CHALMERS - Applied mechanics - Adaptive Systems

Autonomous Agents
FFR125, FIM760
Quarters III and IV, spring semester 2008

The web page for this year's course (2009), can be found here:
http://www.me.chalmers.se/~mwahde/courses/aa/2009/aa.html

Navigation: Course information News Teaching hours Literature Home problems Mid-course exam Robotics project Course program Examination Software External links	Course information Contents: Please refer to the syllabus at the student portal: Syllabus for FFR125 Autonomous agents Refer also to the Course PM. Lecturer: Krister Wolff, phone: 772 3625, e-mail: krister.wolff@chalmers.se Course assistant: David Sandberg, phone: 772 3696, e-mail: david.sandberg@chalmers.se News 20080401: IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING THE FINALIZATION OF AUTONOMOUS AGENTS! 20080401: Autonomous agents part II: robotic construction and programming started today. See the lecture slides below, under Course program 2008.04.01. Also, refer to the Robotics project section. 20080303: Fill in the course evaluation form as soon as possible, please: AA course evaluation form. 20080219: Home problems set 2 distributed today. See below under "Home problems". Deadline: 2008-03-10, 17.00. 20080212: Date for the exam is now set: Friday 2008-03-14, 8.30-12.30, in building V. 20080129: Home problems set 1 distributed today. See below under "Home problems" and "Software". Deadline: 2008-02-15, 17.00. 20080122: The course started today! Note: In order to register for the course, each student must send an email to krister.wolff@chalmers.se with his/her name, affiliation (i.e. cas, cth, gu, or other), and civic registration number (personnummer). Please, use one single email address throughout the course, with your full name (e.g. "Anders Andersson") in the "From" field (that will ease up my work a little bit). 20071220: Autonomous Agents course 2008 web page launched (light version, more information will be added soon)! Teaching hours and location 3rd quarter (January 21 - March 7): Tuesday 10.00 - 11.45, MC Friday 13.15 - 15.00, MC (Entrance to the MC lecture hall from Hörsalsvägen 5.) 4th quarter (March 31 - May 23): Tuesday 08.00-11.45, F7105A (ET-lab). Literature For the first part of the course: theory and simulatons: 1. Wahde, M.: An introduction to autonomous robots, lecture notes, (MW). Download here: Index Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Appendix A Appendix B Bibliography 2. Xie, M. -- Fundamentals of robotics - linking perception to action (MX). Available at Cremona bookstore, and at various web bookstores. 3. Various scientific papers (web links or printouts will be made available during the course). Regarding additional reading about the basics of evolutionary algorithms and artificial neural networks, visit the webpage for the Artificial Intelligence II course (see the two first handouts). For the second part of the course: Robotics construction project: 4. Lindsay, A.: Robotics with the BoeBot - Student guide v2.2, (AL). Available for download at www.parallax.com. 5. The BasicX Manual: BX-24 Documents (BX). Available for download at www.basicx.com. 6. Various additional materials, which will be annonced in the beginning of Lp IV. Home problems There will be two sets of home problems with a maximum score of 25p (10p and 15p, respectively). A minimum score of 4p (set 1) and 6p (set 2) on the home problems is required in order to pass. Incorrectly solved problems will not be returned for correction, so make sure to check your solutions and programs carefully before you submit. Preliminary deadlines for the home problems are 2008.02.15 and 2008.03.10, respectively. Home problems set 1. Deadline 20080215, at 17.00 (new, updated version!) Note: In home problem 1.2, you are asked to implement a simulation of a laser range finder for the ARSim package. For this problem (1.2) you should submit the complete ARSIm program, including your own modifications and additions. That is, you are (of course) allowed to modify other files than CreateBrain.m, BrainStep.m, and TestRunRobot.m. Regarding home problem 1.3, Simple