1. By: Samantha Catanzaro Jessie Mitchell-Jemison Matthew Klingensmith Sharon Kong Anthony Santos

2.  Autonomous robots: intelligent machines capable of performing tasks in the world by themselves, without explicit human control over their movements (Bekey, Autonomous Robots)  Simply, machines that move intelligently, performing actions without direct human control  Examples: humanoids, rovers, cars, rescue, vacuum cleaners, line-following robots, etc.

3.  Three basic components:  Sensors – send input to computers  Computers – interpret input  Motors – take signals from computer and generate actions.  Sensors:  RADAR, LIDAR, video, or GPS  Most effective robots combine these sensors into one model.  Some sensors, like Velodyne LIDARs, generate many data points that must be statistically analyzed to remove redundant or meaningless data.  Three types of data analysis  Model-based  sensor-based  statistical combination of models and sensors.

4. 1962: First industrial arm robot created for GM (Unimate) 1966: Standford creates Shakey, first robot to know and respond to its own actions. 1974: Silver Arm autonomous robot 1 st used to assemble small parts using touch sensors. 1977: Voyager space probes launch; most autonomous space probes at time. 1977 1 st Autonomous Vehicles developed in Japan  Autonomous robotics has improved as computers, sensors, and general technology have advanced. 1979: New vision system designed by Hans Moravec (CMU) for greater autonomy. 1980s: Commercial autonomous robots created for hospitals, etc. using floor plans to plan routes 1980s: DARPA funds ALV, autonomous vehicle that uses laser radar and computer vision. 1995: Both CMU and Dickmanns (Germany) create driverless cars that travel long distances with little aid of human drivers. 96-2001: UAVS become more autonomous; driverless cars use new method to ‘understand’ environment instead of using radar (ARGO). 2002 1 st DARPA Grand Challenge

5.  Automation of tasks  Increases efficiency  Little or no human input necessary  Reduces cost of labor  Keeps humans out of hazardous situations

6.  Deterministic program may have unpredictable results on error  Should still have human observation  High initial costs for development

7.  Autonomous robots have the potential to be beneficial to society.  They should not replace humans to the extent that humans depend on robots for daily activities, but they should be used in dangerous situations (ex. rescue missions).  Therefore, we support the research of autonomous robots.