M01 - Intro to Autonomous Systems & Braitenberg's Vehicles

Question 1

What are autonomous robots?

Answer 1

Systems capable of operating without human intervention for prolonged periods of time in partially unknown environment

Question 2

What are the basic components of a robot?

Answer 2

• body
• sensors
• actuators
• brain (i.e. controller)
• environment
• function

Question 3

Explain the components of a robot.

Answer 3

• has a physical/virtual body that includes actuators, sensors and a brain
• is situated in a physical environment and eventually in a social environment including other robots/humans
• exhibits a behavior performing a function
• robot specifications are mostly dependent on the context of experiments, the task, environment and computational recourses

Question 4

Explain the body of a robot.

Answer 4

• varies depending on the environment in which they operate
• their material: rigid vs. soft
• form follows function

Question 5

What is a sensor and give general examples?

Answer 5

a device that measures some physical quantity of the environment
e.g. cameras, laser, microphones, touch sensors, position encoders

Question 6

What 2 types of sensors are there

Answer 6

• Proprioceptive sensors
• Exteroceptive sensors

Question 7

What are proprioceptive sensors and give examples.

Answer 7

measure the values of the robot i.e. internal state e.g. sensors position, angles, battery level

Question 8

What are exteroceptive sensors and give examples.

Answer 8

measure quantities from the robot environment i.e. external state e.g. cameras, tactile sensors and microphones

Question 9

What are actuators and give examples.

Answer 9

Enable the robot to move and eventually modify their environment by converting stored energy into movements.
e.g. electric motors - pneumatic actuators - soft actuators - active material objects

Question 10

What does the body i.e. controller do?

Answer 10

the brain of the robot regulates the state of the actuators from the current and previous states of the sensors

Question 11

What does the brain i.e. controller consist of?

Answer 11

The brain consist of a computer, embedded in the body of the robot

Question 12

What are trades of Braitenberg vehicles?

Answer 12

-show that apparent complex behavior (fear, aggression, love, exploring) can be modelled using very simple principles
- autonomous

Question 13

Explain the Braitenberg Vehicle 1.

Answer 13

• the speed of the motor is controlled by a sensor whose signal depends on the distance to a nearby source
• motion is always forward except for perturbations

more stimulus = faster movement
less stimulus = slower movement

Question 14

Explain the Braitenberg Vehicle 3.

Answer 14

• Two motors and two sensors, inhibitory connections
• 3a and 3b both slow down near a source and race when stimulus is weak
  3a - turns towards the source and comes to rest facing it
  3b - turns away from the source but may deviate

Question 15

Explain Braitenberg Vehicle 4.

Answer 15

• can produce complicated behavior (e.g. turn away if signal too strong, orbit with a fixed radius)
• activation function discontinuous (i.e. motor able to completely stop)

Question 16

Explain Braitenberg vehicle 2.

Answer 16

• with two sensors and two motors, otherwise like vehicle 1
  2a (Fear):
• excitatory connections, sensors talking to the same side wheels (speeds up in higher concentrations - towards source when it is in front but turn away if it is on one side)

2b (Aggression):
- sensors talking to the cross wheels
- also speeds up near the source
- turn towards side source and eventually hit it