Introduction to Robotics

We defined a robot as a physically situated intelligent agent. Explain what those terms mean in this context.

What are the 5 major components of any robot? What does each component do?

Describe at least 3 qualitatively different situations where the use of a robot over a human is warranted/desired.

Describe the terms of closed-loop control and open-loop control and the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

Discuss at a high level the distinctions between automation and autonomy for robot design and the four sliders along which they are typically considered.

For each automation vs autonomy slider, discuss the conditions under which we would place a robot towards one end or the other. I.e. explain what the different ends of the sliders stand for.

Describe the frame problem of a closed-world assumption setting.

Explain what bounded rationality means.

What are the three types of robot architectures, and how do they each aim to describe the robot’s features?

Describe the four primitives involved in robot operations and give examples of each.

Describe the differences between the reactive and the deliberative layer, in terms of primitives used, perceptual ability, planning horizon and time scale.

The deliberative layer contains four deliberative functions: generating, selecting, implementing and monitoring. Discuss what each function entails.

Describe the 5 subsystems of a systems-architecture view of a robot, and their interactions.