1. Welcome to Robotics! Spring 2007 Sarah Lawrence College Professor Jim Marshall

2. Robots Have Many Uses Welding Assembly Pumping gas Packaging Eating cars Dancing

3. 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

4. Some Early Robots Shakey (SRI, 1969) The Stanford Cart (1977)

5. Cartland

7. Behavior-Based Robotics Genghis (Rodney Brooks, MIT) Hannibal

8. The Cog Project (Rodney Brooks, MIT)

9. The Cog Project

10. Kismet (Rodney Brooks, Cynthia Breazeal, MIT)

11. Roomba Vacuuming Robot (Rodney Brooks, iRobot Corp.)

12. Handyboard/LEGO Robots

13. Other Popular Platforms Khepera II Koala Pioneer 3

14. Hemisson AIBO ASIMO Coco Ants Wheelsley

15. AIBOs Playing Soccer

16. Outline of the Course ● Web page (up by Monday) http://science.slc.edu/~jmarshall/courses/2007/spring/r obotics ● Software tools we’ll use this semester – Linux – Emacs – Python – Pyro – Interactive C

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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!

23. 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!