15-494 Cognitive Robotics
Spring 2007
Course Links:  Main Lectures Labs Homeworks

Tekkotsu Links:   Tutorial Resources Bugs CVS
Reference:

Week 1
Wed 1/17 Lecture: Course intro; AIBO overview; C++ for Java programmers
Videos: XOR.mp4, BanditMovie.mp4
Read: C++ review
Fri 1/19 Read: tutorial section on Robot safety
Lab 1: Teleoperation with ControllerGUI; compiling Tekkotsu behaviors
Week 2
Mon 1/22 Read tutorial sections: Introduction, Documentation, Behaviors, Events
Lecture: Tekkotsu behaviors and events
Wed 1/24 Read: tutorial section on Motion commands
Read: documentation for MotionManager, MotionCommand, MMAccessor, LedEngine
Lecture: Motion commands and real-time programming
Fri 1/26 Lab 2/Homework 1: Programming with motion commands
Week 3
Mon 1/29 Lecture: Tekkotsu vision pipeline; color image segmentation
Read: overview of the Vision Pipeline Read: tutorial section on color image segmentation and EasyTrain
Homework 2: Color segmentation with EasyTrain (due by Friday, 2/2/07)
Wed 1/31 Read: S. Ullman (1984) Visual routines. Cognition 18:97-157.
Lecture: Ullman's visual routines; Sketches in Tekkotsu
Fri 2/02 Read: tutorial sections on VisualRoutinesBehavior, Sketch primitives, Tekkotsu simulator
Lab 3/Homework 3: Tekkotsu simulator; programming with Sketches
Week 4
Mon 2/05 Read: MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science articles on Mental Representation and Imagery
     (both mention Paivio's dual coding theory)
Read: tutorial section on Shape primitives
Lecture: Shape representations
Wed 2/07 Read: How qualitative spatial reasoning can improve strategy game AIs, by Forbus, Mahoney, and Dill.
Lecture: Shape predicates; Tekkotsu's local map builder
Fri 2/09 Lab 4: Map building and visual search
Homework 4: Parsing the tic-tac-toe board
Week 5
Mon 2/12 Read: tutorial section on State machines
Lecture: State machine formalism
Wed 2/14 Lecture: Architectures for robot control
Fri 2/16 Read: tutorial chapter on The Storyboard Toool
Lab 5: Storyboard tool
Week 6
Mon 2/19 Lecture: World maps and localization
Wed 2/21 Read: tutorial chapter on Walking
Lecture: Navigating with the Pilot
Fri 2/23 Lab 6: Knock down a soda can
Week 7
Mon 2/26 Lecture: Object recognition
Wed 2/28 Leture: Gestalt perception
Fri 3/02 Lab 7: Gestalt perception exercise
Week 8
Mon 3/05 Read: B. Kuipers (2005) Drinking from the firehose of experience.
Lecture: Consciousness and groundedness
Wed 3/07 Midterm exam
Fri 3/09
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 Read: tutorial chapter on Postures and Motion Sequences
Lecture: Postures and motion sequences
Videos: standlie.mp4, pan_head.mp4, headwag.mp4, fallover.mp4
Wed 3/21 Read: tutorial chapter on Forward kinematics
Optional: A gentle introduction to homogenous transformations and robot kinematics, by Jennifer Kay.
Lecture: Body representation and the kinematics engine
Tekkotsu Quick Reference lists AIBO reference frames (page 2)
Fri 3/23 Lab 8: Kinematics lab
Week 11
Mon 3/26 Lecture: Affordances
Video: AIBO tool use
Optional: Affordances and Design, by Don Norman
Wed 3/28 Lecture: Human-robot interaction
Video: Cythia Breazeal on Nova
More Kismet videos
Fri 3/30 Lab 9: LookingGlass tool
Week 12
Mon 4/02 Lecture: Manipulation by pushing
Wed 4/04 Lecture: Manipulation with friction
Handout: PID Control Simulation - Excel Spreadsheet
Fri 4/06 Lab 10: Manipulation exercise
Week 13
Mon 4/09 Lecture: Robot learning
Wed 4/11 Special lab meeting: project prototyping experiments
Fri 4/13 project clinic
Week 14
Mon 4/16 project clinic
Wed 4/18 project clinic
Fri 4/20
Spring Carnival
Week 15
Mon 4/23 project clinic
Wed 4/25 project clinic
Fri 4/27 project clinic
Week 16
Mon 4/30 Project presentations/critiques
Wed 5/02 Project presentations/critiques
Fri 5/04
Public demo of class projects
Finals Week
Mon 5/14 Final exam: 5:30 to 8:30 pm, in Porter Hall room A18A