Cognitive Robotics: Lectures

Week 1
Mon 1/13	No class.
Wed 1/18	Goal: Understand what the course is about. Lecture: Course Intro, and C++ for Java programmers Videos: Chiara chess, Chiara piano Read: Robotics for Computer Scientists: What's the Big Idea?
Fri 1/15	Goal: Learn how to run Tekkotsu and interact with the robot. Lab 1: Teleoperation with ControllerGUI; Sensor Observer
Week 2
Mon 1/20	Martin Luther King Day: no class.
Wed 1/22	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
Fri 1/24	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 1/27	Goal: Understand the event-based architecture that underlies state machines. Lecture: Behaviors and events Read: Tekkotsu and software engineering
Wed 1/29	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) Video: Visual Odometry in Tekkotsu by Josh Belanich Optional/supplementary: Wiki pages on Lab: The Pilot and Odometry and Lab: The Pilot and Localization
Fri 1/31	Goal: Learn how to use the Pilot to move the robot through the world. Lab 3: Navigating with the Pilot
Week 4
Mon 2/3	Goal: Learn how robots see color, and the basics of robot vision. Read: The Mirage simulator and virtual worlds Lecture: The Tekkotsu vision pipeline
Wed 2/5	Goal: Learn to use the MapBuilder to detect shapes in a camera image. Lecture: Dual coding representations and the MapBuilder
Fri 2/7	Goal: Practice using the MapBuilder to solve robot vision problems. Lab 4: The MapBuilder
Week 5
Mon 2/10	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 2/12	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). Skim: DualCoding::visops:: documentation.
Fri 2/14	Lab 5: Local maps, and sketch operations
Week 6
Mon 2/17	Goal: understand Ullman's "visual routines" proposal for intermediate-level vision. Read: S. Ullman (1984) Visual routines. Cognition 18:97-157. Lecture: Visual routines
Wed 2/19	Goal: learn how to make the robot execute pre-specified motion sequences. Lecture: Postures and motion sequences Videos: standlie.mp4, pan_head.mp4, headwag.mp4, fallover.mp4
Fri 2/21	Lab 6: Postures and motion sequences
Week 7
Mon 2/24	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: Introduction to homogenous transformations and robot kinematics, by Jennifer Kay. Video: Denavit-Hartenberg Reference Frame Layout Lecture: Kinematics
Wed 2/26	Goal: Learn to use inverse kinematics to precisely position the robot's limbs. Lecture: Continuation of Monday's lecture; same slides. Video: Towers of Hanoi by Evan Patton and Michel Brudzinski (uses motion sequences) Video: Tentacle IK and path planning by Jonathan Coens
Fri 2/28	Lab 7: Forward and inverse kinematics
Week 8
Mon 3/3	Exam review
Wed 3/5	Class: Midterm exam
Fri 3/7	Mid-Semester Break
Week 9
Mon 3/10	Spring Break
Wed 3/12	Spring Break
Fri 3/14	Spring Break
Week 10
Mon 3/17	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. Animation: RRT Tree Growth Animation Video: Tekkotsu hand/eye system path planning by Glenn Nickens
Wed 3/19	Lecture: Particle filters
Fri 3/21	Lab 8: Using the Grasper and the Calliope2SP Robot Video: Playing Fetch with the Calliope2SP Robot, by Henry Williams
Week 11
Mon 3/24	Lecture: Object recognition Reading: Playing Tic-Tac-Toe with Tekkotsu: The Development of the Grasper, Glenn V. Nickens, MS thesis, Norfolk State University.
Wed 3/26	Lecture: Manipulation with friction Demo: PID Simulation spreadsheet
Fri 3/28	Various exercises moving toward final projects.
Week 12
Mon 3/31	Mini-project
Wed 4/2	Mini-project
Fri 4/4	Mini-project
Week 13
Mon 4/7	Work on final projects
Wed 4/9	Work on final projects
Fri 4/11	No class: Spring Carnival
Week 14
Mon 4/14	Work on final projects
Wed 4/16	Work on final projects
Fri 4/18	Work on final projects
Week 15
Mon 4/21	Work on final projects
Wed 4/23	Work on final projects
Fri 4/25	Work on final projects
Week 16
Mon 4/28	Practice demonstrations
Wed 4/30	Practice demonstrations
Fri 5/2	Public demos of final projects