midterm project demos

Part II: Learning and Adaptation● Neural network learning

– Pattern association and backpropagation– Simple recurrent networks– Self-organizing maps

● Evolutionary robotics– Genetic algorithms– Evolving neural networks with GAs

● Developmental robotics research– Readings and discussion

● Final project presentations

Project I: Possible Ideas

● Enable a robot to recognize where it is while wandering around trying to get to class (or back to its home base in the lab)

● Clear objects out of the environment● Collect objects in the environment and

return them to a target location● Do something with vision and/or gripper

using the Khepera● Build new sensors for the Handyboard

Project I: Possible Ideas

● Explore sensor-limited and computation-limited robotics by using Lego RCX bricks

● AIBO– follow the ball– kick a ball into a goal– cooperate in accomplishing some task– play mastermind or some other visual game

● Treasure hunt: visually follow a trail of colored paper or other cues

Project I: Possible Ideas

● Investigate Player/Stage/Gazebo robot simulators

● Investigate Monte Carlo localization and other navigation algorithms

● AAAI or Beyond Botball competitions● Investigate other robotic platforms

(Hemisson, XBC, e-Puck, ER1, etc., depending on hardware availability)

● Other possibilities -- be creative!

Assignment 1

● Log into your Linux account (once we get them set up!)

● Try out Emacs and go through the tutorial● Start reading Python tutorials on the web

and play around with Python● Start reading Vehicles● Check course web page later for details● See you Monday!