HY590 "Biomimetic Robotics" (York credit for CSE4421 3.0)
Summer 2007 (Heraclion)
Course Director: D. Tsakiris.
This course will consider
the mechanical behavior and the motion control of complex robotic
systems inspired from biology. Examples of such systems are robotic
systems emulatingthe reptile undulatory locomotion, and robotic systems
inspired by the visual motion-based insect flight control system.
The course will draw on studies from computational neuroethology and
the computational neurosciences, in order to address topics related to
biomimetic robot locomotion and control, in particular:
- the kinematics and
dynamics of robotic systems,
- the control of
robotic systems, with emphasis on linear and non-linear control, on
sensor-based control, and on behavior-based control,
- the neural
mechanisms for control of locomotion, such as the central pattern
generator neural networks responsible for rhythmogenesis in biological
systems.
Prerequisites: A CSE gpa
of at least 4.5; MATH1025 3.0; MATH1300 3.0; MATH1310 3.0; CSE2011 3.0;
CSE2031 3.0. Recommended:
Familiarity with Matlab.
The evaluation is
expected to consist of homework assignments (15%), a project (35%) and
a final exam (50%).
The projects may be
computational (simulations, using Matlab, or Maple, etc.) and/or small
scale contructions of robots using Legos.
York students may also be interested and get involved in design
projects with the Pioneer and RWI mobile robots of CVRL (see http://www.ics.forth.gr/cvrl/robots.html).
References:
- Introduction to Robotics,
John J. Craig, Addison-Wesley Publishing, Inc. (Must have; Please
obtain in
Toronto pre-departure)
Other references will be provided by the instructor as web or hard
copies. E.g.,
- Neurotechnology for Biomimetic
Robots, J. Ayers, J.L. Davis and A. Rudolph, Eds., MIT Press,
2002
- The Handbook of Brain Theory
and Neural Networks, Second Edition, Edited by Michael A. Arbib,
MIT Press, 2002
- Mathematical Biology, An
Introduction, Series: Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics,
Vol. 17 , Volume package: Mathematical Biology, Murray, James D., 3rd
ed. 2002.
Updated: May 3, 2007