CS36410/CS26410
Intelligent Robotics
Introduction
Myra Wilson
e-mail mxw@aber.ac.uk
Aberystwyth University
Commitment
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CS36410
CS26410
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16 lectures
10 lectures
6 hours practical (mjn)
(starting after Easter)‫‏‬
10 hours practical (mjn)
(starting next week)
Rest of time spent
background reading
Rest of time spent
background reading
Exam 100% of marks
(answer 3 from 5)‫‏‬
Assessment based on 3
practical programming
assignments
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Course Content
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Introduction - 2 lectures (all)
–
CS36410 Physical Robots - 2 lectures
–
CS36410 Sensors and Perception - 1 lecture
–
CS36410 Manipulation - 1 lecture
Robot Control Architectures - 8 lectures (all)
–
CS36410 AI in Robotics – 2 lectures
What you need to do....
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Attend lectures - slides are NOT enough. They
are only pointers to the taught subject
Do the practicals
Read the books - buy, borrow, loan. Many
robotics books in the library. Read around the
subject
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Take notes from videos shown
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Access the Web - lots of stuff out there
Recommended Books
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Essential
−
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Murphy, R.R. - Introduction to AI Robotics, MIT
Press. 2000. ISBN 0-262-13383-0
Consult
−
Bekey,George A. “Autonomous Robots: from
Biological Inspiration to Implementation and
Control”, MIT Press. 2005. ISBN 0-262-02578-7
−
Arkin, Ronald “Behaviour-Based Robotics”, MIT
Press. 1998. ISBN 0-262-01165-4
−
Siegwart, R. and Nourbakhsh,I.R. “Introduction to
Autonomous Mobile Robots”, MIT Press. 2004. ISBN
0-262-19502-X
Recommended books

Additional
−
Floreano,D, Mattiussi,C - “Bio-Inspired Artificial
Intelligence”, MIT Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0-262-06271-8
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Brooks, R. - “Cambrian Intelligence”, MIT Press. 1999. ISBN
0-262-02468-3
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McKerrow, P.J. “Introduction to Robotics”, Addison Wesley.
1991. ISBN 0-201-18240-8
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Braitenberg, V. - “Vehicles”, MIT Press. 1994. ISBN 0-26202208-7
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Nehmzow, U. - “Mobile Robotics: A Practical Introduction”,
Springer. 2000. ISBN 1-85233-173-9
Robot Definitions
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OED
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“noun: a machine capable of carrying out a complex series
of actions automatically, especially one programmable by
a computer.”
McKerrow “Robotics is the discipline which involves:
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the design, manufacture, control and programming of
robots
the use of robots to solve problems
the study of the control processes, sensors, and algorithms
used in humans, animals, and machines
the application of these control processes and algorithms to
the design of robots”
Where did the word “robot” come from?
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“Robota” - Czech meaning menial labour/work
Term “robot” coined in K. Chapek's play R.U.R.
Rossum's Universal Robots (1920)‫‏‬
“Robotics” - first used by Issac Asimov in his
novels
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1st law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through
inaction, allow a human to be harmed.
2nd law: A robot must obey orders given by humans
except when that conflicts with the First Law.
3rd law: A robot must protect its own existence unless that
conflicts with the First or Second Laws.
What do we want?
How about?
What do we have?
What are we working on?
Why use a robot?
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Human would be at significant risk (space
exploration, nuclear deactivation etc)‫‏‬
Economically better to have robots - where the
task is menial and repetitive, and accuracy is
needed (production lines, sheep shearing!)‫‏‬
Humanitarian use where there is great risk (search
and rescue in disaster zones)‫‏‬
Others?
Environmental Differences
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COMPUTERS
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ROBOTS
−
Input symbols are static
and well behaved
−
Sensory signals are noisy
and unreliable
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Operations give
consistent results
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An action can have
different responses
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Environment is fixed and
repeatable
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Objects may move about
independently
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System only receives
intended inputs
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Influences from external
agents can interfere
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Perfect performance
assumed
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Operating environment is
unreliable, dynamic and
incomplete
Intelligent Robotics
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Arkin
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Murphy
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“An intelligent robot is a machine able to extract
information from its environment and use knowledge
about its world to move safely in a meaningful and
purposive manner”
“an intelligent robot is a mechanical creature which
can function autonomously”
So what does autonomous mean?
Levels of autonomy
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Remote control
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Teleoperation
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Telepresence
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Semi-autonomous control
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Fully autonomous
Remote Control
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Is this intelligent robotics?
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Probably not
Teleoperation
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Human operator controls a robot from a distance
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Human cannot physically see the robot
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Sensors acquire information about the
environment
Display technology allows the operator to see the
sensor data
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Communication link available
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Many internet sites available
When to use Teleoperation?
When tasks are unstructured and not repetitive
−
When workspace cannot be engineered for industrial
manipulator
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Key portions of the task require dexterous
manipulation
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Task requires object recognition, situational
awareness or other advanced perception
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When display technology is rich enough
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Availability of trained personnel is not an issue
Telepresence
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Attempts to reduce cognitive fatigue and
simulator sickness
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Uses virtual reality technology
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Operator has complete sensory feedback
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Very expensive in terms of equipment
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Requires high bandwidth rates
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One person at least per robot
Semi-autonomous
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Continuous assistance
−
Delegate boring, repetitive control actions to the robot
(but still watch over it!)‫‏‬
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Take over and perform hand-eye coordination tasks
−
Still requires high communication bandwidth
Control trading
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Human initiates an action for the robot to complete
autonomously
−
Assumes robot is capable of autonomously
accomplishing a task robustly in unexpected situations
Autonomous
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Nehmzow (2000)‫‏‬
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“Weak Autonomy” robots which carry on-board
controllers and power supplies
−
“Strong Autonomy” requires the power of self government
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ability to move in its environment to perform a number of tasks
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able to adapt to changes in the environment
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able to determine its course of action by its own reasoning
processes
ability to build internal representations of the world to plan and
learn from experience and change its behaviour accordingly
To achieve autonomy?
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Artificial Intelligence
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Knowledge Representation
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Natural Language Processing
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Learning
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Planning and Problem Solving
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Inference
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Search
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Vision
Robotics feeds into AI and vice versa