CHALLENGE

Robots today have been used successfully in many domains, from exploring Mars and finding evidence of water, to mapping the health of Coral Reefs, to assisting long-distance drivers, and assembling cars. In our course we will pursue a grand challenge approach to robotics and create new robot bodies and brains. We are motivated by tasks at the frontier of today's robotic capabilities. We will develop solutions for these tasks that are grounded in state-of-the-art algorithms and systems science for robots. We will implement these solutions and test them using a challenge format. Our robots will employ some of the most advanced techniques for perception, navigation, and manipulation to cope with unknown environments, negotiating intricate paths, adapting their next move to obstacles, finding useful objects in the environment, and using them to build a structure. This work will provide our students with the foundations for creating computer systems that interact with the physical world, leading the way from PCs to PRs (personal robots). The grand challenge for this course is Build a Shelter on Mars. Imagine a robot parachuted in a remote and unknown environment such as Mars. We wish for such a robot to move around exploring its new space. After "familiarizing" itself with the space (that is, learning a rough map) the robot will pick a spot for constructing a shelter. This shelter may range from a simple wall to a room-like structure. To do this, the robot will prospect searching and collecting objects for building the structure. The elements needed to solve Building a Shelter on Mars enable other robot applications, ranging from autonomous navigation with dynamic obstacles, searching and rescuing victims at a disaster area, tidying up a room, clearing the dishes in a cafeteria, delivering packages in an office environment, and fetching a glass from the kitchen.

Challenge overview web page — by Daniela Rus — last modified 12-10-2008 05:08 PM

 

Copyright 2007, by the Contributing Authors. Cite/attribute Resource. Rus, D., Roy, N., Teller, S. (2007, October 30). CHALLENGE. Retrieved January 05, 2009, from RoboticsCourseWare.org Web site: http://roboticscourseware.org/fullcourses/mit-csail-robotics-science-and-systems/challenge. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.