Autonomous Robots Cool stuff at the intersection of AI and Robotics Dylan A. Shell 19 th April 2011, CSCE 181

“Autonomous”

“Robot”

“Programmable”

Autonomous robot in practice?

Trends: Actuator Systems, Materials and Fabrication Physical assistance of humans by robots Example: Carrying humans. Power suits, prosthetics, wearable robots High-power actuators to complement and enhance. Micro mobile sensor nodes Applications: Security, pervasiveness Challenges: Fabrication of nano- and micro-scale robots Domestic robotics: domestic and assistant robots Challenge: low-cost, low-inertia.

Trends: Energy and Power Harvesting Idea: Constraints on storage can be relaxed once you can actively acquire energy Efficiency How can we use less energy for the task? Miniaturization Challenge: one size does not fit all robots!

Trends: Human-Robot Interfaces Learning from Demonstration Idea: Robots don't need an expert programmer, but learn from observation and mimicry Example: Industrial and logistics robots learn task from experience. Adaptation How to improve task execution automatically? Group interfaces Example: coordinated deployment of search and rescue vehicles. How does the team of humans interact with the team of responders?

Trends: Planning and Control Novel environments How to move to different environments without reprogramming? Task variation and dynamics Problem: Brittle to changes in task. Logistics problems Example: move goods through a network from producers to consumers, given production, delivery and time constraints Speed How do we improve response times? How do we control fast-moving vehicles?

Trends: Perception and Learning New sensors How do we go from a task-description to the sensors required? What are the fundamental physical phenomena that should be exploited? Sensing doesn't solve the whole perception problem Questions: Representation, scaling, integration with planning What to learn? How do we improve response times? How do we control fast-moving vehicles?

Credits Richard Vaughan's of SFU's CMPT889 Autonomous Robots Notes, Summer Oxymoron and definitions verbatim from his notes. A roadmap for US robotics – From Internet to Robotics. (The CCC report)