Cognitive Science 375

Written assignments should be approx. 2 pages long, and will be due at the beginning of class each week.

Due: Jan 26

1. Discuss the ways in which selection of sensors and effectors constrains control system design.
2. Compare and contrast Brooks' "subsumption" architecture and Sahota's "Bidding" architecture, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Due: Feb 2

1. (Review 211 material from Tark's paper on "What details of neural circuits matter," if necessary). What details of the cricket neural circuit for phonotaxis really matter functionally?
2. The robotic cricket was not able to mimic all of the behaviors of the real cricket. Was that the result of failing to estimate correctly which details of the cricket's neural circuits matter, or is there some other explanation? How would you suggest revising the robotic cricket in a next round of tests?

Due: Feb 9

Compare and contrast top-down and bottom-up control. Discuss in particular behaviors in biological systems (including, but not exclusively human) that one or the other does a better job accounting for.

Due: Feb 16

Dynamic systems approaches to perception and action are often touted as an alternative to computational approaches. Just what is the claimed difference between these two kinds of models? Since the modern field of autonomous robotics is based around computational devices (microprocessors and microcontrollers), how does work on dynamic systems models help to inform work in robotics? What does this suggest about the relationship between dynamic system and computational models?

Due: Feb 23

1. Describe the bottom-up and the top-down aspects of Xavier.
2. For many people, hybrid systems is a compromise between the sometimes disparate top-down and bottom-up approaches, to others it is a cop-out, failing to make a committment one way or another. Take a side in the debate for or against hybrid systems and justify your position.

Due: Mar 2

Connectionist approaches are normally categorized as "bottom-up", however there are clearly significant differences between this kind of control and the bottom-up approaches we have already explored. Discuss what makes these bottom-up approaches similar and what makes them different.

Due: Mar 23

Submit a proposal for the design of your robot.

Due: Mar 30

Find a write-up about a robot or robotic system that provides potentially useful inspiration for the design or construction or programming of your own robot. Use the web, the library, or any other resource that gives you access to such technical information. You should turn in a two page (or so) description of the technology or concept that you discovered, along with an explanation of how it might, in theory at least, apply to the problem you're trying to solve.

Due: Apr 6

Each group should submit a design of the control architecture for the robot software. This design should be fairly complete, in particular you should describe how your software will solve the various problems you forsee it encountering: how will it detect the fire? How will it stop and start both in response to a loud noise and in response to extinguishing the fire? How will it recognize the fire is out? Etc.