Module 06-13520 (2011)

• give an appreciation of the issues that arise when designing complete, physically embodied autonomous agents
• introduce some of the most popular methods for controlling autonomous mobile robots
• give hands on experience of engineering design
• encourage independent thought on possible cognitive architectures for autonomous agents

• design, build and program simple autonomous robots
• implement standard signal processing and control algorithms
• describe and analyse robot processes using appropriate methods
• write a detailed report on a robot project
• carry out and write up investigations using appropriate experimental methods

Approximately 18 lectures and 24 laboratory sessions

• Sessional: Continuous assessment (100%).
• Supplementary: None; the module may only be repeated.

1. Introduction
   • What is robotics?
   • Robotics and AI
   • Embedded Systems
   • Agent-Task-Environment model
   • Embodied Systems
   • Synthetic approaches to science
2. Sensors and signal processing
   • Common sensors and their properties
   • 1D signal processing
   • Vision
3. Planning approaches to robot control
   • STRIPS and SHAKEY
   • Robot kinematics
   • Limitations of planning approaches
4. Control Theory
   • Feedback, feedforward and open loop control
   • Linear first order lag processes
   • Limitations of control theory
5. Probability Based Approaches
   • Markov Decision Processes (MDPs)
   • Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes
   • Navigation using POMDPs
6. Kinematics and Motion Planning
   • Kinematics of differential drive robots
   • Probabilistic road map planning
7. Behaviour-Based Control
   • The subsumption architecture
   • Hybrid architectures
   • Formalising behaviour based control
8. Adaptive approaches to robot control
   • Reinforcement learning for control
   • Model based learning approaches to control
   • Learning maps
   • Evolutionary approaches
9. Architectures for control
   • CAS
   • ROS
10. Current research topics
    • Learning for manipulation
    • Gaze control
    • Planning visual search