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Vorlesung: Robot Learning
Quick Facts
Lecturer: | Jan Peters |
Teaching Assistants: | Joe Watson and TA-ing Team |
Classes: | Wednesday, 08:55-11:30 in Room S202/C120 |
Language: | English |
Office Hours: | Marco Ewerton, contact via watson@ias.tu-darmstadt.de |
TU-CAN: | 20-00-0629-vl Lernende Roboter |
Credits: | 6,0 |
Exam: | T.B.A. |
Description
(:youtube qtqubguikMk :) In the 1980s, classical robotics already reached a high level of maturity and it was able to produce large factories. For example, cars factories were completely automated. Despite these impressive achievements, unlike personal computers, modern service robots still did not leave the factories and take a seat as robot companions on our side. The reason is that it is still harder for us to program robots than computers. Usually, modern companion robots learn their duties by a mixture of imitation and trial-and-error. This new way of programming robots has a crucial consequence in the field of industry: the programming cost increases, making mass production impossible.
However, in research, this approach had a great influence and over the last ten years all top universities in the world conduct research in this area. The success of these new methods has been demonstrated in a variety of sample scenarios: autonomous helicopters learning from teachers complex maneuver, walking robot learning impressive balancing skills, self-guided cars hurtling at high speed in racetracks, humanoid robots balancing a bar in their hand and anthropomorphic arms cooking pancakes.
We pay particular attention to interactions with the participants of the lecture, asking multiple question and appreciating enthusiastic students.
We also offer a parallel project, the Robot Learning: Integrated Project. It is designed to enable participants to understand robot learning in its full depth by directly applying methods presented in this class to real or simulated robots. We suggest motivated students to attend it as well, either during or after the Robot Learning Class!
Contents
The course gives a introduction to robotics and machine learning methods. The following topics are expected to be covered throughout the semester.
- Robotics Basics
- Machine Learning Basics
- Model Learning
- Imitation Learning
- Optimal Decision Making
- Optimal Control
- Reinforcement Learning
- Policy Search
- Inverse Reinforcement Learning
Requirements
Mathematics from the first semesters, basic programming abilities, computer science basics.
Literature
The most important books for this class are:
- B. Siciliano, L. Sciavicco. Robotics: Modelling, Planning and Control, Springer
- C.M. Bishop. Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning, Springer free online copy
- R. Sutton, A. Barto. Reinforcement Learning - An Introduction, MIT Press free online copy
Additionally, the following papers are useful for specific topics:
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- Deisenroth, M. P.; Neumann, G.; Peters, J. (2013). A Survey on Policy Search for Robotics, Foundations and Trends in Robotics, 21, pp.388-403.
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- Kober, J.; Bagnell, D.; Peters, J. (2013). Reinforcement Learning in Robotics: A Survey, International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 32, 11, pp.1238-1274.
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- Nguyen Tuong, D.; Peters, J. (2011). Model Learning in Robotics: a Survey, Cognitive Processing, 12, 4.
Teaching Staff
Lectures will be held by Jan Peters and additionally supervised by Daniel Tanneberg and Marco Ewerton.
Jan Peters heads the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Lab at the Department of Computer Science at the TU Darmstadt. Jan has studied computer science, electrical, control, mechanical and aerospace engineering. You can find Jan Peters in the Robert-Piloty building S2 | 02 in room E314. You can also contact him through mail@jan-peters.net
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daniel@robot-learning.de
.ewerton@ias.tu-darmstadt.de
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For further inquiries do not hesitate to contact us immediately!