Bachelor PsychoBiology

Course Behavior-Based Robotics

This is the information of Winter 2015-2016

This course gives an introduction to the principles, design and practice of intelligent behavior-based autonomous robot systems. Following a discussion of the relevant biological and psychological models of behavior, reactive behaviors are used as building blocks for more complex behaviors. With the more advanced behaviors the robot gets animal-like capacities as survival, adaption and interaction. Building such artificial system in practice could lead to interesting questions about the unique aspects of actual biological behavior.

Learning objectives

To develop an understanding of the possible relationships between animal behavior and robot control.
To examine a wide range of biologically motivated robotic systems.
To obtain a basic understanding of the design choices related to behavior-based robotic systems.
To determine the appropriate role of world and self-knowledge within behavior-based robotic systems.
To study biological models of hybrid reactive/deliberative systems.
To explore the role of expectations, focus of attention and active perception within behavior-based perception.
To understand why robots need to have learning capabilities.
To recognize the different effects of perception and learning inside social behavior when compared to solitary robot behaviors.
To consider the consequences of a robotic mind with regard to thought, consciousness, emotion and imagination.

Practical skills

In addition to the theoretical framework, you will also develop your programming skills by implementing behaviors directly on humanoid robots. A short summary of these objectives can be found back in this Study Guide.

Schedule

Week 48: Chapter 1: Whence Behavior?
Week 48: Chapter 2: Animal behavior
Week 48: Chapter 3: Robot Behavior
Week 49: Chapter 4: Behaviour Based Architectures
Week 49: Chapter 5: Representations and Memory
Week 49: Chapter 6: Hybrid Deliberation and Reactivity
Week 50: Chapter 7: Perception Systems (Part 1)
Week 50: Chapter 7: Perception Systems (Part 2)
Week 50: Chapter 8: Adaptive Behavior
Week 51: Chapter 9: Social Behavior
Week 51: Chapter 10: Beyond Behavior
Week 51: Latest developments

Literature

Ronald C. Arkin 'Behavior-Based Robotics', The MIT Press, 1998.

Additional Reading

Maja J. Mataric and Francois Michaud, 'Behavior-Based Systems', Springer Handbook of Robotics, 2008, pp 891-909.
Jean-Arcady Meyer and Agnes Guillot, 'Biologically Inspired Robots', Springer Handbook of Robotics, 2008, pp 1395-1422.
Michael A. Arbib, Giorgio Metta, Patrick van der Smagt, 'Neurorobotics: From Vision to Action', Springer Handbook of Robotics, 2008, pp. 1453-1480.
Dario Floreano, Auke Jan Ijspeert and Stefan Schaal. 'Robotics and Neuroscience' Current Biology 24.18 (2014): R910-R920.

Reading guide

Sunday November 29th: page 173
Sunday December 6th: page 299
Sunday December 13th: page 443
Thursday December 17th: page 891-909 of 'Behavior-Based Systems'

Exam

Wednesday December 16th
Practice exam North-Western University, December 6, 2002.
Practice exam North-Western University, November 11, 2002.

Evaluation

The course is this year evaluated by the participants with a 7.2:
.

Course Behavior-Based Robotics