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CS 7630/4803A: Autonomous Robotics
Fall 2000, Instructional Center room 207 (Tuesday, Thursday 9:30am-11:00am) Instructor: Prof. Ronald C. Arkin |
Course Description
Course Syllabus
Links
Homeworks
NEW!! AmigoBots
Course Description
1. Prerequisite: CS 4600 or equivalent or instructor's permission
A survey of autonomous robotics as viewed from a variety of disciplines and as applied in artificial intelligence. Neuroscience and cognitive psychology are studied as a source of paradigms for machine autonomy. Various cybernetic issues will be explored from a multi-disciplinary vantage point. High-level computer vision and other sensor modalities and their application to intelligent robotics will also be studied within this context.
2. Class structure
The subject matter of this course is often controversial and hopefully equally stimulating. It is a goal to have lively discussions with various interpretations of the subject matter. We are dealing with approaches to problems that will hopefully provide solutions in extremely difficult task domains. Consequently your classroom participation is essential.
There will be two meetings per week (Tuesday and Thursday), starting promptly at 9:35. Your attendance, of course, is mandatory as is your participation in classroom discussions.
You are required to complete all assigned readings prior to class and you must be prepared to present or discuss the material contained therein.
It is anticipated that actual robots (Amigobots by ActivMedia) will be available for project work in this cours. In addition simulators such as Teambots and MissionLab will also be of use.3. Student evaluation (grading)
As mentioned earlier, classroom attendance and participation are crucial to passing this course. You will be evaluated after each class regarding your contributions to the discussion and your knowledge of the subject matter derived from the readings. In addition, there will be at least one presentation involving each student on material relevant to the course. The remainder of your grade will be derived from a term project and homework (30%), and the midterm (20%) and final exam (20%).
Students are expectd to adhere to the Honor Code in this class. All work is to be accomplished independently unless expressly stated in writing otherwise (e.g., as in a team project). Collaboration on other homework and/or take home exams is not permitted.4. Readings
The text for this course is Behavior-based Robotics, Arkin, MIT Press, 1998. Another required book is Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Robots: Case Studies of Successful Robot Systems, Kortenkamp, et al, MIT Press, 1998, which will provide the basis for student presentations.
Course Syllabus
Note: some slides are temporarily not available. If you need them send me an email to sgorbiss@cc.gatech.edu
Date Topic Reading Leader 8/22 Introduction Chapter 1 (Arkin)
slides hereArkin 8/24 No Class 8/29 Guest Lecture Why robotics is fun Alexander Stoytchev 8/31 Lab Tour (MARC 359) 9/5 Animal Behavior Chapter 2 (Arkin)
slides hereArkin 9/7 Robot Behavior Chapter 3 (Arkin)
slides hereArkin 9/12 Behavior-based Architectures Chapter 4 (Arkin)
slides hereArkin 9/14 Knowledge Representation Chapter 5 (Arkin)
slides hereArkin 9/19 Guest lecture T.Collins 9/21 Hybrid Architectures Chapter 6 (Arkin)
slides hereArkin 9/26 MicroNavigation slides here Sgorbissa 9/28 Service Robotics slides here Sgorbissa 10/3 Kuipers Papers TBD Nguyen 10/5 Saphira Chapter 9 (Cases)
slides hereAuxier 10/10 MIDTERM EXAM 10/12 Three-layer Chapter 8 (Cases)
slided hereMartinson, Bradberry 10/17 Rhino Chapter 1 (Cases)
slides hereO'Connel, Likhachev 10/19 Perception Chapter 7 (Arkin)
slides hereArkin 10/24 RECESS 10/26 Carmel Chapter 2 (Cases)
slides hereKaess, Fitzgibbons 10/31 Polly Chapter 5 (Cases)
slides hereMerrill, Tuck 11/2 Fusion Chapter 6 (Cases)
slides hereCeasar, Allhusen 11/7 Adaptive Behavior Chapter 8 (Arkin) Arkin 11/9 Q-learning Balch Ellenberger, Cole 11/14 Social Behavior Chapter 9 (Arkin) Arkin 11/16 Multiagent Robotic Systems Chapter 11 (Cases) Arkin 11/21 Entertainment Robotics (AIBO) Arkin 11/23 HOLIDAY 11/28 Fringe Robotics Chapter 10 (Arkin) Arkin 11/30 Moravec TBA
slides hereCramer 12/5 Project Presentations 12/7 Project Presentations Subject to change
(Arkin) = Behavior-Based Robotics, MIT Press 1998.
(Cases) = Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Robots, Kortenkamp et al, MIT Press, 1998.AmigoBots
From October 20th it is possible to use the three AmigoBots that have been moved to CoC building. The names of the three robots are Huey Dewey and Louie. When you want to use them you need to go to the front office and check them out with Jo Gilmore. You will be given a bag containing:
N1 AmigoBot
N1 AmigoBot antenna
N1 Charger for AmigoBot batteries
N1 RadioModem
N1 Power Supply for RadioModem
N1 Serial Cable for RadioModem
N1 Serial Adapter 25pin - 9pin
N1 Cable for connecting to the AmigoBot system portTake the robot and use it; but DO NOT forget to switch it off and recharge batteries when you are not using it. Note also that it is possible to use the robot with the charger plugged in. The manual for operating the robot can be downloaded here.
