CSCE 774 - Robotic Systems - Fall 2009

University of South Carolina

Instructor: Jason O'Kane

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:45pm, 2A18 Swearingen

About this course

This class is an introduction to some of the current research in robotics. Specifically, we will focus on planning algorithms, that is, computational techniques that robots can use to plan their future actions. After completing this course, you should be able to understand, critique, design, and implement planning algorithms for robots.

The format will mix lectures by the instructor and student-led discussions of important and interesting published research papers in the field.

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Homework

Due Date
Homework 1 Sep 22
Homework 2 Oct 8 Oct 15

Schedule

Past
Date Topic Other
Aug 20 1. What to expect from this course syllabus, first-day survey
Aug 25 2. Deterministic, discrete planning
2A. Notation
2B. Planning as graph search
2C. Considering costs
Aug 27 3. Value iteration
Sep 1 4. Unpredictable transitions
Sep 3 canceled
Sep 8 4A. Nondeterministic value iteration
4B. Probabilistic value iteration 		HW1 assigned
Sep 10 5. State uncertainty
5A. Initial conditions
Sep 15 5B. Sensors and observations
5C. Information spaces
Sep 17 5C. Information spaces
Sep 22 5D. Nondeterministic information spaces HW1 due
Sep 24 5D. Nondeterministic information spaces (examples)
5E. Probabilistic information spaces
Sep 29 5E. Probabilistic information spaces
Oct 1 6. What are planning algorithms good for?
Oct 6 7. Planning in information spaces Topic choice
Oct 13 7A. Planning in Indet
7B. Planning in Iprob
7C. Sensorless planning
Oct 15 8. Reinforcement learning
8A. Passive updates
Oct 20 8B. Action selection in RL
Oct 22 9. Background terminology Quiz
Related work (due Friday, 5pm)
Oct 27 Distance-optimal navigation in an unknown environment without sensing distances. B. Tovar, R Murrieta, and S. M. LaValle. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 23(3):506-518, June 2007. [pdf]

Presenter: Paul Shealy

Oct 29 TangentBug: A Range-Sensor-Based Navigation Algorithm. I. Kamon, E. Rimon, and E. Rivlin. IJRR 17(9):934-953. 1998. [pdf]

Presenter: Corey White

Nov 3 An Exploration of Sensorless Manipulation. M. A. Erdmann and M. T. Mason. IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, 4(4):369-379. 1988. [pdf]

Presenter: Johnny Flowers

Nov 5 Automatic Synthesis of Fine-Motion Strategies for Robots. T. Lozano-Perez, M. T. Mason, and R. H. Taylor. IJRR 3(1):3:24. 1984. [pdf]

Presenter: Laura Boccanfuso

Nov 10 Randomization for Robot Tasks: Using Dynamic Programming in the Space of Knowledge States. M. Erdmann. Algorithmica 10:248-291. 1993. [pdf]

Presenter: Kenton Oliver

Nov 12 A Visibility-Based Pursuit-Evasion Problem. L. J. Guibas, J.-C. Latombe, S. M. LaValle, D. Lin, and R. Motwani. International Journal of Computational Geometry and Applications 9(5):471-494, 1999. [pdf]

Presenter: Habib Moukalled

Nov 17 Stealth Tracking of an Unpredictable Target among Obstacles. T. Bandyopadhyay, Y. Li, M. H. Ang Jr., and D. Hsu. WAFR 2004. [pdf]

Presenter: Nick Stiffler

Nov 19 On the value of ignorance: Balancing tracking and privacy using a two-bit sensor. J. M. O'Kane. WAFR 2008. [pdf]

Presenter: Jimmy Cleveland

Nov 24 Simple Robots in Polygonal Environments: A Hierarchy. J. Brunner, M. Mihalak, S. Suri, E. Vicari, and P. Widmayer. Algorithmic Aspects of Wireless Sensor Networks. 2008. [pdf]

Presenter: Jeremy Lewis

Progress report
Dec 1 10. A robotic theory of computation?
Dec 3 Project Presentations
Wrap-up 		Project presentation