Robot behaviour : design, description, analysis and modelling / Ulrich Nehmzow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nehmzow, Ulrich, 1961-

Contributor:

John G. Hartman Memorial Library Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Robotics.

Physical Description:

xvii, 252 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Springer, [2009]

Summary:

Robot Behaviour-Design, Description, Analysis and Modelling is the successor to the first textbook published in this field, Scientific Methods in Mobile Robotics, and introduces the emerging field of scientific methods in mobile robotics to a wider audience of advanced undergraduate students, postgraduate students as well as researchers in robotics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, ethology, biology and psychology.

Raising some of the big questions that roboticists should be concerned about: How can (robot) behaviour be described quantitatively? How can experimental results be compared meaningfully? Is it possible to design faithful and accurate robot simulators?

This book gives indicators on how these might be addressed, and looks at how behaviour - in this case the behaviour of autonomous mobile robots - can be measured quantitatively, analysed, compared, and modelled. Statistical methods are introduced to compare behaviours and to state statistically significant differences in behaviour. Transparent modelling techniques derived from system identification are presented to obtain models of robot behaviour in closed mathematical form.

With numerous exercises (and solutions) and examples from research, including how robot behaviours can be compared and evaluated, how robot platform-independent code (Robot Java) can be obtained, how to determine analytically which sensors of a robot are important and which are not, and how to obtain robot control code directly from observing a human demonstrator, without any traditional programming, this book will be of great value to researchers and graduate students in mobile robotics, behavioural science and cognitive science.

Contents:

1 Introduction to this Book 1

1.1 How to Make a Robot Behave - Now and Then 1

1.2 Outlook 3

2 A Brief Introduction to Mobile Robotics 5

2.1 This Book Is Not About Mobile Robotics 5

2.2 What Is Mobile Robotics? 5

2.3 The Emergence of Behaviour 9

2.4 Examples of Research Issues in Autonomous Mobile Robotics 12

3 Introduction to Scientific Methods in Mobile Robotics 15

3.2 Motivation For This Book: Analytical Robotics 17

3.3 Robot-Environment Interaction as Computation 19

3.4 A Theory of Robot-Environment Interaction 21

3.5 Robot Engineering vs. Robot Science 23

3.6 Scientific Method and Autonomous Mobile Robotics 24

3.7 Tools Used In This Book 32

3.8 Summary: The Contrast Between Experimental Mobile Robotics and Scientific Mobile Robotics 33

4 Statistical Tools for Describing Experimental Data 35

4.2 The Normal Distribution 36

4.3 Parametric Methods to Compare Samples 39

4.4 Nonparametric Methods to Compare Samples 53

4.5 Testing for Randomness in a Sequence 66

4.6 Parametric Tests for a Trend (Correlation Analysis) 68

4.7 Nonparametric Tests for a Trend 76

4.8 Analysing Categorical Data 81

4.9 Principal Component Analysis 92

5 Describing Behaviour Quantitatively Through Dynamical Systems Theory and Chaos Theory 99

5.2 Dynamical Systems Theory 99

5.3 Describing (Robot) Behaviour Quantitatively Through Phase Space Analysis 110

5.4 Sensitivity to Initial Conditions: The Lyapunov Exponent 114

5.5 Aperiodicity: The Dimension of Attractors 130

6 Analysis of Agent Behaviour: Case Studies 135

6.1 Analysing the Movement of a Random-Walk Mobile Robot 135

6.2 "Chaos Walker" 140

6.3 Analysing the Flight Paths of Carrier Pigeons 147

7 Computer Modelling of Robot-Environment Interaction 153

7.2 Some Practical Considerations Regarding Robot Modelling 155

7.3 Case Study: Model Acquisition Using Artificial Neural Networks 158

7.4 Linear Polynomial Models and Linear Recurrence Relations 164

7.5 ARMAX Modelling 165

7.6 NARMAX Modelling 169

7.7 Interpretation of Polynomial Models (Sensitivity Analysis) 171

8 Accurate Simulation Through System Identification 181

8.2 Environment Modelling: ARMAX Example 184

8.3 Localisation Through Environment Modelling 187

9 Robot Programming Through System Identification 199

9.1 Identifying a Wall-Following Behaviour Using ARMAX 199

9.2 Identifying Wall-Following Behaviour Using NARMAX 202

9.3 Platform-Independent Programming Through Task Identification: The RobotMODIC Process 204

9.4 Obtaining Task-Achieving Competences Through Training 206

9.5 Behaviour to Code: Direct Translation of Observed Behaviour Into Robot Code 211

10 Other Applications of Transparent Modelling Through System Identification 219

10.1 Sensor Identification 219

11 Quantitative Comparison of Behaviours and Model Validity 223

12.1 Motivation for Scientific Methods in Robotics 231

12.2 Quantitative Descriptions of Robot-Environment Interaction 232

12.3 A Theory of Robot-Environment Interaction 233

12.4 Outlook: Towards Analytical Robotics 235.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the John G. Hartman Memorial Library Fund.

ISBN:

9781848003965

184800396X

1848003978

9781848003972

OCLC:

249569081