D.P. Tsakiris: Teaching

Dimitris P. Tsakiris

HY590.75 Biomimetic Robotics

Spring 2007:

Mo 1-3 p.m., Rm. B211
Wed 1-3 p.m., Rm. RA203
(White Building, Knossos Campus)

Instructor: Dimitris Tsakiris (e-mail: tsakiris at ics.forth.gr)

Graduate course of the Department of Computer Science of the University of Crete.

This graduate course will consider complex robotic systems
inspired from biology, the neurosciences and psychology,
with emphasis on mechanics, motion control and sensor-based behaviors.

Examples of such systems are:
- robotic systems emulating the locomotion and neuromuscular control of various organisms
(reptile/eel/ciliary undulatory locomotion, insect/quadruped/human legged locomotion, …),
- robotic systems inspired by the insect flight control and navigation systems
(visual motion detection, use of sensory information for control, reactive behaviors, …),
- multi-robot systems inspired by social insects (ants, bees, …),
- cognitive robotic systems (e.g., robotic imitation inspired by human social learning).

Regarding such robotic systems, this course will address topics related to:
- their kinematics and dynamics,
- their control, with emphasis on linear and non-linear control,
- their neuromuscular control, as well as rhythmogenesis in such systems
via central pattern generator neural networks,
- the generation of reactive and cooperative behaviors via sensor-based control.

The course will involve student projects (a significant part of the course load).
The projects may draw on studies from biology (in particular from computational neuroethology),
from the computational neurosciences and from psychology,
in order to address issues pertinent to the above, or other related, topics.

Announcements:

Lectures
Project
Exams
Homeworks
References
Links

Lectures:

Lecture 1:

March 14, 2007

Topic: Biomimetic Robotics: Introduction

Reading material:

"Η βιολογική έμπνευση στη ρομποτική",

Η Καθημερινή - The Economist,

M.H. Dickinson, "Bionics: Biological insight into mechanical design",
in Proc. of the Natl. Academy of Sciences (PNAS), vol.96, no. 25, December 1999.

N.E. Sharkey, "Biologically Inspired Robotics",
in The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks,
M.A. Arbib, Ed., Second Edition, The MIT Press, 2003.

L.D. Paulson, "Biomimetic Robots",
in IEEE Computer, September 2004.

S. Kirsner, "They're Robots? Those Beasts!",
in The New York Times, September 16, 2004.

Lecture 2:

March 19, 2007

Topic: Animal Locomotion: Introduction

Reading material:

"Invertebrate Locomotion",

The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks,

M.H. Dickinson, C.T. Farley, R.J. Full, M. A. R. Koehl, R. Kram, S. Lehman,
“How Animals Move: An Integrative View”,
Science, Vol. 288, pp. 100-106, 2000.

Lecture 3:

March 21, 2007

Topic: Undulatory Locomotion: Introduction

Reading material:

"Vertebrate Locomotion",

The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks,

Background material:

E. Marder, D. Bucher,
“Central pattern generators and the control of rhythmic movement”,
Current Biology, vol. 11, pp. R986-R996, 2001.

S. Grillner, “The motor infrastructure:
from ion channels to neuronal networks”,
Nature Reviews, vol. 4, pp. 573-586, 2004.

Lecture 4:

March 26, 2007

Topic: Insect flight and EMDs: Introduction

Reading material:

Top of the page

Project:

The project counts for 30% of the course grade.

Some project topics and background material follow.
These topics are only indicative - not mandatory.

Subject: Insect locomotion

Background material:

J. Schmitt, P. Holmes, “Mechanical models for insect locomotion:
dynamics and stability in the horizontal plane. I. Theory”,
Biol. Cybern., Vol. 83, pp. 501-515, 2000.

J.E. Seipel, P.J. Holmes, R.J. Full,
“Dynamics and stability of insect locomotion:
a hexapedal model for horizontal plane motions”,
Biol. Cybern., vol. 91, pp. 76-90, 2004.

Subject: Undulatory Locomotion

O. Ekeberg, "A combined neuronal and mechanical model of fish swimming",
Biol. Cybern., vol. 69, pp. 363-374, 1993.

D.P. Tsakiris, M. Sfakiotakis, A. Menciassi, G. LaSpina, P. Dario,
“Polychaete-like Undulatory Robotic Locomotion”.
Proc. of the IEEE Intl. Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA’05),
pp. 3029-3034, Barcelona, Spain, April 18-22, 2005.

M. Sfakiotakis, D.P. Tsakiris, A. Vlaikidis,
“Biomimetic Centering for Undulatory Robots”.
First IEEE Intl. Conference
on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob'06),
Pisa, Italy, February 20-22, 2006 (to appear).

Software for undulatory locomotion simulation and data analysis:
mechanism design, control, neuromuscular control, sensor-based control,
experimental data analysis (based on Matlab/Simulink):

M. Sfakiotakis, D.P. Tsakiris,
“SIMUUN: A Simulation Environment for Undulatory Locomotion”,
Intl. J. Modelling & Simulation, IASTED/Acta Press, 2005 (to appear).

Subject: Neuromuscular control: Central Pattern Generators

A.U. Ijspeert, “A connectionist central pattern generator
for the aquatic and terrestrial gaits of a simulated salamander”,
Biol. Cybern., vol. 84, pp. 331-348, 2001.

O. Ekeberg, "A combined neuronal and mechanical model of fish swimming",
Biol. Cybern., vol. 69, pp. 363-374, 1993.

E. Marder, D. Bucher,
“Central pattern generators and the control of rhythmic movement”,
Current Biology, vol. 11, pp. R986-R996, 2001.

S. Grillner, “The motor infrastructure:
from ion channels to neuronal networks”,
Nature Reviews, vol. 4, pp. 573-586, 2004.

Subject: Imitation in robotics

A. Billard, "Imitation" from [Arbib].

S. Schaal, A. Ijspeert, A. Billard,
"Computational approaches to motor learning by imitation"
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B, 358, pp. 537-547, 2003.

A. Ijspeert, J. Nakanishi, S. Schaal,
"Movement imitation with nonlinear dynamical system in humanoids"
Proc. Intl. Conf. Rob & Autom. (ICRA 2002), 2002.

P. Andry, P. Gaussier, S. Moga, J.P. Banquet, J. Nadel,
"Learning and communication via imitation:
an autonomous robot perspective"
IEEE Trans. Systems, Man & Cybernetics, Part A: Systems and Humans,
vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 431-442, 2001.

Bipedal locomotion:
G. Taga, Y. Yamaguchi, H. Shimizu,
“Self-organized control of bipedal locomotion
by neural oscillators in unpredictable environment”,
Biol. Cybern., vol. 65, pp. 147-159, 1991.

Subject: Hardware implementation

Example of project (Fall 2004-2005):
Implementation of sensorimotor coordination
via the Braitenberg vehicle paradigm
for mobile robots built using LEGO blocks
(P. Varnavidis, A. Blaikidis, S. Ntalabeki, G. Ksenikoy):