Tutor: Dr. Matteo Zella, Carlos Medina Sánchez
Put yourself in the “shoes” of a robot meeting a person on its way… How would you understand what is the person doing and what his/her goals are? How would you plan your actions in this social context? How would you interact with others to be sure that you can achieve your own goals?
If one thinks about it, this situation is common in our everyday life. From the perspective of a robot, however, handling such “simple” task involves: (1) the perception of the physical surrounding and of the behavior of people moving in it; (2) the planning of appropriate actions to accomplish some goal while matching the expectations of how individuals should behave in a social context; (3) the interactions between humans and robots or between robots alone to ensure that a goal can be achieved, maybe in collaboration with each other.
In this project, after an initial set of tutorials on specific programming tools and robotic platforms, the participants will (1) identify a specific social context in which a robot would need to achieve a particular goal, e.g., delivering a packet to somebody in an office, (2) implement the corresponding software services, and (3) test them in a simulation scenario.
Due to the current situation regarding COVID-19, the project will be held as a virtual course with weekly online group meetings. To learn how to program robots and test the implemented solutions, a simulation environment including persons will be provided.
Participants in this course are expected to be highly motivated. This course will be taught in English. The project is suitable for students at the bachelor level. If you are not sure whether you fulfill the requirements or if you have any questions, please contact us.
UPDATE: Considering the number of requests, we have decided to extend the scope of the project to cover also web and mobile development in the context of social robotics. Java or Python can also be used instead of C/C++ to interact with the robots. Therefore, a solid C/C++ background is not necessary in order to join the project.
If you want to participate in this course or you want to know about the project, please send an email to matteo.zella@uni-due.de to indicate your interest. On Monday 19.04. at 11am we will hold a kickoff meeting to discuss the content of the project and answer your questions (a link to the online meeting will be sent via Email to the students who contact us). After the meeting, the students who decide to join the project will be added to a Moodle course where further informations will be provided.
Find information in LSF.