This course will focus on the special topic of developmental robotics, a newly emerging paradigm of research. The goal of this research is to create intelligent robots by allowing them to go through a developmental process, rather than being directly programmed by human engineers. By endowing a robot with an appropriate initial control architecture and adaptive mechanisms, it learns through continual interactions with the world, developing self-organized mental structures. We will be studying the following sorts of questions. What should be innate in the robot? What adaptive mechanisms are needed? What motivates the robot to act? Would such a system need emotions?
The course is made-up of two components: seminar discussions and laboratory work. Each class meeting, we will spend the first half having a discussion about the assigned readings and the second half experimenting with various robot control methods.
The labs will introduce you to a variety of robot control methods. We will be using a system called Pyro, which stands for Python Robotics. Pyro allows you to experiment with various robots and robot simulators while only having to learn one interface. You will write the control programs in the Python programming language. For a good introduction to Python, try How to think like a computer scientist: Learning with Python.
WEEK | SECT.2 | SECT.1 | TOPIC | READING | ANNOUNCEMENTS | LAB |
1 | 1/20 | 1/22 | Introduction | none | - | Introduction |
2 | 1/27 Dave | 1/29 Renuka | Development | Rethinking Innateness Preface & Ch. 1 | Drop/add ends Friday 1/31 | DirectControl |
3 | 2/3 Matt | 2/5 Julie | Connectionism | Rethinking Innateness Ch. 2 Fodor's review of the book | - | NeuralNetworks |
4 | 2/10 Jonah | 2/12 Ross | Connectionist Applications | Rethinking Innateness Ch. 3 | - |
SelfOrganizingMap Khepera SOM vision experiments |
5 | 2/17 Lisa | 2/19 Elizabeth | Object Permanence and Labeling Images | Week 5 papers | Midterm project assigned | Midterm Project Vision |
6 | 2/24 Andy | 2/26 Eric | Developmental robotics | Week 6 papers | - | Continue midterm project NeuralNetworksAdvanced |
7 | 3/3 Dan | 3/5 Branen | Extracting information from sensory data | Week 7 papers | Midterm project due by 3pm, Friday 3/7 | Finish midterm project |
- | - | - | Spring Break 3/10-3/14 | - | - | Retry or extend an experiment from midterm |
8 | 3/17 Feng | 3/19 Yee Lin | Evolutionary Robotics | Week 8 papers | - | - |
9 | 3/24 Fritz | 3/26 Lisa | Interaction between learning and evolution | Week 9 papers | Last day to withdraw Friday 3/28 | EvolutionaryAlgorithms |
10 | 3/31 Jeremy | 4/2 Andrew | Evolving robot brains and bodies | Week 10 papers | Project proposals due in class | - |
11 | 4/7 Ben | 4/9 Laura | Extracting information from prediction L-systems | Week 11 papers | - | - |
12 | 4/14 Hollis | 4/16 Kuzman | Embodied evolution | Week 12 papers | - | Multirobot |
13 | 4/21 Andy | 4/23 Sven | Projects | Monday Presentations: Jeremy and Jonah Feng and Kuzman | Wenesday Presentations: Laura and Renuka Julie and Ross Kuzman and Feng | Presentation guidelines Final project tips |
14 | 4/28 Lisa | 4/30 Ryan | Projects | Monday Presentations: Dan and Ben Fritz and Hollis Dave and Andy | Wednesday Presentations: Eric YeeLin and Andrew Ryan and Elizabeth Sven and Matt Branen | - |
Finals | - | - | No final exam. | - | Project due by 9am, Monday 5/19 | - |
Week 5 Papers
Week 6 Papers
Week 7 Papers
Week 8 Papers
Week 9 Papers
Week 10 Papers
Week 11 Papers
Week 12 Papers