Robobo: la siguiente generación de robot educativo

[Resumen] Las carreras universitarias de informática e ingeniería han estado utilizando robots móviles en diferentes asignaturas desde hace mucho tiempo. Hasta el momento, debido principalmente a limitaciones económicas, estos robots educativos han sido bastante simples en términos tecnológicos. Esto no era un gran problema porque la robótica no se consideraba un mercado real en la industria, por lo que los robots se usaban en las clases como prototipos, sin una expectativa de aplicación a la realidad. Pero como todos sabemos, la situación actual, y el futuro cercano, hacen que la robótica sea un mercado clave para los ingenieros y los informáticos que se forman en las universidades. Como consecuencia, los robots utilizados en las aulas universitarias deben ser actualizados para adecuarlos a la realidad tecnológica que se maneja en el mundo industrial. Este artículo presenta Robobo, un robot móvil educativo de bajo costo desarrollado en la Universidade da Coruña. Robobo combina una base con ruedas simple con un teléfono inteligente, que proporciona la última tecnología al robot. Con Robobo, los estudiantes pueden desarrollar sus propios proyectos usando cámaras, micrófonos o pantallas de alta resolución, acercando la enseñanza universitaria al mercado real que encontrarán cuando finalicen sus estudios.[Abstract] Computer science and engineering majors have been using mobile robots in different subjects for a long time. So far, due primarily to economic constraints, these educational robots have been quite simple in technological terms. This was not a big problem because robotics was not considered a real market in the industry, so robots were used in classes as prototypes, without an expectation of application to reality. But as we all know, the current situation, and the near future, make robotics a key market for engineers and IT graduates in universities. As a consequence, the robots used in the university classrooms must be updated to adapt them to the technological reality that is handled in the industrial world. This article presents Robobo, a low cost educational mobile robot developed at the University of Coruña. Robobo combines a simple wheeled base with a smartphone, which provides the latest technology to the robot. With Robobo, students can develop their own projects using cameras, microphones or highresolution displays, bringing university education closer to the real market they will find when they finish their studies

Engineering Morphological Development in a Robotic Bipedal Walking Problem: An Empirical Study

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG[Abstract]: In living beings, the natural development of the body has been shown to facilitate learning. The application of these natural developmental principles in robotics have been considered in different robotic morphologies and scenarios, leading to mixed results. Development was found to be beneficial for learning in some instances, but also irrelevant or detrimental in others. This mix of results and scenarios has allowed researchers to extract some notions about the conditions that must be fulfilled or set to apply morphological development successfully. Notions that we have organized to set a series of design conditions to successfully apply morphological development. Thus, in this article, we are going to focus on the study of one of them that has been frequently addressed by researchers in their studies in very general terms. It can be described as the need to achieve a suitable synergy among the different components involved in the development and learning process: morphological development strategy, controller, task, and learning algorithm. In particular, we have concentrated on empirically determining the influence of five developmental strategies, implemented in different ways, applied at different speeds and deployed in different orders and combinations, over the problem of a NAO robot controlled by an artificial neural network obtained through a neuroevolutionary algorithm learning a bipedal walking task. The results obtained permit providing a more detailed description of what a suitable synergy implies and how it can be utilized to design more successful morphological developmental processes to improve robot learning.Xunta de Galicia ; EDC431C-2021/39Research supported by the European Commission Horizon program PILLAR-Robots project, grant 101070381, the Xunta de Galicia and the European Regional Development Funds under grant EDC431C-2021/39 and the Spanish Science and Education Ministry through grant PID2021-126220OB-100. We wish to acknowledge the support received from the Centro de Investigación de Galicia ‘‘CITIC”, funded by Xunta de Galicia and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund-Galicia 2014-2020 Program), by grant ED431G 2019/01 and the Centro de Supercomputación de Galicia (CESGA)Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/0

An Approach for the Customized High-Dimensional Segmentation of Remote Sensing Hyperspectral Images

Abstract: This paper addresses three problems in the field of hyperspectral image segmentation: the fact that the way an image must be segmented is related to what the user requires and the application; the lack and cost of appropriately labeled reference images; and, finally, the information loss problem that arises in many algorithms when high dimensional images are projected onto lower dimensional spaces before starting the segmentation process. To address these issues, the Multi-Gradient based Cellular Automaton (MGCA) structure is proposed to segment multidimensional images without projecting them to lower dimensional spaces. The MGCA structure is coupled with an evolutionary algorithm (ECAS-II) in order to produce the transition rule sets required by MGCA segmenters. These sets are customized to specific segmentation needs as a function of a set of low dimensional training images in which the user expresses his segmentation requirements. Constructing high dimensional image segmenters from low dimensional training sets alleviates the problem of lack of labeled training images. These can be generated online based on a parametrization of the desired segmentation extracted from a set of examples. The strategy has been tested in experiments carried out using synthetic and real hyperspectral images, and it has been compared to state-of-the-art segmentation approaches over benchmark images in the area of remote sensing hyperspectral imaging.Ministerio de Economía y competitividad; TIN2015-63646-C5-1-RMinisterio de Economía y competitividad; RTI2018-101114-B-I00Xunta de Galicia: ED431C 2017/1

A perspective on lifelong open-ended learning autonomy for robotics through cognitive architectures

