Certificate of Achievement
has completed the following course:
This introductory course explored the usage, history, anatomy, control and behaviour of robots from a cybernetics perspective.
4 weeks, 3 hours per week
Richard Mitchell
Professor of Cybernetics
University of Reading
Transcript
Learning outcomes
- Reflect on the wide variety of robots and their applications.
- Explain how a robot moves, senses and responds to its environment using motors, sensors and actuators.
- Demonstrate the various ways robots are controlled by humans through automation, haptic technologies and virtual reality.
- Compare robot behaviour, cooperation and learning with that of living systems.
- Practise the skills developed on the course through simulations that allow you to experiment, explore and test your knowledge.
Syllabus
Week 1:
- An introduction to robotics from a cybernetic perspective
- Overview of different types of robots and their application
- History of robotics
- Introduction to the robot simulations used in the course
- Problem solving: commanding a mobile robot to move
Week 2:
- A description of the components of a robot – sensors, actuators, ’brain’ and power supply
- An understanding of different sensors, their operation and application
- A description of motors, and how their velocity is set, and other robotic actuators
- Problem solving: commanding a robot to achieve tasks on the basis of sensor information
Week 3:
- Feedback for control and human-machine interaction
- An explanation of feedback control of steering and speed in robots and in other applications such as balance, temperature and damping oscillations
- Simple mathematical modelling of robots and different forms of control strategies
- Human-Computer Interaction: feedback, including haptics
- Problem solving: commanding a robot to follow a path
Week 4:
- Feedback for Learning and robot: robot interaction
- An appreciation of neuron based brains through Braitenburg vehicles
- Robot learning by trial and error
- Multiple robots and artificial life, relating to biological processes
- Problem solving: commanding a robot to traverse a maze
Issued on 18th September 2024
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