Overview

In a significant number of modern application areas, there is the need for robots that have combined abilities

of perception, language, and planning.

Perceptual needs often include advanced vision as well as human-centered vision; examples include

targeting action/activity and affective state recognition. Language is often part of a wider repertoire of fluid

interaction with humans, including advanced natural language dialogue capabilities, often augmented with

elements of non-verbal language. Furthermore, requirements for Planning algorithms often include advanced

human-aware planning, including socially-aware motion planning as well as planning techniques enabling

collaboration. As such, special methodologies and techniques arising from the field of Human-Robot

Interaction studies, as well as social robotics and human-robot teams, are becoming increasingly important

towards the creation of such systems.

In this course, after a contextualization of robotics in a wider space and an introduction of certain relevant

notions from the cognitive sciences, we will examine the above four areas, and engage in hands-on mini

projects in order to provide practical skills as well as the opportunity to provide more depth towards

sub-areas that are better matched to each specific student’s background and interests.