Computer Science 154
Short assignment 1
Due Monday., Jan. 27 in class
Robotics Overview

Name(s)  __________________________

Reading for Week 1: Achieving Artificial Intelligence through Building Robots by Rodney Brooks. Click here for the paper (pdf).

1. In the introductory slides there is one robotics "timeline" that includes a number of fictional robots. Another timeline includes real robots. Find another fictional and another real robot (or robot species), also with dates, that could be added to these timelines. Write a sentence or two of explanation for each.





















2. For the purposes of CS 154, we are considering robots to be physical entities that autonomously interact with their environments. Autonomy, however, is better described as a spectrum than a binary (present/absent) characteristic. For example, one of HMC's architectural "warts" would lack autonomy altogether, while an HMC student might be the archetype of an autonomous agent (despite the core curriculum's homogenizing efforts;). Come up with an example of an entity that is somewhere in the grey area between these two extremes of autonomy. Write a sentence or two explaining your example.





















3. Choosing topics/teams for lab project #1
   
   Please choose a first and second choice for a lab project that you would like to work on for the first three weeks of CS 154. They may be some of the suggested projects, or a project of your own design. I encourage forming teams of 2-3 people to team up on these projects. If you would like to get started working on a robot programming project, feel free to see me about your project choice and I will help get you set up.