CSCE 452/752 Robotics and Spatial Intelligence, Spring 2024

1. Introduction

What is a robot?

The word “robot” can be surprisingly difficult to define.

However, there are some important defining characteristics to look for:

Autonomous: A robot must make its own decisions.
Sensor-driven: A robot needs to collect information about its environment.
Physical: The real world is complicated and unpredictable.
Goal-achieving: A robot should do something useful.

[Mataric, The Robotics Primer]

From one of the pioneers of robotics

You can't define a robot. It's the same as trying to define Mt. Fuji. If a steep hill suddenly protrudes from the flatland, you can draw a line to show where the mountain starts, but Mt Fuji becomes higher so gradually that you can't draw a line. Robots are like Mt. Fuji. It's hard to separate what is a robot from what is not. Asimo is so near the peak, anyone can easily call it a robot. But what about a dishwasher? It can automatically wash dishes, so you might call it a robot. The line is blurry.

– Masahiro Mori

[RAS Magazine, June 2012]

Weasel words

The editors of Wikipedia had extreme difficulty coming to a consensus on the definition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot

The State of Robotics: Rapid Progress, But a Long Way to Go

[Amazon Robotics]

[Waymo]

[DJI]

[Independent Robotics]

The Fundamental Problem

A robot relies on its sensors and actuators to interact with the world...

sensors

actuators

...but the world is complex and unpredictable.
...and the hardware is often limited or unreliable.

The Fundamental Problem

Robotics problems exist at the intersection computation, action, and sensing.

Computation

Robotics is a BIG field.

Mechanical engineering
Electrical engineering
Computer science
Computer engineering
...

Our focus is on computational issues...

... but that doesn't mean we can ignore sensing and acting!

http://xkcd.com/722

Example: Parallel parking

Core problems: Navigation and motion planning

Get from here to there.

[Choset+, ch 2]

[J. Cortes, Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse]

Core problems: Localization and mapping

Where am I? What is around me?

[Choset+, ch 8]

Core problems: Manipulation

Grasp, transport, assemble, or disassemble objects in the environment.

Core problems: Exploration and coverage

Move to see or touch everything in the environment.