Fall 2008, Per Aage Brandt assisted by S.I.s: Nick Davis, Matt Elliott.
Course description:
While robotics is a well-known field of computational engineering, cognitive robotics is a new concept and a new interdisciplinary project. Its aim is to build simulations of human cognitive properties into mobile, virtual or physical robots, including naturalistic language and interaction functions. It therefore integrates linguistics, narrative studies, computer science, philosophy, and cognitive theories of perception and thinking – since the project is interested in all aspects of embodied meaning production that can be modeled as forms of naturalized artificial intelligence.
This approach to human cognition bridges scholarship in the humanities and technical expertise from the fields of engineering and programming, and it opens towards a new form of cognitive analysis based on concrete laboratory work and experimentation, while developing both theoretical and practical knowledge.
Syllabus:
The course in Cognitive Robotics is a product of COGS 204 Cognition and Computation, held in Spring 2008. In that course, for which the students created a very active web site [http://cognitiverobotics.pbwiki.com/], the class defined in the first weeks of the class a large group project dealing with cognition, mind/brain conceptions, and robotics. The project was split into components such as programming, linguistic, and philosophical approaches to robotics, and the class was organized in groups accordingly. Each student worked towards his and her own goals while communicating progress and state of affairs to the group and then to the class. The new class follows the project-based design and will have the overarching goal pre-determined to foster growth and creativity in the domain of cognitive robotics from the first day of class.
The preliminary weeks of class will summarize the previous semester’s work and summarize historical and contemporary approaches to robotics. After this review, students will be encouraged to determine their own project within the framework of the larger goal, namely cognitive robotics. Students will be instructed to post their goals and ideas on the above-mentioned wiki site, to stimulate collaborative efforts. With micro- and macroscopic goals clearly defined, the course will shift to an in depth study of linguistics and perception to inform growing theories.
This section will review stemmatic syntax, a model of the structure of language based upon cognitively motivated domains, in relation to language parsing. We will also discuss the dual-pane model of perception, stipulating that consciousness has both a sensory and representational component. Perception will also be analyzed with respect to Image Schemas and Perceptual Symbol Systems.
The students will then present their findings as a mid-term progress report. Following these presentations, the class will transform into a workshop to refine theories. Programmers will share code and work with prototypes, while students working on the theoretical side will diagram processes and discuss the implications for their models. A Cognitive Robotics Conference held in Nord 400 – the second, following the conference held at the end of the former course – will follow this workshop period. Students will present their final projects at this open conference.
Evaluation will be based on active participation, including discussion, planning, presenting, programming, and empirical or experimental research.
Class Separated into 5 Blocks:
1) Week 1-3: Review previous semester, historical, and contemporary approach to robotics.
2) Week 4-6: In depth review of Linguistics and Perception
3) Week 7-9: Student presentations for mid-term progress report
4) Week 10-12: Workshop
5) Week 13-15: Preparation for final presentation at our Cognitive Robotics Conference.
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