Robots

Introduction
Based on the lecture by Dr. Hadi Moradi
University of Southern California

Outline

Control Approaches
Feedback Control
Cybernetics
Braitenberg Vehicles
Artificial Intelligence
Early robots
Robotics Today
Why is Robotics hard

Control
Sensing => Action
Reactive
Dont think, act: Animals
Deliberative
Think hard, act later: Chess
Hybrid
Think and act in parallel: car races
Behavior-based
Think the way you act: human

Reactive Systems
Collection of sense-act rules
Stimulus-response
Advantages:
?
Disadvantages
?

Reactive Systems
Collection of sense-act rules
Stimulus-response
Advantages:
Inherently parallel
No/minimal state
Very fast
No memory
Disadvantages
No planning
No learning

Deliberative Systems
3 phase model:
Sense
Plan
Act
Example: Chess
Advantages:
?
Disadvantages:
?

Deliberative Systems
3 phase model:
Sense
Plan
Act
Advantages:
can plan
Can learn
Disadvantages:
Needs world model
Searching and planning are slow
World model gets outdated

Feedback Control
React to the sensor changes
Feedback control == self-regulation
Q: What type of control system is it?
Feedback types:
Positive
Negative

- and + Feedback
Negative feedback:
Regulates the state/output
Examples: Thermostat, bodies,
Positive feedback:
Amplifies the state/output
Examples: Stock market
The first use: ancient Greek water system
Re-invented in the Renaissance for ovens

W. Grey Walters Tortoise

1953
Machina Speculatrix
Sensors
1 photocell,
1 bump sensor

2 motors
Reactive control

W. Grey Walters Tortoise

Behaviors:
seeking light,
head toward weak
light,
back away from
bright light,
turn and push
(obstacle avoidance),
recharge battery.
Basis for creating
adaptive behavior-based

Turtle Principles
Parsimony: simple is better
e.g., clever recharging strategy
Exploration/speculation: keeps moving
except when charging
Attraction (positive tropism):
motivation to approach light
Aversion (negative tropism):
motivation to avoid obstacles, slopes
Discernment: ability to distinguish and make
choices
productive or unproductive behavior,
adaptation

Ducking

Tortoise behavior
A path: a
candle on top
of the shell

Tortoise behavior
Two turtles: Like dancing

New Tortoise

Question
How does it do the
charging?
Note: When the
battery is low, it goes
for the light.

Braitenberg Vehicles
Valentino Braitenberg
early 1980s
Extended Walters mode
Based on analog circuits
Direct connections between
light sensors and motors
Complex behaviors from very
simple mechanisms

Braitenberg Vehicles

Complex behaviors from very simple

mechanisms

Braitenberg Vehicles
By varying the connections and their strengths,
numerous behaviors result, e.g.:
"fear/cowardice" - flees light
"aggression" - charges into light
"love" - following/hugging
many others, up to memory and learning!
Reactive control
Later implemented on real robots
Check: http://www.duke.edu/~mrz/braitenberg/braitenberg.html
Bots order Styrofoam cubes (16 min 30 sec)
Tokyo Lecture 3 time 24:30-41:00

Brief History
1750: Swiss craftsman create automatons with clockwork
to play tunes
1917: Word Robot appeard in Karel Capeks play
1938: Issac Asimov wrote a novel about robots
1958: Unimation (Universal Automation) co started making
die-casting robots for GM
1960: Machine vision studies started
1966: First painting robot installed in Byrne, Norway.
1966: U.S.A.s robotic spacecraft lands on moon.
1978: First PUMA (Programmable Universal Assembly)
robot developed by Unimation.
1979: Japan introduces the SCARA (Selective Compliance
Assembly Robot Arm).

Early Artificial Intelligence

"Born" in 1955 at Dartmouth
"Intelligent machine" would use internal models to
search for solutions and then try them out (M. Minsky)
=> deliberative model!
Planning became the tradition
Explicit symbolic representations
Hierarchical system organization
Sequential execution

Artificial Intelligence
Early AI had a strong impact on early robotics
Focused on knowledge, internal models, and
reasoning/planning
Eventually (1980s) robotics developed more
appropriate approaches => behavior-based and
hybrid control
AI itself has also evolved...
Early robots used deliberative control
Intelligence through construction (5 min 20 sec)
Tokyo Lecture 2 time 27:40-33:00