Course: Begin Robotics

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 …

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 …

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 …

In this exercise you will need to track the robot so that it gets close to an object but not too close! In this video, Richard explains how the simulation …