hand-coded behaviors, you should only submit the modified versions of CreateBrain.m, BrainStep.m, and TestRunRobot.m. In addition, you are also allowed to create (and submit) some new .m-files as well, if you feel that is more convenient from "a programmer's point of view"... That is, the programming convention in matlab is that if you create a new function, e.g. MyFunc, it should be placed in an m-file named MyFunc.m However, these new files must not be replacements for any other file(s) in the standard ARSim distribution! Also, proved clear instructions on how to use your program with ARSim. Note also that there is a bug in the formulation of Home problem 1.2a. The function for creating the sensor should be: lrf = CreateLaserRangeFinder(name,relativeangle,size,nr,openingangle,L); That is, L is the range! Home problems set 2. Deadline 20080310, at 17.00! Special version of ARSim, to be used for home problem 2.4: ARSimExamHP2.4.zip. Note: your solutions should be emailed to Krister Wolff in good time before 17.00, so that they are received by that time (the email delivery process may sometimes take several minutes, or even hours)! Thus, it is recommended that you actually press the 'send' button 16.00, at the latest! Note also: There is a 'typo' in Problem 2.2: The two obstacles are located at (0.0,0.4) and (0.0,-0.4), respectively and nothing else! Furthermore, note also that 'maxsteps' should be set to 3000 (not 6000). Mid-course exam After the 3rd quarter there will be a written exam. Maximum score is 25 points, and a minimum of 10p is required in order to pass. Note: Date for the exam is now set: Friday 2008-03-14, 8.30-12.30, in building V. Robotics project The students will work in groups of 4-6 students. The robot construction project give no points (in general), but is mandatory to do. However, there will be an opportunity to receive three extra points on the robot construction, for creativity. There will be two major robotics assignments to carry out for the students, and each project group must participate, with their robot, in the robotics project demonstration events: Preliminary dates for the robotics project demonstration events are 2008.04.22 and 2008.05.20. Note: It is mandatory for each student to participate in the project demonstration events (and in the construction/programming work!), in order to pass. Each project group is also required to hand in a brief report, by the end of the 4th quarter, regarding their robot construction and programming activities. Assignment 1: Mine sweeper navigation, deadline 2008-04-22. See the instructions. Assignment 2: Robotic mapping, deadline 2008-05-27 (NOTE: changed date) See the instructions here. See also the references below (in particular, take a look at [3]): [1] Elfes, A. (hardcopy distributed in class) [2] Moravec and Elfes. (download) [3] Carpin Etal. (download) [4] Thrun. (download) Course program (prel.) (quarter.week:) Week 3.1:
	2008.01.22:	Course introduction, introduction to autonomous robots. MW 1-2, MX 1-26. Slides, reading guidance. (due to copyright reasons, some of the figures on the slides have been replaced with a black square)
	2008.01.25:	Kinematics, dynamics, and sensors of autonomous robots. MW 2-19, MX 115-143. Slides, reading guidance (Updated version!).
	Week 3.2:
	2008.01.29:	Simulation of autonomous robots, with examples. MW 19-27, 109-114. Handout of home problems, set 1 (deadline 2008.02.15). Slides, reading guidance.
	2008.02.01:	Reserve lecture. If nothing else is announced, work on home problems.
	Week 3.3:
	2008.02.05:	(1) Decision-making system of robots. MX 573-600. (2) Path planning: The A* algorithm: Murphy, R. R.: Introduction to AI robotics, p. 351-365 Printouts distributed in the lecture (available upon request). Slides, reading guidance. A* Explorer demo program, see link under ''External links''	.
	2008.02.08:	Animal behavior: Lessons for robotics. MW 29-38. Shi, W. and Zusman, D.R. Fatal attraction, Nature, 366, 414-415, 1993. Printouts distributed in the lecture (available upon request). Slides, reading guidance. Movie of egg-retrieving behavior of geese.
