Cognitive Robotics: Lectures

Week 1
Mon 1/10	Lecture: Course intro; Chiara overview; C++ for Java programmers Videos: XOR demo, Two-Armed Bandit demo, Chiara chess, Chiara piano Read: C++ review
Wed 1/12	Read tutorial sections: Introduction, Documentation, Behaviors, Events Lecture: Tekkotsu behaviors and events Drill: Behaviors and events drill
Fri 1/14	Read: tutorial section on Robot safety Lab 1: Teleoperation with ControllerGUI; compiling Tekkotsu behaviors
Week 2
Mon 1/17	Martin Luther King Day: no class.
Wed 1/19	Read: tutorial sections on State nodes, Shorthand notation, Defining node classes Simplified intros for beginners: Tutorial: State Machine Intro, Tutorial: Defining New Node Classes Lecture: State machine formalism Drill: State machines drill
Fri 1/21	Read: tutorial chapter on The Storyboard Tool Lab 2: State machines and the Storyboard tool Alternate lab for beginners: Lab: Storyboard Tool
Week 3
Mon 1/24	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 Monday, 1/31/11)
Wed 1/26	Read: S. Ullman (1984) Visual routines. Cognition 18:97-157. Lecture: Ullman's visual routines; Sketches in Tekkotsu
Fri 1/28	Read: tutorial sections on VisualRoutinesStateNode, Sketch primitives, Tekkotsu simulator Lab 3/Homework 3: Tekkotsu simulator; programming with Sketches
Week 4
Mon 1/31	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 2/02	Read: How qualitative spatial reasoning can improve strategy game AIs, by Forbus, Mahoney, and Dill. Read: tutorial section on the Map Builder Lecture: Shape predicates; Tekkotsu's local map builder
Fri 2/04	Lab 4: Map building and visual search Homework 4: Parsing the tic-tac-toe board
Week 5
Mon 2/07	Read: tutorial section on State signalling Read wiki page on $provide and $reference Lecture: Architectures for robot control; advanced state machines
Wed 2/9	Read: tutorial chapter on Postures and Motion Sequences, wiki page on Mirage Lecture: Postures and motion sequences, Mirage simulator Videos: standlie.mp4, pan_head.mp4, headwag.mp4, fallover.mp4
Fri 2/10	Lab 5: Motion Sequences
Week 6
Mon 2/14	Lecture: World maps and localization Homework 5: Particle filter bingo
Wed 2/16	Read: tutorial chapter on Walking Lecture: Navigating with the Pilot
Fri 2/18	Lab 6: Knock down a soda can
Week 7
Mon 2/21	Lecture: Object recognition Supplemental: Fred Birchmore's soda can detector, Tekkotsu SIFT video
Wed 2/23	Leture: Gestalt perception Optional readings: Gestalt perception, Basic concepts of Gestalt psychology
Fri 2/25	Lab 7: Gestalt perception exercise
Week 8
Mon 2/28	Read: B. Kuipers (2005) Drinking from the firehose of experience. Lecture: Consciousness and groundedness Video demo: the flash lag effect
Wed 3/02	Midterm exam
Fri 3/04	mid-semester break
Week 9
Mon 3/07	Spring Break
Wed 3/09	Spring Break
Fri 3/11	Spring Break
Week 10
Mon 3/14	Read: tutorial section on Motion commands Read: documentation for MotionManager, MotionCommand, MMAccessor, LedEngine Lecture: Motion commands and real-time programming
Wed 3/16	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 Video: Denavit-Hartenberg Reference Frame Layout Video: Tentacle arm path planning
Fri 3/18	Lab 8: Kinematics lab
Week 11
Mon 3/21	Lecture: Affordances Video: AIBO tool use Optional: Affordances and Design, by Don Norman
Wed 3/23	Lecture: Human-robot interaction Video: Cythia Breazeal on Nova More Kismet videos
Fri 3/25	Lab 9: LookingGlass tool
Week 12
Mon 3/28	Lecture: Manipulation and path planning Video: Tekkotsu arm path planning
Wed 3/30	Lecture: Manipulation with friction Handout: PID Control Simulation - Excel Spreadsheet
Fri 4/01	Lab 10: Manipulation exercise
Week 13
Mon 4/04	Lecture: Robot learning
Wed 4/06	Special lab meeting: project prototyping experiments
Fri 4/08	project clinic
Week 14
Mon 4/11	project clinic
Wed 4/13	project clinic
Fri 4/15	Spring Carnival
Week 15
Mon 4/18	project clinic
Wed 4/20	project clinic
Fri 4/22	project clinic
Week 16
Mon 4/25	Project presentations/critiques
Wed 4/27	Project presentations/critiques
Fri 4/29	Public demo of class projects
Finals Week
Mon 5/2	Final exam: 5:30pm, Wean Hall 5304 Final projects due