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CS 7630: Autonomous Robotics
Fall 2008 
Multimedia Classroom, Korea University Campus
(Monday, Wednesday   9:05AM-10:25AM) 
 

Instructor: Prof. Ronald C. Arkin
Office: 510B Science Library Building
Office hours: Mon 10:30-11:30, Other times by appointment
Phone: 82-2-3290-0074
e-mail arkin@cc.gatech.edu
(http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~arkin)


TA: Alan Wagner [alanwags(at)cc.gatech.edu]
Office: TBD
Office hours: Wed 10:30-11:30, Other times by appointment
Phone: 82-2-3290-0076


 


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 inartificial intelligence. Neuroscience and cognitive psychology are studied as a source of paradigms for machine autonomy.  Various cybernetic issues will be explored from amulti-disciplinary vantage point.  High-level computer vision and other sensor modalities and their application to intelligent robotics will also bestudied 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 livelydiscussions 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 (Monday and Wednesday), starting promptly at 9:05. 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.

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 (20%). 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 expected 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. Other recommended books are:

-          Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots, Siegwart and Nourbakhsh, MIT Press, 2004

 

Course Syllabus
 

Date

Topic

Reading

Leader

Assignments

8/18

Introduction  [Slides]

Chapter 1 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

8/20 

Introduction (II)  

Robot in every S. Korean home

S. Korean Robot ethics charter

Arkin

 

8/25 

Animal Behavior

 Chapter 2 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

8/27 

Robot Behavior 

Chapter 3  (Arkin)

Arkin

 

9/1

Labor Day

NO CLASS

 

9/3

Simulation Environments

Wagner

 

9/8

Behavior-based Architectures

Chapter 4 (Arkin)

Arkin

Homework #1 Due

9/10

Knowledge Representations

Chapter 5 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

9/15

Hybrid Architectures

Chapter 6 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

9/17

HRI/Trust

Wagner

9/22

SLAM

Thrun [PDF]

***

Homework #2 Due

9/24

Three Layer Architectures

Gat [PDF]

***

 

9/29 

Perception

Chapter 7 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

10/1 

Non-Vision Robot Sensing

Kuc and Barshan [PDF]

Lumelsky et al. [PDF]

Martinson and Schultz [PDF]

***

 

10/6

MIDTERM EXAM

 

-------

 

10/8

 

Adaptive Behavior

 Chapter 8 (Arkin)

Arkin

 Term Project Abstract Due

10/13 

Fall Recess

NO CLASS

 

10/15

Korean Holiday

NO CLASS

10/20

Atlanta (Monday)

Ulam

 

10/22

Atlanta (Wednesday)

Kira

 

10/24

Atlanta - Mobile Robot Lab Tour (Friday)

 

Arkin

 

10/29

Military Unmanned Vehicles (Case study)

Hsie et al. [PDF]

Arkin

 

11/3

Developmental Learning

Weng et al. [PDF]

***

 

11/5

DARPA Grand Challenges

***

 

11/10

Entertainment Robotics/HRI

Meisner et al. [PDF]

***

 

11/12

Humanoid Planning

Chestnutt et al. [PDF]

***

 

11/17

Multirobot Systems

Chapter 9 (Arkin)

Arkin

 

11/19

Swarm Robotics

Dorigo et al. [PDF]

***

Homework #3 Due

11/24

Fringe Robotics

Chapter 10 (Arkin)

Arkin + Class 

 

11/26

Robot Ethics

Arkin [PDF]

Arkin

Term Project Due

12/1 

Project Presentations

 

Class

 

12/3 

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
MissionLab software home page
TeamBots software home page
Borg Lab
RIM@GT

Homepages of Autonomous Robotics researchers 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