Introduction to Robotics

CSCI 4830/7000January 11, 2010

Nikolaus Correll

Syllabus

• Theory– Locomotion– Kinematics– Perception– Localization– Planning and Navigation

• Practice– Simulation exercises– Design reviews– Debates– Participation in online

competition

Links and Places

• Class wiki– http://correll.cs.colorado.edu/pmwiki– Code– How-Tos and exercises

• CU Learn– http://culearn.colorado.edu– Submission of assignments

• Exercises– CSEL 128– http://sac.colorado.edu

• Contact– ECOT 733 (my office)– Phone: (303) 492-2233– nikolaus.correll@colorado.edu

Try this out asap!

Try this out asap!

Textbook

• Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots, Roland Siegwart and Illah R. Nourbakhsh, MIT Press

• Available from CU Bookstore next week

• Weekly reading assignments• Lecture is complementing the

book

Activities and Grading

• Oral exam*• Deliverables– Weekly reading assignments– Design reviews– Debate

• Must attend to lectures and seminars

* Graduate students will also be required to write a term paper

50%

20%

20%

10%

What will you learn?

• What are robots, what is the science and technology behind building robots and programming them?

• Why is robotics hard?• Hands-on experience programming of driving,

walking and crawling robots

What will not be covered?

• Because we will be working in simulation, we will not cover– – Components you build are

less likely to work than those that you buy

– Components you bought are much harder to debug than those you built

– Robots is the science of connectors and cabling

• Introduction to Robotics II

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probotworks = ppartworksallparts

∏ pconnectorsworkallconnectors

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Why robots?

• Robots will work more efficient and safer than humans

• From repetitive tasks to true autonomy

• Improve lifestyle and education

• Potentially as disruptive as the wheel, printing press, steam engine, internet

Early robots

George Devol, *1912

“Unimate”, shipped to GM in 1961

~1940 ~1950

1. Are these robots or automatons?

2. Which are more robots than others and why?

What is a robot?

• Sensing– perception

• Computation– making sense of your senses

• Actuation and Mechanism– moving and manipulation

• Communication– communicating with people,

objects and other robots

Who is doing robotics?

SocialSciences

BiologyChemistry

AerospaceEngineering Physics

Athlete Robot, NASA/JPL. Videos © California Institute of Technology, Simulation Marsette Vona

Athlete

• Sensing– Joint positions

• Computation– Off-line

• Actuation/Mechanism– 6x6 DOF legs, wheels

• Communication– Remote control

http://www.mit.edu/~vona

“Big Dog”, Boston Dynamics, AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong Youtube 4min

Big Dog

• Sensing– Legs: Joint positions and force, ground contact– Body: Gyroscope, Stereovision

• Computation/Control– High-frequency closed-loop control

• Actuation/Mechanism– 4 x 4 DOF hydraulic legs

• Communication– Remote Control

Rollin’ Justin, 2009, Deutsches Luft und RaumfahrtzentrumRonny Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images

Youtube 3min

Justin

• Sensing– Arms/torso/fingers: position, force/torque– Head: vision, hearing

• Computation– Compliant control of fingers and arm– Object recognition and language processing– Motion planning for collision-free paths

• Actuation– 2 x 6 DOF Kuka arm, torso, legs, 2 x 4 x 3 DOF hand

• Communication– Aural and speech

Kiva Systems, Picture: Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe Youtube(4min)

Kiva

• Sensing– Bar codes on the floor (localization), odometry

• Computation– Centralized, grid-based algorithm

• Actuation– Moving on the grid, lift cupboards

• Communication– Many-to-one (centralized), user to server

This course

• Theory– How do sensors and actuators work– How can we describe and control a robot’s motion– Algorithms for localization and navigation

• Practice– Programming Robots in Webots– Designing a robot soccer player– Debating about robot technology in class

Webots

• Realistic, physics-based simulation

• Simulates robot dynamics, sensor noise

• Write controllers in Java or C

• Goal: write a competitive soccer player

Robotstadium

• Upload your controller to www.robotstadium.org

• Controller is evaluated nightly against other players worldwide

• Download a video of the competition the next day

Robotstadium

• You will design a controller in teams and present it to the class (design review)

• You will implement this controller and evaluate it against your peers

• We will create a CU team that will be frozen the last day of classes

• $1000 cash prize -> Dinner

Competition

Summary

• A robot becomes autonomous due to a combination of– Actuation– Sensing– Computation– Communication

• Robotics is an interdisciplinary effort• Computer science research makes robots

intelligent

Next Meetings / Assignments

• Wednesday/Friday, January 13/15, 5pm, ECCS 128– First steps in Webots

• Monday, January 18, NO CLASS• Reading– Webots User Manual (wiki)– Questions on Chapter 2, pages 13 – 32 (culearn),

due Sunday, January 24.

Acknowledgments

• The acquisition of Webots was sponsored by