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teaching:mfe:ia [2015/04/11 17:47] stuetzle [Stochastic Local Search heuristics for solving NP-complete puzzles.] |
teaching:mfe:ia [2016/03/14 15:59] mdorigo [Evolution of Modular Controllers for Simulated and Real Robots] |
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| - | ====== MFE 2013-2014 : Intelligence Artificielle ====== | + | ====== MFE 2015-2016 : Intelligence Artificielle ====== |
| ===== Introduction ===== | ===== Introduction ===== | ||
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| * [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~stuetzle|Thomas Stützle (IRIDIA)]] | * [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~stuetzle|Thomas Stützle (IRIDIA)]] | ||
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| - | ===== Optimising Ant Colony Algorithms for Performance ====== | ||
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| - | Ants have inspired a number of computational techniques and among the most successful is ant colony optimization (ACO). ACO is an optimization technique that can be applied to tackle a wide variety of computational problems that arise in computer science, telecommunications, and engineering. | ||
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| - | The goal of this project is to improve the performance of ACO algorithms by investigating and testing various implementation techniques: intrinsic functions (MMX/SSE floating-point operations), CPU cache effects, or GPU programming. | ||
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| - | Required skills: knowledge of C programming. Some knowledge about computer architecture. | ||
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| - | * Contacts : | ||
| - | * [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mdorigo|Marco Dorigo (IRIDIA)]] | ||
| - | * [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~stuetzle|Thomas Stützle (IRIDIA)]] | ||
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| * Contacts : | * Contacts : | ||
| * [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~stuetzle|Thomas Stützle (IRIDIA)]] | * [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~stuetzle|Thomas Stützle (IRIDIA)]] | ||
| + | * [[http://code.ulb.ac.be/iridia.people.php?id=1393|Alberto Franzin (IRIDIA)]] | ||
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| - | ===== Automatic fitness function definition in evolutionary robotics ===== | + | ===== Development of remote monitoring software for intelligent structures ===== |
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| - | Evolutionary robotics is a fascinating approach to the design of robot controllers that takes inspiration from natural evolution. | + | |
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| - | In order to obtain a robot that is able to perform a desired task, the evolutionary robotics approach considers a population of robots that evolves in time. Each robot is characterized by a genotype that defines somehow its behavior. Each robot is evaluated according to a fitness function that measures the ability of the robot to perform the desired task. Robots with a low fitness are eliminated. Robots with a high fitness remain in the population and generate offsprings -- e.g., robots with a similar genotype obtained via mutation and/or cross-over. Through this process, generation by generation, the evolutionary robotics approach is able to obtain robots that present higher and higher fitness and that are therefore able to perform the desired task more and more effectively. | + | |
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| - | One of the main open problems in evolutionary robotics is that the definition of an appropriate fitness function is a very complex, labor-intensive, and time-consuming activity that requires the attention of an expert researcher. | + | |
| - | The goal of this master thesis is to devise an automatic method to define a fitness function in order to obtain a robot that is able to perform a desired task. This automatic method will be based on machine learning and metaheuristic algorithms. In particular, it will draw ideas from the fields of reinforcement learning and of on-line adaptation of parameters in optimization algorithms. | + | S-blocks are dynamically reconfigurable blocks used for autonomous construction applications. When two or more S-blocks are assembled they are capable of communicating with each other over a near field communication (NFC) wireless interface. The goal of this master thesis is to develop software to monitor (and control) the blocks in an intelligent structure remotely over the auxiliary Zigbee-based wireless interface. As only one block in the structure is fitted with this wireless interface, it is required that the other blocks communicate with the PC, via routing messages through the block-to-block NFC interfaces. This will require the software on the S-Blocks to be enhanced to use preemptive task swapping, to allow multiple blocks to communicate with each other simultaneously. |
| - | Required skills: The candidates should be acquainted with C/C++ programming and have a working knowledge of the English language. | + | Required skills: The candidates should understand low level computer concepts such as: interrupts, timers, and registers, have some experience with C/C++ programming, and have a working knowledge of the English language. |
| - | * Contact: [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mbiro|Mauro Birattari]], Marco Dorigo, Vito Trianni (IRIDIA) | + | * Contact: [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mdorigo|Marco Dorigo]] (IRIDIA) |
| - | ===== Evolution of Modular Controllers for Simulated and Real Robots ===== | + | ===== Design of a holonomic drive system ===== |
| - | The goal of this master thesis is investigating how modularity in a robot controller can influence the quality of the behaviours obtained through artificial evolution. | + | Unlike a differential drive system, a holonomic drive system has the advantage of being able to move in any direction at a given instant. The goal of this master thesis is to design and evaluate the performance of a holonomic drive system. The drive system will be assembled from a combination of off-the-shelf components and 3D printed parts. In order to evaluate the drive system, close loop controllers need to be designed and evaluated in C/C++. |
| - | Similarly to the nervous system that can be divided in central and peripheral, the project will study a modular architecture for neural network controllers. The peripheral modules encode the information coming from the sensory subsytems or going to the motor apparatus. The central system encodes the behavioural rules that map sensations to actions. The project will study methods to develop the peripheral modules by maximising the information transfer from the sensory input and to the motor output, on the basis of measures derived from Information Theory. | + | |
| - | The project will involve experimental activities with both simulated and real robots, and will investigate both individual and collective behaviours. | + | |
| - | Required skills: The candidates should be acquainted with C/C++ programming and have a working knowledge of the English language. | + | Required skills: The candidates should have some experience with programming in C/C++, and some experience with 3D modelling (preferably Solidworks). The candidates should be able to use basic kinematics to solve simple physics problems, and have a working knowledge of the English language. |
| - | * Contact: [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~vtrianni|Vito Trianni]], Marco Dorigo (IRIDIA) | + | * Contact: [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mdorigo|Marco Dorigo]] (IRIDIA) |