Robotics: Toward the New Science of Programmable Work
Abstract
The fundamental problem of robotics is how to design and deploy general purposemechanisms capable of performing user-specified mechanical work within a designated taskdomain. This statement reveals the three essential challenges to any agenda for such a science ofprogrammable energy exchange: architecture (a theory and practice of design and deployment);environment (a rational framework for task domain models); and language (a formalism foruser specification). The architectural problem is to formulate a user~s goal in terms of targetenergy landscapes intended to govern the coupled agent-environment pairing, yet to do so in acompositional manner. The resources available for engaging the environment are revealed byinterpreting at the mesoscale advances in the thermodynamics of information applied to heatengines equipped with feedback loops. Finally, a recent convergence between the computerscientists and mathematicians working at the logical foundations of mathematics affords a newbody of tools and techniques that can render the topological symbols of dynamical systemstheory as typed expressions in a programming language. The project aims to produce a novel,correct, automated design environment for building robots with unparalleled capabilities alongwith a new generation of unusually interdisciplinary young scholars, all through the effort tostand up a new discipline on sound mathematical and physical foundations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 23, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141612817
Entities
People
- Daniel E. Koditschek
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Pennsylvania