Robots and Intelligence

Richard M Crowder November 2010

Some interesting questions.

How do ants forage
How do birds flock How do we drive a car round a track without a driver How can we use a bees vision system to land a helicopter

How do birds flock?

Why
Safety in numbers Increased foraging efficiency.

How
Wants to move into the same direction as the surrounding birds

Wants to be in the middle of the surrounding birds

Wants to keep a certain distance from the surrounding birds

Control of Robot systems

Initially robots were pre-programmed
Mechanical limit switches Hard wired logic

Computers
Largely to follow as fixed task in manufacturing etc Robotic research activity is now centred on behaviour based systems Wide range of control architectures

What is a control architecture

At its simplest level, it is the methodology of integrating a number of software blocks to provide a robot with its unique functionality
Approaches NASRAM Deliberative Subsumption Reactive

Hybrid

Robot control architecture

Key points: Importance of coupling sensing and action Avoidance of symbolic knowledge Decomposition into meaningful units (behaviour etc) Between approach there are: Differences in granularities Behaviour specification

Encoding
Coordination Programming approach

Approaches to Robot Control

DELIBERATIVE REACTIVE

Symbolic

Reflexive

Speed of response
Predictive Capabilities Dependence on World Models

Representation dependant Slower response High-level intelligence Variable latency

Representation Free Real-time response Low-level intelligence Simple computation

Key Issues
Grounding in Reality Robots are grounded in the physical world problem with simulation. Building robots crystallises ideas. Concept of embodiment

Ecological dynamics
Dynamic environment that changes is both space and time Scalability

For example how do insects related to humans

Braitenburg Vehicles

Photophobe

Photovore

Deliberative approach
Key features
Hierarchical in structure Communication and Control is predictable

High level provide subgoals for lower levels

Hierarchical Intelligent Control System

Value judgement Mission Planning Level 6 Level 5 Level 4 Level 3 Level 2 Servo Level 1 Value Sensory judgement processing Value Sensory judgement processing Value Sensory judgement processing Value Sensory judgement processing Value Sensory judgement processing Sensory processing Task decomposition Task World decomposition mapping Task World decomposition mapping Task World decomposition mapping Task World decomposition mapping Task World decomposition mapping World mapping

Global Memory

Global Memory
Global Memory

Global Memory
Global Memory

Global Memory

Standard model for teleoperated systems

Subsumption Architecture
Rodney Brookes mid 1980s
Considered that sense-plan-act is detrimental to the construction of real robots.

Building a world model and reasoning using representational knowledge is at best a impediment to speed of response

Key points
Complex behaviour does not necessarily come from complex control systems
Intelligence is in the eye of the observer

The world is its best model

Robots are cheap Robustness is good (failing sensors) Systems can be incrementally build

Foraging

BEGIN Start

DETECT

Wander

Acquire

RELEASE
Wander: move through the world Acquire: move towards an attractor when detected Retrieve: Return to home

GRAB
DONE

Retrieve

Halt

Approaches compared
Modify the world

Sense

Model

Create maps

Discover new areas

Plan
Avoid collisions

Act
Move around

Augmented finite state machine

Reset
Suppressor

INPUT

BEHAVIORAL MODULE

OUTPUT

Inhibitor

Three Layered Robot

LOST
Reset BACK OUT OF TIGHT CORNERS

COLLIDE

REVERSE

Clock

EXPLORE

GO
WANDER

FORWARD
Sensor

MOTORS

RUN AWAY
AVOID OBJECTS

BRAKES

Perception
The robots ability to interpret information about its immediate surroundings, and then react to the changes
The real world is hostile to robots

Things move and change without warning.

A Priori knowledge may be incorrect, inaccurate and obsolete

 Need to consider the interaction between sensors and actuators

Perception without context of action is meaningless

How can the separation between reactive and deliberative control system be resolved, to draw on their individual strengths.

