Instructor: Dr. Henry Hexmoor

Spring 2009
Instructor office hours: Tu/Th 2:00-3:00PM

Lecture times: MW 4:00-5:15PM
Laboratory: TBD, recommended Saturdays 9:00AM-Noon
Place: Faner 2127

Join our googlegroup: cs404siu

Teaching Assistant: Mr. Marshall Riley
TA office hours: xxxxxx

Course Description:

This course is a comprehensive introduction to modern robotics with an emphasis on autonomous mobile robotics. Fundamentals of sensors and actuators as well as algorithms for top level control are discussed. Multi-robotics and human-robot interaction issues are explored. A term project is an integral part of this course. Class lectures will closely track outline of the course textbook. Lectures and exams are theoretical. Class project is hands on, pragmatic and research oriented.

Robot kits: In Lieu of textbooks, each student will contribute nominal funds (about $120) for purchasing shared-use robot kits and supplies, I recommend Vex kits.

Committees: Several working committees will be set up to determine task details including: table construction, sponsorship, competition readiness, logistics, parts, procurement and budgeting.

Laboratory and Project:

A hands on laboratory environment will be used to build robots in teams in preparation for a national competition. I have selected IEEE region 5 national robotic competition; See competition rules.

Pre-requisites:

CS 330 with a grade of C or better or graduate standing. Seek permission of instructor if you need clarifications. Please Be aware that this is a programming intensive and a hands on course, requiring basic C programming skills.

What this course is NOT: a lower division CS course.

Graduate and undergraduate students are welcome.

Objectives:

To have a rich understanding of robotic platforms and their limitations
To be able to program mobile robots
To be able to design automation solutions using mobile robots

You are expected to know or learn programming language on your own.

Grading: Term project at 40%, and three exams worth 20% each, class participation and attendance will help determine borderline grades.

Class Project: Hunter-Gatherer: Teams of up to 5 students will design and build an autonomous robot that can detect and transport a container from 4 corners of a color-coded table to the assigned square area in the center of the table. The robot must visit all 4 corners and transport all 4 cargo containers to their correct positions with a parametric order of visitation.
50 points are divided into (a) 15 points for the design merit, (b) 15 points for project implementation, (c) 10 points for class presentation/demonstration, and (d) 10 points for final report.

**Important Dates (To be finalized in class)**
Week of January 12, 2009	1st wek of classes	Locomotion, maps, affect, control	Comptition rules explainied, kits ordered
Week of January 19, 2009		Locomotion, maps, affect, potential fields, control	Robot building and programming
Week of February 9, 2009	Exam I	Fuzzy logic,	Robot programming and testing
March 11-14, 2008			No classes (enjoy your semester break)
March 16, 2009	Exam II	Take home, open source, application of articles ( 7-19)	Robot programming and testing
April 4 , 2009
April 13, 2009	Trip to Texas	Decision theory, filters	Robot programming and testing
...		Decision theory, filters	Robot programming and testing
May xx, 2009	Final Exam

Recommended textbook:
Howard Choset, et. al. 2005. Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementations, The MIT Press, ISBN-10: 0262033275.

Required, Supplemental Reading:
The following links and papers are limited to education purposes by our local students. All rights remain with original sources. This list is updated as needed.

1. Principles of Robot Locomotion
2. Howard Choset's textbook Chapter 5 slides
3. roadmap slides
4. Howard Choset's textbook Chapter 2 slides (Bug Algorithms)
5. Potential Fields Tutorial
6. Rodney A. Brooks' original subsumption paper
7. The Subsumption Architecture
8. Affect based Computing
9. Robin Murphy's Emotion-based Control
10. Bayesian Filters for Location Estimation
11. Jong and Stone paper: RL and MDP
12. Henry Hexmoor's High Level Control Loop
13. Hagit Shatkay on HMMs
14. Andrew Moore's HMM Tutorial Slides
15. POMDP FAQ
16. A Fuzzy logic based Navigation System for a Mobile Robot
17. Hexmoor's Fuzzy logic
18. Coverage and Search
19. Brick and Mortar
17. The Scalar Kalman Filter
18. Multirobotics
19. Diana Spears' Swarms paper
20. Alife