Cognitive Robotics: Lectures

Week 1
Mon 1/16	Martin Luther King Day: no class.
Wed 1/18	Goal: Understand what the course is about. Lecture: Course intro Videos: XOR demo, Two-Armed Bandit demo, Chiara chess, Chiara piano Read: C++ for Java programmers, and Seven Big Ideas in Robotics and How To Teach Them
Fri 1/14	Goal: Learn how to run Tekkotsu and interact with the robot. Read: tutorial on Robot safety Lab 1: Teleoperation with ControllerGUI; Sensor Observer
Week 2
Mon 1/23	Goal: Learn how robot behaviors are created. Lecture: State machines Read: Wiki pages on State machine shorthand, node class definitions, and defining new node classes
Wed 1/25	Goal: Understand the event-based architecture that underlies state machines. Lecture: Behaviors and events Read: Tekkotsu and software engineering
Fri 1/27	Goal: Learn how to run and visualize your own behaviors on the robot. Read: Lab: The Storyboard Tool Lab 2: Compiling and running code; event logger; Storyboard tool
Week 3
Mon 1/30	Goal: Learn how to use the Pilot to move the robot through the world. Lecture: Navigating with the Pilot Read: Navigating with the Tekkotsu Pilot, by Watson & Touretzky (2011) Optional/supplementary: Wiki pages on Lab: The Pilot and Odometry and Lab: The Pilot and Localization
Wed 2/1	Goal: Learn how to run a simulated robot in a virtual environment. Lecture: The Mirage Simulation Environment Read: Tekkotsu and software engineering
Fri 2/3	Goal: Practice using the Mirage simulator and making your own virtual worlds. Read: Lab: Mirage and Virtual Worlds Lab 3: Pilot navigation with Mirage; the Mirage WorldBuilder
Week 4
Mon 2/6	Goal: Learn how robots see color, and the basics of robot vision. Lecture: The Tekkotsu vision pipeline
Wed 2/8	Goal: Learn to use the MapBuilder to detect shapes in a camera image. Lecture: Dual coding representations and the MapBuilder
Fri 2/10	Goal: Practice using the MapBuilder to solve robot vision problems. Lab 4: The MapBuilder
Week 5
Mon 2/13	Goals: Understand (1) robot-centered maps and world maps, and (2) ways for state nodes to communicate. Lecture: Local and world maps, and Advanced state machine programming
Wed 2/15	Goals: Learn about (1) functors and applying tests to shapes, and (2) solving vision problems using sketches. Lecture: Shape predicates, and Sketches Read: How qualitative spatial reasoning can improve strategy game AIs, by Forbus, Mahoney, & Dill (2001).
Fri 2/17	Lab 5: Local maps, and sketch operations
Week 6
Mon 2/20	Goal: make the robot execute pre-specified motion sequences. Read: S. Ullman (1984) Visual routines. Cognition 18:97-157. Lecture: Postures and motion sequences
Wed 2/22	Goal: examine some ideas in higher level vision. Lecture: Visual routines
Fri 2/24	Lab 6: Postures and motion sequences
Week 7
Mon 2/27	Goal: Learn how the robot's body is represented as a kinematic tree, and how to use forward kinematics to calculate the positions of end-effectors. Read: A gentle introduction to homogenous transformations and robot kinematics, by Jennifer Kay. Video: Denavit-Hartenberg Reference Frame Layout Lecture: Kinematics
Wed 2/29	Goal: Learn to use inverse kinematics to precisely position the robot's limbs. Lecture: Continuation of Monday's lecture; same slides. Video: Tentacle IK and path planning by Jonathan Coens
Fri 3/2	Lab 7: Forward and inverse kinematics
Week 8
Mon 3/5	Midterm exam.
Wed 3/7	Goal: Learn to use Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRTs) to plan a path from a start state to a goal state. Lecture: Path planning Read: RRT-Connect: an efficient approach to single-query path planning, J. J. Kuffner, Jr., and S. M. LaValle, ICRA, 2000. Video: Tekkotsu hand/eye system path planning by Glenn Nickens
Fri 3/9	Mid-Semester Break
Week 9
Mon 3/12	Spring Break
Wed 3/14	Spring Break
Fri 3/16	Spring Break
Week 10
Mon 3/19	Lecture: Particle filters
Wed 3/21	Lecture: Object recognition
Fri 3/23	Lab 8: Particle filter, and pushing objects
Week 11
Mon 3/26	Mini-project: Cobots Task (meet in NSH 3206 from now on)
Wed 3/28	Mini-project: Cobots Task
Fri 3/30	Mini-project: Cobots Task
Week 12
Mon 4/2	Mini-project: Cobots Task
Wed 4/4	Mini-project: Cobots Task
Fri 4/6	Mini-project: Cobots Task
Week 13
Mon 4/9	Work on final projects.
Wed 4/11	Work on final projects.
Fri 4/13	Work on final projects.
Week 14
Mon 4/16	Work on final projects.
Wed 4/18	Work on final projects.
Fri 4/20	Spring Carnival: no classes. National Robotics Week: public demos at the Robotics Institute.
Week 15
Mon 4/23	Work on final projects.
Wed 4/25	Work on final projects.
Fri 4/27	Work on final projects.
Week 16
Mon 4/30	Practice and give feedback on project presentations.
Wed 5/2	Practice and give feedback on project presentations.
Fri 5/4	Public presentation of final projects.