As regard to the software,
1. Saphira software can be downloaded here (Linux and Windows) I suggest you to install the software and run the simulator before using the real robot.
2. MissionLab is available here . The AmigoBot drivers have not been included in the official distribution yet. If you need them, please send me an email. Once again I suggest you to install the software and run the simulator as a first step.
Enjoy them!
Homeworks
Homework #1
Due in two weeks in class : 9/21/00
Download and run the 4 demos in the Teambots behavioral control system.Go to the The Mobile Robot Laboratory home page and look under "Online Software" for TeamBots.
Click on it to get to the page regarding how to download and configure it.
Then For each of the 4 demos:SoccerBots
Forage
Cye
City demo1. Write a couple of paragraphs for each simulation on just what it is that you are observing.
2. Provide a screen printout (capture) for each of the runs.
3. Explain what behaviors are being used in each demo by inspecting the code.
Homework #2
Due in class : 10/5/00
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~trb/TeamBots/Domains/Book/index.html
Homework #3
Due in two weeks in class: 11/9/00
This project must be completed individually (no groups).
Download the TeamBots software.Description of the project:
Open questions in multirobot research include issues like the benefits of communication, cooperation and learning, and whether team members should specialize or be homogeneous.
Soccer is a good task for multi-robot investigations. First, it involves cooperation and competition. Second, compared to many robot tasks, performance is easy to measure.Your task for this project is to develop a multi-robot soccer team for the TeamBots simulation. Feel free to design an heterogeneous team, in which different team members have different behaviors, if you think that this increases the performances of your team. However, communication between team members is NOT ALLOWED.
Note: the TeamBots documentation provides help on how to build a team.
After you've implemented your team, compare its performance against one of the benchmark teams (SchemaDemo) included in the TeamBots package (in the directory TeamBots/Domains/SoccerBots/teams).Send the following files to me by email (sgorbiss@cc.gatech.edu. Note: please prepend "project1:" to the subject of your email message. This will help me sort files into the right folder.
Your grade will be determined, in order of significance, by:
- The source for your team, call it YourTeamHomo.java, where YourTeam is a clever name.
- A one page description of your teams in plain text (3 to 4 paragraphs is plenty). Include a results section that reports the score of your team versus the team you modified to design your code (or vs BasicTeam if you wrote your code from scratch), and
- the score of your team versus SchemaDemo in a (simulated) 10 minute game. Also include one or two paragraph explanation of why you believe your team is better or worse than the others.
- The performance of your team. If you designed your team by modifying existing code (which is OK), your team should be able to defeat the existing team.
- The creativity of your solution. You may base your team on existing code, but your team should include some kind of clever improvement, not just a change of parameters.
- Your analysis of why your team performs better or worse than another.
A Note from the TA:The instructions for installing TeamBots and running the demos in the TeamBots home page have some 'bugs'.
Bug1) The four demos are in the directories
/<tb_home>/Domains/SoccerBots
/<tb_home>/Domains/Forage
/<tb_home>/Domains/Cye
/<tb_home>/Domains/Roads (run citydemo)Bug2) The CLASSPATH environment variable can be set with the following command (if the shell is csh)
setenv CLASSPATH .:/<tb_home>/src:/<tb_home>/tb/lib/collections.jar
If you have questions please send me an email me to the following address
(Antonio Sgorbissa - sgorbiss@cc.gatech.edu)Links
The Mobile Robot Laboratory home page
MissionLab software home page
TeamBots software home page
ActivMedia home page
ActivMedia software, documentation and technical support
AmigoBot technical manual (*.pdf)
Saphira software for Linux and Windows
MissionLab is available for Linux .
Home pages of Autonomous Robotics researchers around the world
(this list is not complete: please send suggestions to sgorbiss@cc.gatech.edu)Agre Philip
Albus James S.
Arkin Ronald C.
Atkeson Chris
Bekey George A.
Borenstein Johann
Brooks Rodney
Christensen Henrik I.
Dudek Gregory
Durfee Edmund H.
Engelson Samuel
Gat Erann
Hayes-Roth Barbara
Horswill Ian
Kaelbling Leslie P.
Koenig Sven
Konolidge Kurt
Kortenkamp David
Kuc Roman
Kuipers Benjamin
Jorg Klaus-Werner
Latombe Jean-Claude
Maes Pattie
Mataric Maja
MacLennan Bruce J.
Miller David P.
Moravec Hans
Mowforth Peter
Murray Iain
Olshausen Bruno
Parker Lynne E.
Pfeifer Rolf
Pirjanian Paolo
Rosenblatt Julio
Shultz Alan
Sigaud Oliver
Simmons Reid
Thrun Sebastian
Zimmer Uwe R.