Course: Begin Robotics

In this video Richard explains how to make a robot with two sensors learn a task. Key concepts include: Setting the scene – how a robot avoids obstacles. Rules of …

Instinctive behaviour is ‘hard wired’ into living things. Insects for example, automatically fly around. They have simple sensors that allow them to perceive their surroundings, detect food and avoid obstacles; …

In the examples this week, the robots have simple behaviour: e.g. they seek lights or avoid them depending on whether they can see a light then. In previous weeks, in …

In this video William introduces a program that demonstrates Grey Walter’s Machina Speculatrix. Grey Walter designed his series of ‘robot tortoises’ (so called because of their tortoise shell shaped back) …

In this video William demonstrates his second simulation, to show how you can assign lights to Braitenberg vehicles, to make them act as predator and prey. The Braitenberg vehicles are …

Robots Behaving Badly No matter how hard we try, things don’t always go the way we plan. Whoever said, ‘never work with children or pets’ clearly hadn’t tried filming with …

Now you’ve seen some Braitenberg vehicles in action, watch as William demonstrates his simulation program; inspired by the work of Italian-Austrian cyberneticist Valentino Braitenberg. In this video we see active …

In this, the final week, we have looked at more feedback – for learning and for interaction among robots, as well as looking at instinctive behaviour. We began by considering …

In the middle of the last century, Valentino Braitenberg proposed a form of robot with simple neurons. Born in Italy, Braitenberg was a neuroscientist and cyberneticist who became the director …

Some aspects of robots are influenced by nature. It is sensible therefore to study ‘real’ life. Living systems generally: Have some built-in instincts But are able to learn – a …

So let’s explain how we can have light seekers and phobes controlled by neurons. Neurons are simple processing elements – human brains are made up of billions of them. Neurons …

We now know about the physical robot, specifically its motors and sensors. We’ve also learnt about how feedback control is used so that the robot moves at the correct speed …

We hope that you enjoyed playing around with this week’s simulations. If you want to find out how Richard got on when he used them, or you weren’t able to …

Any interaction between a human and a machine is feedback – even putting the cursor on the screen in the right place by moving a mouse is a feedback process. …

In this first exercise of Week 3, you will have the chance to command a robot to do some specific actions a certain number of times. You need to work …