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CS 7630: Autonomous Robotics
Spring 2008 
Molecular Science and Engineering G011
(Tuesday, Thursday   12:05PM-1:25PM) 
 

Instructor: Prof. Ronald C. Arkin
Office: TSRB 238A
Office hours: Mon 12:30-1:30, Other times by appointment
Phone: Office: (404) 894-8209
e-mail arkin@cc.gatech.edu
(http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~arkin)


TA: Yoichiro Endo
Office Hours: Mon & Thu 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Office: TSRB 238 or Mobile Robot Lab


 

Course Description
Course Syllabus
Homework#1 (Due: 1/29 Tuesday)
AvailableRobots
Links

Class swiki


Course Description

1. Prerequisite: CS 4600 or equivalent or instructor's permission

    A survey of autonomous robotics as viewed from avariety of disciplines and as applied inartificial intelligence. Neuroscienceand cognitive psychology are studied as a source of paradigms for machineautonomy.  Various cybernetic issues will be explored from amulti-disciplinary vantage point.  High-level computer vision and othersensor modalities and their application to intelligent robotics will also bestudied within this context.

2. Class structure

    The subject matter of this course is oftencontroversial and hopefully equally stimulating. It is a goal to have livelydiscussions with various interpretations of the subject matter. We are dealingwith approaches to problems that will hopefully provide solutions in extremelydifficult task domains. Consequently your classroom participation is essential.
    There will be two meetings per week (Tuesday and Thursday), startingpromptly at 12:05. Your attendance, ofcourse, is mandatory as is your participation in classroom discussions.
    You are required to complete all assigned readings prior
toclass and you must be prepared to present or discuss the material containedtherein.

3. Student evaluation (grading)

    As mentioned earlier, classroom attendance andparticipation are crucial to passing this course.  You will be evaluatedafter each class regarding your contributions to the discussion and yourknowledge of the subject matter derived from the readings. In addition, therewill be at least one presentation involving each student on material relevantto the course (20%). The remainder of your grade will be derived from a termproject and homework (30%), and the midterm (20%) and final exam (20%).
    Students are expected to adhere to the Honor Code in this class. All work is to beaccomplished independently unless expressly stated in writing otherwise (e.g., as in a team project). Collaboration onother homework and/or take home exams is not permitted.

4. Readings

    The text for this course is Behavior-based Robotics, Arkin, MIT Press, 1998. Other recommended booksare:

        Introduction to Autonomous MobileRobots, Siegwart and Nourbakhsh, MIT Press, 2004

Course Syllabus
 

Date

Topic

Reading

Leader

Assignments

1/8

Introduction  (slides)

Chapter 1 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

1/10 

Introduction (II)  

 

Arkin

 

1/15 

Lab Tour  - TSRB Basement

  MEET IN TSRB LOBBY @ 12 Noon

Arkin

 

1/17 

Animal Behavior (slides)

Chapter 2 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

1/22

Robot Behavior 

Chapter 3  (Arkin)

Arkin

 

1/24

Behavior-based Architectures

 Chapter 4 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

1/29

Subsumption-style Architectures

Brooks [PDF]

N. Dudebout

S. Chandrababu

C. Smith

Homework #1 Due

1/31

Knowledge Representations

Chapter 5 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

2/5

Probabilistic Robotics (SLAM)

 

S. Belinski

C. Cubero

V. Menon

 

2/7

Robot Wars: The Ethical Issues

Killer Robots

Prof. R. Sparrow

 

2/12

Hybrid Architectures

Chapter 6 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

2/14

Perception I

 

 Chapter 7 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

2/19 

Non-Vision Sensing

 

J. Perkins

J. Beavers

O. Aderibigbe

 

2/21 

Perception II

 

Arkin

 

2/26

MIDTERM EXAM

 

-------

 

2/28

 

Guest Lecture

 

Dr. Jason Borenstein

 

3/4 

Adaptive Behavior

 Chapter 8 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

3/6

Developmental Learning

 

R. Quax

 A. Saxena

 C. Roussillon

 

3/11

Anticipatory and Improvisational Robot

 

Yoichiro Endo

 

3/13

Grounded Knowledge Sharing among Heterogeneous Robots

 

Zsolt Kira

 

3/18

SPRING RECESS

 

------------

 

3/20

SPRING RECESS

 

------------

 

3/25

Military Unmanned Vehicles (Case study)

Ani Paper: Hsie et al. [PDF]

Arkin

 

3/27

DARPA Grand Challenges

 

D. Friedman

T. Kunz

J. Sweeney

J. Ratti

 

4/1

Entertainment Robotics/HRI

 

C. Song

M. Galdos

P. Vasudev

 

4/3

Humanoid Planning

 

Anand TM

C-W. Jung

P. Kolhe

K. Spafford

 

4/8

Multirobot Systems

 Chapter 9 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

4/10

Swarm Robotics

 

I. Kirillov

R. Chipalkatty

E. Joudiou

K. Ruffin

 

4/15

Fringe Robotics

Chapter 10 (Arkin)

Arkin + Class 

 

4/17

Robot Ethics

 

Arkin

 

4/22 

Project Presentations

 

Class

 

4/24 

Project Presentations

 

Class

Take-home Final Exam out.

* Denotes student presentation
 

    Subject to change

(Arkin) = Behavior-Based Robotics,MIT Press 1998.
   

Links

The Mobile Robot Laboratory homepage
MissionLabsoftware home page
TeamBots software home page
Borg Lab
RIM@GT

Homepages of Autonomous Roboticsresearchers around the world
(this list is not complete:)

Agre Philip
Albus James S.
Arkin,RonaldC.
Atkeson Chris
Bekey George A.
Borenstein Johann
Brooks Rodney
Christensen Henrik I.
Dudek Gregory
Durfee Edmund H.
Gat Erann  
Horswill Ian
Kaelbling Leslie P
Koenig Sven
Konolidge Kurt
Kortenkamp David
Kuc Roman
Kuipers Benjamin
Latombe Jean-Claude
Mataric Maja  
Miller David P.
Moravec Hans  
Parker Lynne E.
Pfeifer Rolf
Pirjanian Paolo
Rosenblatt Julio
Shultz Alan
Simmons Reid
Thrun Sebastian