syllabus

** Course Description **
The course introduces the fundamentals of cognitive robotics and multi-agent systems. This is a programming intensive course and students are required to spend a significant amount of time in developing autonomous agents/robots that can perform specific tasks in real and simulated environments. Students will get hands on experience of Microsoft Robotics Development Studio, RoboCup Soccer environment, Lego Robots and Kinect device. The main focus of the course is on the processes, algorithms, and mathematics necessary to build autonomous agents for various tasks. The course provides great opportunity to students to expand their programming and engineering skills even if they are not interested in pursuing careers in robots development. Prerequisite: CSE142

**Course Outline**
 * Theory
 * Different types of sensors and their characteristics
 * Behavior-based robotics
 * Reactive and hybrid robot systems
 * Localization (particle filters and triangulation methods)
 * Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio
 * Robot programming using VPL/MRDS
 * Sumo Competition
 * Simple Programming Language*
 * Maze Solver and Line Tracing
 * RoboCup Soccer
 * Building a team of autonomous agents having good enough locomotion, localization and strategy building capabilities
 * Kinect Programming
 * Skeleton tracking programming
 * PacMan Programming
 * Building an autonomous game controller

* The topic will be covered if time permits

Reading Materials/Books

 * Johns and Taylor, Professional Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio, 2008
 * Kang, Chang, Cu and Chi, Robot Development Using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio
 * Microsoft Robotics Studio Website for tutorials and discussion forums
 * http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics/default.aspx
 * http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/robotics
 * http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics/bb383569.aspx

Grading Policy
Midterms (2): 30% Final: 40% Projects/Competitions: 30%