Robotics
Robotics is the science or study of the technology associated with the
design, fabrication, theory, and application of robots. Robots are
being used in industry (e.g., factories), under dangerous conditions
(e.g., bomb disposal), in home applications (e.g., cleaning) as well as
the area of hobbies and entertainment (e.g., robocup, LEGO mindstorms
etc..). The robotics market is expanding in many areas, with the
strongest growth potential being personal service robots and
entertainment robots. Robotics itself is a field that touches upon many
areas of study, including Electrical and Mechanical Engineering,
Computer Science and even Cognitive Science and Chemistry (i.e.,
Nanotechnology). Computer Science plays a role in terms of deciding
"what" to do with the robot once it has been designed and built as well
as "how" to do it. Various algorithms need to be developed for
navigation, motion planning, sensor data acquisition, behavior-based
control, machine vision, 3D scene reconstruction, multi-robot
cooperation as well as various learning strategies and Aritificial
Intelligence. The main issues in robotics that must be addressed are 1)
coping efficiently with uncertainty, 2) fault tollerance in the presence
of hardware failures, 3) critical real-time response requirements and 4)
developing efficient practical solutions to real world problems.
Related Research Groups:
Faculty Researching the Area:
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