Project topics: The projects should be an implementation of either: a single robot system (involving complex behavior and demonstrated on a physical robot) or a multi-robot system (involving cooperation/communication/coordination between robots and demonstrated in simulation).

Test-beds: The following simulation environments and physical robots will be available for the project:

• The Player-Stage-Gazebo simulator (playerstage.sourceforge.net). Player is a general purpose language-indepedent network server for robot control. Stage is a Player-compatible high-fidelity indoor multi-robot simulation testbed. Gazebo is a Player-compatible high-fidelity 3D outdoor simulation testbed with dynamics. Using Player/Stage/Gazebo allows for direct porting to Player-compatible physical robots.
• One Player-compatible ActivMedia Pioneer 1 AT (all terrain) robot. The robot is equipped with 7 sonar sensors and requires the use of a laptop (not provided).
• One Player-compatible ActivMedia Pioneer 1 indoor robot. The robot is equipped with 7 sonar sensors and requires the use of a laptop (not provided).
• 16 LEGO robot kits. The robots are equipped with a Handy Board microcontroller that can be programmed using Interactive C. A reference on the Handy Board and Interactive C can be found here.

Project report: For each project students should prepare a final project report, which should include the following:

• Title, author
• Abstract
• Introduction and motivation
• Problem definition, including project goals, assumptions, constraints, and evaluation criteria
• Details of proposed approach
• Results and objective experimental evaluation and/or sound theoretical proof of the proposed approach
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Review of relevant literature and previous research and how it relates to the project
• Discussion and conclusion
• References
• Appendix (relevant code or algorithms)

Timeline: The project development should adhere to the following timeline:

• Project proposal - outlines the specific goals, implementation platform and the proposed approach - due about four weeks from the beginning of the semester (see the syllabus).
• Project status report - describes the current status of the project, what has been done, what is still to be done - due around mid-semester (see the syllabus).
• Project presentation (live demos are highly encouraged) - during one of the last two lectures
• Project report - due on Dec 15.

• Introduction, development of the robotics field
• Reactive systems
• Hybrid systems
• Behavior-based systems
• Navigation and mapping
• Learning: supervised learning, reinforcement learning, genetic/evolutionary approaches, imitation and learning from demonstration
• Multi-agent control
• Multi-robot control
• Multi-robot learning
• Emergent behavior
• Biologically inspired robotics
• Human-robot interaction

Paper reports: During each lecture we will discuss a numbers of papers on a specific research topic. Students must read the papers before class and submit, for each of the papers presented that day, a brief report for each paper. The reports should be submitted at the beginning of the class when they are discussed and must contain:

• Student's name
• Title and authors of the paper
• A short paragraph summarizing the contributions of the paper
• A critique of the paper that addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the paper

All reports should be typed - no hand-written reports will be accepted.

Paper presentations: During the semester, each student is required to present several papers to the rest of the class. Each presentation should take about 25-30 minutes and must be prepared as if presented in a formal conference (i.e., slides, projector). This presentation should assume that the audience has read the paper, and not spend more than about 15 minutes summarizing it. The rest of the presentation should be spent on discussing the paper, its strengths, weaknesses, any points needing clarification. The presentation will be followed by class discussions in which all students will express their point of view and general comments on the paper.

The table below presents the tentative schedule of assigned readings.

Grading policy (tentative, subject to change):

Late policy: No late submissions will be accepted.

Academic integrity: Students are encouraged to study together, however each student must individually prepare his/her solutions. Cheating or plagiarism are not permitted and will be sanctioned according with the UNR policy on Academic Standards. You should carefully read the section on Academic Dishonesty found in the UNR Student Handbook (copies of this section are on-line). Your continued enrollment in this course implies that you have read it, and that you subscribe to the principles stated therein.