	Week 3.4:
	2008.02.12:	(1) Behavior-based robotics: Generating robot behaviors. MW 39-52. (2) Evolutionary robotics: Evolving basic behaviors. MW 53-74. Slides, reading guidance. ERSim program, see link under ''Software'' below. Papers: (additional reading) Wolff, K, and Nordin, P.: Evolution of Efficient Gait with Humanoids Using Visual Feedback, Humanoids 2001. Wolff, K., Pettersson, J., Heralic, A., and Wahde, M.: Structural Evolution of Central Pattern Generators for Bipedal Walking in 3D Simulation, SMC 2006.
	2008.02.15:	Utility theory and rational decision-making. MW 75-84. Slides, reading guidance. NOTE: Deadline for home problems set 1.
	Week 3.5:
	2008.02.19:	Behavior organization in autonomous robots. MW 85-108. Handout of home problems, set 2 (deadline 2008.03.10). Slides, reading guidance.
	2008.02.22	Reserve lecture. If nothing else is announced, work on home problems.
	Week 3.6:
	2008.02.26:	(1) Control system of robots I. MX 199-220. (2) Bräunl, T.: Embedded robotics, p. 93-107 Printouts distributed in the lecture (available upon request) Reading guidance.
	2008.02.29:	Control system of robots II. MX 220-283. Reading guidance.
	Week 3.7:
	2008.03.04:	Information system of robots. MX 303-374. Reading guidance.
	2008.03.07:	(1) Learning and adaptive behavior in animals and robots. Wahde, M. An introduction to adaptive algorithms and intelligent machines, p. 89-94 (distributed in the lecture) Additional reading: Scherffig, L. Reinforcement learning in motor control. (2) Multi-robot applications. Labella T.H., Dorigo M., Deneubourg J.-L. (2006): Division of Labour in a Group of Robots Inspired by Ants' Foraging Behaviour. Slides, reading guidance.
	Week 4.1:
	2008.04.01:	Robotics project introduction, description of activities during the 4th quarter, Handout of robot kits. Slides.
	Week 4.2:
	2008.04.08:	Work on robotics project.
	Week 4.3:
	2008.04.15:	Work on robotics project
	Week 4.4:
	2008.04.22:	Accomplishment of robot activity 1. All students must be present (in order to pass)!
	Week 4.5:
	2008.04.29:	No lecture this week
	Week 4.6:
	2008.05.06:	Work on robotics project
	Week 4.7:
	2008.05.13:	Work on robotics project
	Week 4.8:
	2008.05.20:	Work on robotics project. Next week: Accomplishment of robot activity 2. All students must be present (in order to pass)!
	Examination and grading The examination will consist of two sets of home problems (maximum score: 10p and 15p, respectively), and a written exam by the end of the third quarter (maximum score: 25p). The robot construction project give no points, but is mandatory to do. The requirements for the various grades are as follows: ECTS: A: Total score in [45, 50] B: Total score in [41, 44.5] C: Total score in [36, 40.5] D: Total score in [30, 35.5] E: Total score in [20, 29.5] Chalmers: 5: Total score in [43, 50] 4: Total score in [36, 42.5] 3: Total score in [20, 35.5] GU: VG: Total score in [42, 50] G: Total score in [20, 41.5] NOTE: A minimum of 10 points on the exam, and 10 points (4 + 6) on the home problems (two sets) is required in order to pass the course. Software ARSim, v.1.1.8 (To be used in HP1 and HP2) NOTE: For home problem 2.4, you should not use this version! To test the program, start Matlab and type: >> TestRunRobot ERSim, v.1.0.5 (Refer to Appedix B for documentation on how to use it) ERSim, v.1.0.6 Minor bug fixed, adding search path should now work with MacOSX. UFExample.zip, only for demonstrating behavior selection with the UF method. You are not required to do the computer experiment mentioned in the lab pm. External links A* Explorer Parallax.com BasicX.com List of suppliers (for robotic parts): active-robots.com acroname.com totalrobots.com lawicel-shop.se (parallax distributor) robotshop.se (local dealer in Göteborg) Electronic components in general: elfa.se (students have 10% discount!) farnell.se Back to top

Last updated: 2008-05-22