FRVŠ 2437 / 2003 Theory and Robotics Artificial Life Applications for Mobile Robots Control Řešitel: Pavel Nahodil Spoluřešitelé: David Kadleček, Karel Kohout, Anton Svrček Dept. of Cybernetics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague Technická 2, 166 27 Prague, Czech Republic nahodil@k333.felk.cvut.cz INTRODUCTION REACHED RESULTS This poster presents overview to a research of agents and robots encompassing designs inspired by principles of biological systems. The interaction with the environment and another biological systems sets up agents’ free parameters and creates resulting behaviour. Resulting systems are able to act in a very complex and dynamic environment and can incorporate various levels of intelligence. Used deliberative, reactive and homeostatic pattern is the base for a biosystem and we have tested it in several applications, from physical mobile robots, through artificial life simulations. A major goal of Artificial Life research is to gain insight into both „life as it is“ and „life as it might have been“. Inner agents’ behaviour is hard to understand. We have developed a couple of visualization approaches that allow the transparent analysis of agents’ social behavior together with the Computer Graphics Group at CTU. This research was supported by the grant FRVŠ 2437 / 2003 focused on innovation of education in the area of ALife and mobile robotics. We have innovated lectures of the “Mobile Robots and their Control” subject. We have also performed numerous education activities in the year 2003. We focused on alternative teaching methods that make clear practical aspects of the multidisciplinary knowledge. The course organization is conformed primarily to the practical view. Entire topic of the course covers an important background for the mobile robot design in ALife domain. The elementary tasks are linked into the feedback control order: the locomotion control, the neighborhood estimation from sensors and the motion of real robots based on changing scene finally. Significant part of the lectures is devoted to simulations using our simulators or simulators developed by other research groups in the world. We have also innovated web pages of our research groups. Syllabus and working version of the textbook of the innovated subject with plenty of ALife interactive simulations are published on our innovated web pages: http://cyber.felk.cvut.cz/gerstner/eth. MOTIVATION RELATED REFERENCES We would like to teach our students to design robots so they preferably works on a basis of continuously evolving emotions, which are projections of their contact with surrounding environment and situations, rather then on fixed mathematical algorithms like classical MAS. We teach our robots to expose behavior similar to alive animals, where reacting in variously difficult and unpredictable situations is necessary. They don´t only maintain self preservation and survival of their kind, but also having own ego's, needs and drives. The content of this educated subject is rapidly changing and modifying as any other young science discipline. The outline of this subject has been updated and refined in order to motivate students to design their own architectures using novel approaches, to solve robotic tasks using creativity and stressing their own initiative. Therefore it is necessary to pay extra attention to preparation of tasks and describing them in more detail. Thorough lectures and study materials have been prepared to ensure quality of the education. Nahodil, P.: Mobilní roboty s prvky umělého života. In: Automatizace. 2003, roč. 46, č. 10, s. 660-663. ISSN 0005-125X. Kadleček, D. - Nahodil, P.: Recenze knihy.: "XML v kostce". In: Automa. 2003, roč. 9, č. 2, s. 53. ISSN 1210-9592.  Nahodil, P: Recenze knihy: "Umělá inteligence v problémech globální optimalizace". In: Automa. 2003, roč. 9, č. 7, s. 61. ISSN 1210-9592. Nahodil, P. - Sporka, A. - Slavík, P.: Interaction of Visually Impaired Users in Virtual Environment with Spatial Sound Enhancement. In: Universal Access in HCI: Inclusive Design in the Information Society. Mahwah, New Jersey : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 2003, p. 1310-1314. ISBN 0-8058-4933-5. Řehoř, D. - Kadleček, D. - Slavík, P. - Nahodil, P.: VAT - a New Approach to Multi-agent Systems Visualization. In: Visualization, Imaging, and Image Processing. Anaheim : Acta Press, 2003, vol. II, p. 849-854. ISBN 0-88986-382-2. Řehoř, D. - Kadleček, D. - Nahodil, P. - Slavík, P.: Dynamic Analysis of ALife Systems Using Visualization and AI Techniques. In: Engineering Societies in the Agents World. London : Imperial College Press, 2003, p. 173-178. Nahodil, P. - Kadleček, D. - Řehoř, D. - Slavík, P.: Transparent visualisation of multi-agent systems. In: Proceedings of International Carpathian Control Conference. Košice : TU BERG Faculty, 2003, p. 723-726. ISBN 80-7099-509-2. Kadleček, D. - Řehoř, D. - Nahodil, P. - Slavík, P.: Analysis of Virtual Agent Communities by Means of AI Techniques and Visualization. In: Intelligent Virtual Agents. Heidelberg : Springer, 2003, p. 274-282. ISBN 3-540-20003-7  Nahodil, P.: Artificial Life - Framework and Applications. Invited Plenary Paper. In: MECHATRONICS, ROBOTICS AND BIOMECHANICS 2003. Brno University, 2003, p. 13-26. ISBN 80-214-2312-9. GOALS OF PROJECT To innovate lectures and exercises of taught subject "P33RMD Control of Robots with Artificial Life Elements" with usage of real robots. The exercises are prepared in a way that the students work with real robots and solve tasks in the field of robot behavioral control and Artificial Life. To engage four robot platforms to education and by this way make the usage of them not only on CTU. To make the education more attractive and effective by means of simulations and simulation environments which are presently necessary in ALife and robotics. Provide students with practical knowledge and experiences from the realized and ongoing projects. To motivate students to study and work with mobile robots more individually. To enrich the lectures with interactive and multimedial material from interesting field of artificial life. To synchronize the education with international study programs EDUCATION ACTIVITIES Nahodil, P. – Theory and applications of Artificial Life in intelligent robotics. [Invited lecture for PhD students and pedagogues]. Západočeská univerzita v Plzni FAV. 09.12.2003. Nahodil, P. – Theory and applications of Artificial Life. [Invited lecture for PhD students and pedagogues]. VŠB technická universita. 11.12.2003. Kadleček, D. – Behavior of intelligent robots in Artificial Life domain [Invited lecture for PhD students and pedagogues]. VŠB technická universita. 11.12.2003.