Original perception paradigm

Perception needs are determined by the robots motivation and behaviours

Revised perception paradigm

Time

Vehicle

Moving Object

Static Object

Smooth Surfaces

Action Perception Cycle

Modification

Action Plans Behaviour

Reactive Shunt

World

Models Memory

This cycle is very much a human view of the interaction, but the cycle can be reflected in robotics

Approaches to Robot Control

DELIBERATIVE REACTIVE

Symbolic

Reflexive

Speed of response
Predictive Capabilities Dependence on World Models

Both approaches have weaknesses

Reactive Control
is a technique for tightly coupling perception and action, typically in the context of motor behaviour, to provide timely robotic responses in a dynamic and unstructured world Grounding in Reality

Robots are grounded in the physical world.

Concept of embodiment (an intelligent agent that interacts with the environment through a physical body within that environment ) Ecological dynamics Dynamic environment that changes is both space and time

but
A purely reactive systems makes a number of assumptions The environment lacks temporal consistency and stability. The robots sensing is adequate. Difficult to localise a robot relative to the world model. Symbolic knowledge has little or no value. Deliberative planning systems provide an entry point at which AI and symbolic knowledge representation can enter a reactive system.

Evidence that hybrid systems are present in nature

Approaches to Robot Control

DELIBERATIVE REACTIVE

Symbolic

Reflexive

Speed of response
Predictive Capabilities Dependence on World Models

Hybrid Control
Behaviour and perception can be configured to match the task and environment.
A priori world knowledge, if stable, can be used to reconfigure behaviours. Dynamically acquired would knowledge can be used to avoid problems

.Hybrid control allows the reconfiguration of a reactive system based on world knowledge

Hybrid Architecture
Sensors
Status

Control
Activation

Actuators

Sequencing
Results Results

Deliberative

Atlantis Architecture

Features
Three layered approach Asynchronous reactivity and deliberation Deliberation is viewed as advice not decree Failures provide opportunities for restructuring
JPL Rocky 4

Sensors
Communicating with the world sensors can be viewed as a form on communication
The robot needs to pay attention to the key feature in the image. How the attention and perception resources are used is a function of motivation or intention. Biological provides many examples: Intraspecies kin recognition Prey detectors

SLAM
Simultaneous localization and mapping
Key problem in mobile robots Build a map without a priori knowledge and Keep track of where we the robot is i.e

What does the world look like

Where am I

Mobile Robot
Mobile platform fitted with odometry
Error limited to 2cm to 1m moved and 2o per 450 turned Report position in X-Y coordinates

Laser scanner to locate landmarks etc.

Vision is over complex and causes a bottleneck in the process

Process overview
Laser scanner odometry change Landmark Extraction EKF odometry update Data association EKF Re observation
EKF Extended Kalman Filter

EKF New observation

As the odometry is prone to error it needs to be updated from the environment

SLAM in practice (1)

Landmark

Robot locates its position against the landmarks

SLAM in practice (2)

Landmark

Estimated (O)

Actual

Robot moves and using odometry and determines the distance, but due to errors the position is incorrect.

SLAM in practice (3)

Landmark

Estimated (O)

Actual Estimated (L)

The landmark system relocates the robot, as we believe this over the odometry, we correct the odometry reading.

Landmarks
Landmarks should be easily re-observable.
Individual landmarks should be distinguishable from each other.

Landmarks should be plentiful in the environment.

Landmarks should be stationary.

Examples:
Room Corners

Problem with Landmarks

The system might not re-observe landmarks every time step.
The system might observe something as being a landmark but fail to ever see it again. The might wrongly associate a landmark to a previously seen landmark. Data Association solves this problem by storing ALL landmarks seen, and using only those that have been seen N times

EKF
Extended Kalman Filter
Nonlinear version of the Kalman Filter De facto standard for GPS and Navigation

Three main steps

Update the current state estimate using the odometry data

Update the estimated state from re-observing landmarks.

Add new landmarks to the current state.