PROJECTS FOR 2001 WINTER CLASS

HEXAPOD CENTAUR

1. GROUP LEADER: Niwat Waropas
2. PEOPLE:
3. READING:
4. FIRST TASK:
5. MECHANICAL TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED: (with the help of High School students)
   1. Complete mechanically the head:
   2. Complete mechanically the torso, make it rotate.
   3. Connect the head and the torso such that the head will be removable. Electrical Connectors.
   4. Find stronger leg motors, purchase them, and design servocontroller for them.
   5. Add camera, sonar and laser to the torso.
   6. Connect torso with hexapod body.
   7. Mount a laptop to hexapod body behind the torso.
6. ELECTRICAL HARDWARE TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED:
   1. FPGA board
   2. Voice recognition and synthesis (adaptation only).
7. SOFTWARE TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED:
   1. Link of C++ robot control to voice recognition and voice synthesis.
   2. Gaits programming, possibly using Genetic Algorithm.
   3. LISP program for English conversation: Eliza -like, but using a big data base of information about ECE program and professors.
8. RESEARCH COMPONENT AND PUBLISHING:
   1. New type of Evolutionary Computation for humanoid robot control. Use of sensors.

NAVIGATION FOR PEOPLEBOT MOBILE ROBOT IN FAB BUILDING

1. ROBOT: PEOPLEBOT.
2. GROUP LEADER:
3. PEOPLE:
4. READING:
   1. Kevin Stanton Thesis - code in C++
   2. Cecilia Espinosa Thesis - code in C++
   3. Dieudonne Mayi Thesis - code in Prolog.
   4. Perkowski - paper about obstacle avoidance.
5. MECHANICAL TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED:
   1. Mount the laptop on the robot.
   2. Mount the Intel Camera on the robot.
   3. Mount the microphones on the robot.
6. ELECTRICAL HARDWARE TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED:
   1. Connect and test radio control of robot.
   2. Connect and test the radio-control of camera.
7. SOFTWARE TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED:
   1. LISP program for English conversation. (other variant than on Centaur - more ambitious, more knowledge).
   2. Obstacle avoidance program.
   3. FAB building navigator.
8. RESEARCH COMPONENT AND PUBLISHING:
   1. Hough Transform for robot control.
   2. Planning and obstacle avoidance.

HOME-DEPOT STATIONARY TORSO ROBOT

1. MECHANICAL TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED:
   1. Complete the torso and hands. No head.
   2. Design the master robot for tele-manipulation.
2. ELECTRICAL HARDWARE TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED:
   1. Servocontrollers for motors.
   2. Interface of motor controls to PC.
3. SOFTWARE TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED:
   1. Simple C++ commands a la Robix and Electric Horse. Software environment should emulate our previous robots.
   2. Lisp control of moving blocks a la Winston and SHRDLU.
4. RESEARCH COMPONENT AND PUBLISHING:
   1. Immitation of human movements by a humanoid robot.

   INTELLIGENT CONTROL OF A ROBOTIC ARM: HUMAN INTERFACE WITH A TALKING HEAD

   1. ROBOT: Rhino.
   2. GROUP LEADER: Anas Al-Rabadi
   3. PEOPLE:
   4. READING:
      1. Paper about SHRDLU, there are also many books and PH.D. thesis about it.
   5. SOFTWARE:
      1. SHRDLU code in LISP.
   6. FIRST TASK:
   7. MECHANICAL TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED:
      1. none.
   8. ELECTRICAL HARDWARE TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED:
      1. Connect voice recognition and voice synthesis programs: Small installation.
   9. SOFTWARE TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED:
      1. Lisp program to control of moving blocks a la Winston and SHRDLU.
      2. Lisp program to communicate with people.
      3. Lisp program to control the head, emotions.
   10. RESEARCH COMPONENT AND PUBLISHING:
       1. Linking behavioral and logic approaches to robotics.
       2. Emotional robots versus rational robots.