Autonomous Intelligent

Mobile Robotics
Jerry Weinberg
Associate Professor

Ross Mead
Robot Scientist

Computer Science

What is a Robot?
What is An Intelligent Robot?
• An autonomous system which exists in the
physical world, can sense its environment,
and can act on it to achieve some goals.
 Living Autonomously
• An autonomous robot acts on its own
decisions
• Robots are not directly controlled by
humans
– Can take input and advice from humans
• Robots are not teleoperated
– Making them much more difficult and
interesting than Battlebots
Autonomous Mobile Robots have to Solve
Difficult Problems
• Where am I?
– Localization Problem
• How do I get there?
– Path Finding Problem
• How do I find the door?
– Object Recognition Problem
• What are you asking me to do?
– Language Understanding Problem
• How can I tell you the answer to your
question?
– Speech Generation Problem
 Sensing the Environment
• Sensors allow the robot to perceive its
environment to get information that allows
it to make decisions
– Humans have 6 senses what are they?
– What sensors does a robot need?
 Acting on the Environment
• Robots have effectors that allow it to
change the state of the world
– What are human effectors?
– What effectors can robots have?
 Achieving a Goal
• Achieving a goal requires intelligent
decision making
– Artificial Intelligence
 LEGO Mindstorm RCX

3 Output or Motor Ports (A, B, C)

3 Input or Sensor Ports (1, 2, 3)
IR Transmitter/Receiver
Programming Your Bot
 Spectrum of Self-Control
Teleoperation: Human Control Autonomous (AI) Control

Shared Human – Robot Control

Remote-Controlled Rats
Spectrum of AI Robot Control
 Reactive/Behavior-Based Robot
Control

• Ignores world models

Sense Act
Finite State Machine
 Finding Inspiration
• Constructopedia
• Nature
• Web
www.legomindstorms.com
www.lugnet.com/robotics/rcx
roboti.cs.siue.edu