Undergraduate Course: Intelligent Autonomous Robotics (Level 10) (INFR10005)
Course Outline
| School | School of Informatics |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Informatics |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/iar-4 |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | The aims of this course are to introduce the fundamental problems of producing real world intelligent behaviour in robots, some of the different kinds of information processing techniques and control architectures that have been developed, and how biological systems can be modelled on robots and contribute to their design.
The course is structured around a practical-based programme involving the construction of a series of small mobile LEGO vehicles of increasing sensorimotor sophistication. We will cover related sensing and control ideas, approaches, and organisational architectures. We consider some alternative types of mechanism suggested for the production of desired intelligent behaviour by both engineers (simple control theory) and biologists (e.g. muscle control, biomimetic robotics, learning). |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Introduction to Vision and Robotics (INFR09019)
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | Students MUST NOT also be taking
Intelligent Autonomous Robotics (Level 11) (INFR11070)
|
Other requirements | Successful completion of Year 3 of an Informatics Single or Combined Honours Degree, or equivalent by permission of the School. A good grounding in mathematics and some knowledge of first-order differential equations will be useful. Experience in using Lego would be advantageous, or with building and repairing other mechanical structures, e.g. bikes. |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Delivery period: 2011/12 Semester 1, Available to all students (SV1)
|
WebCT enabled: No |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| Central | Lecture | | 1-11 | 09:00 - 09:50 | | | | | | Central | Lecture | | 1-11 | | | | 09:00 - 09:50 | |
| First Class |
Week 1, Thursday, 09:00 - 09:50, Zone: Central. Room 4.01, David Hume Tower |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours:Minutes |
|
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | | 2:00 | | |
|
| Delivery period: 2011/12 Semester 1, Part-year visiting students only (VV1)
|
WebCT enabled: No |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| Central | Lecture | | 1-11 | 09:00 - 09:50 | | | | | | Central | Lecture | | 1-11 | | | | 09:00 - 09:50 | |
| First Class |
Week 1, Thursday, 09:00 - 09:50, Zone: Central. Room 4.01, David Hume Tower |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours:Minutes |
|
|
| Main Exam Diet S1 (December) | | 2:00 | | |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
1 - Knowledge of robot control architectures, and understanding of the issues involved in programming real robots as opposed to simulators.
2 - Familiarity with current approaches to robotics, including reactive, subsumption, cybernetic, classical, evolutionary and multirobot approaches
3 - Understand the main issues and methods in mobile robot navigation systems
4 - Understand how to model and evaluate models of biological systems on robots
5 - Build and program a robot to do specified tasks, dealing with sensing and acting in the real world, evaluate the results and present the work in a written report. |
Assessment Information
Written Examination 50
Assessed Assignments 50
Oral Presentations 0
Assessment
One assignment, carried out in groups of 2 or 3, accounts for 40% of the course marks. This requires you to build and program a robot using the kits, electronics, sensors and programming environments provided to perform a specified task, and to present the results in a written report. The other 10% of the coursework marks will be for satisfactory completion of the weekly goals towards this task, demonstrated in each practical session and in short progress writeups.
If delivered in semester 1, this course will have an option for semester 1 only visiting undergraduate students, providing assessment prior to the end of the calendar year. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
* The problem of designing intelligent autonomous systems.
* Building and programming LEGO Vehicles.
* Reactive control of behaviour.
* The subsumption architecture.
* Sensor fusion.
* Control.
* Planning.
* Evolutionary and collective robotics.
* Robots as biological models.
* Simple navigation: gradient following, potential fields, landmarks.
* Navigation with maps: localisation and learning maps.
Relevant QAA Computing Curriculum Sections: Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Information Systems Technologies |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
* Valentino Braitenberg: Vehicles. MIT Press 1984
* Ronald C Arkin: Behavior-based Robotics, MIT press, 1998
* Robin R. Murphy: Introduction to AI Robotics, MIT Press, 2000 |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Lectures 20
Tutorials 0
Timetabled Laboratories 10
Non-timetabled assessed assignments 40
Private Study/Other 30
Total 100 |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Amos Storkey
Tel: (0131 6)51 1208
Email: A.Storkey@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Kate Weston
Tel: (0131 6)50 2701
Email: Kate.Weston@ed.ac.uk |
|
© Copyright 2011 The University of Edinburgh - 16 January 2012 6:16 am
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