[Abstract]: This paper addresses the problem of achieving lifelong open-ended learning autonomy in robotics, and how different cognitive architectures provide functionalities that support it. To this end, we analyze a set of well-known cognitive architectures in the literature considering the different components they address and how they implement them. Among the main functionalities that are taken as relevant for lifelong open-ended learning autonomy are the fact that architectures must contemplate learning, and the availability of contextual memory systems, motivations or attention. Additionally, we try to establish which of them were actually applied to real robot scenarios. It transpires that in their current form, none of them are completely ready to address this challenge, but some of them do provide some indications on the paths to follow in some of the aspects they contemplate. It can be gleaned that for lifelong open-ended learning autonomy, motivational systems that allow finding domain-dependent goals from general internal drives, contextual long-term memory systems that all allow for associative learning and retrieval of knowledge, and robust learning systems would be the main components required. Nevertheless, other components, such as attention mechanisms or representation management systems, would greatly facilitate operation in complex domains.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; PID2021-126220OB-I00Xunta de Galicia; EDC431C-2021/39Consellería de Cultura, Educación, Formación Profesional e Universidades; ED431G 2019/0

Artificial Intelligence in Pre-University Education: What and How to Teach

This article belongs to the Proceedings of 3rd XoveTIC Conference[Abstract] The present paper is part of the European Erasmus+ project on educational innovation led by the UDC and entitled “AI+: Developing an Artificial Intelligence Curriculum adapted to European High School”. In this paper, the progress achieved during the first year of the project will be presented. Mainly, the definition of the methodological approach for this future subject has been defined, and the AI topics to be dealt with at this age have been established. It has been a great effort to select the most appropriate focus for this subject considering the students’ and teachers’ technical background and the schools’ equipment.European Commission; 2019-1-ES01-KA201-06574

A Study of Growth Based Morphological Development in Neural Network Controlled Walkers

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG[Abstract] In nature, the physical development of the body that takes place in parallel to the cognitive development of the individual has been shown to facilitate learning. This opens up the question of whether the same principles could be applied to robots in order to accelerate the learning of controllers and, if so, how to apply them effectively. In this line, several authors have run experiments, usually quite complex and heterogeneous, with different levels of success. In some cases, morphological development seemed to provide an advantage and in others it was clearly irrelevant or even detrimental. Basically, morphological development seems to provide an advantage only under some specific conditions, which cannot be identified before running an experiment. This is due the fact that there is still no agreement on the underlying mechanisms that lead to success or on how to design morphological development processes for specific problems. In this paper, we address this issue through the execution of different experiments over a simple, replicable, and straightforward experimental setup that makes use of different neural network controlled walkers together with a morphological development strategy based on growth. The morphological development processes in these experiments are analyzed both in terms of the results obtained by the different walkers and in terms of how their fitness landscapes change as the morphologies develop. By comparing experiments where morphological development improves learning and where it does not, a series of initial insights have been extracted on how to design morphological development processes.This work has been partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades of Spain/FEDER (grant RTI2018-101114-B-I00), Xunta de Galicia (EDC431C-2021/39) and the Centro de Investigación de Galicia “CITIC”, funded by Xunta de Galicia and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund- Galicia 2014-2020 Program), by grant ED431G 2019/01. Funding for open access charge: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG. We also want to thank CESGA (Centro de Supercomputación de Galicia. https://www.cesga.es/) for the possibility of using its resourcesXunta de Galicia; EDC431C-2021/39Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/0

Motivation as a Tool for Designing Lifelong Learning Robots

[Abstract] Designing robots has usually implied knowing beforehand the tasks to be carried out and in what domains. However, in the case of fully autonomous robots this is not possible. Autonomous robots need to operate in an open-ended manner, that is, deciding on the most interesting goals to achieve in domains that are not known at design time. This obviously poses a challenge from the point of view of designing the robot control structure. In particular, the main question that arises is how to endow the robot with a designer defined purpose and with means to translate that purpose into operational decisions without any knowledge of what situations the robot will find itself in. In this paper, we provide a formalization of motivation from an engineering perspective that allows for the structured design of purposeful robots. This formalization is based on a definition of the concepts of robot needs and drives, which are related through experience to the appropriate goals in specific domains. To illustrate the process, a motivational system to guide the operation of a real robot is constructed using this approach. A series of experiments carried out over it are discussed providing some insights on the design of purposeful motivated operation.This work was partially funded by the EU’s H2020 research programme (grant No 640891 DREAM), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades of Spain/FEDER (grant RTI2018-101114-B-I00), Xunta de Galicia and FEDER (grant ED431C 2017/12), and by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports through the FPU grant of Alejandro RomeroXunta de Galicia; ED431C 2017/1

Studying How Innate Motivations Can Drive Skill Acquisition in Cognitive Robots

This article belongs to the Proceedings of XoveTIC ConferenceAbstract: In this paper, we address the problem of how to bootstrap a cognitive architecture to opportunistically start learning skills in domains where multiple skills can be learned at the same time. To this end, taking inspiration from a series of computational models of the use of motivations in infants, we propose an approach that leverages two types of cognitive motivations: exploratory and proficiency based, the latter modulated by the concept of interestingness as an implementation of attentional mechanisms. This approach is tested in an illustrative experiment with a real robot.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2017/12Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad; TIN2015-63646-C5-1-

AI curriculum for european high schools: an embedded intelligence approach

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUGXunta de Galicia ; ED431G 2019/0