Type of Document	Master's Thesis
Author	Kusumalnukool, Kanok
Author's Email Address	kanok.kusumalnukool@vanderbilt.edu
URN	etd-0329102-161914
Title	THE SELF AGENT FOR MOBILE ROBOT
Degree	Master of Science
Department	Electrical Engineering
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title D. mitch Wilkes Committee Chair Richard Alan Peter II Committee Member
Keywords	robot mobile robot self agent san
Date of Defense	2002-03-18
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract In robotics, we need robots which have the ability to understand what a human wants and can respond accordingly. On the other hand, robot should be able to provide information that is easy for a human to understand. Therefore, we developed the robot Self Agent to provide these abilities. The main purpose of the Self Agent is to be the center of the robot. It provides every basic need that a robot should have. For example, translating high-level command into basic commands so that a robot can understand and execute them; Self-monitoring of the robot’s performance; and having an intelligent action selection that will make good decisions. Since we needed to have a good decision mechanism, we created a new approach which consists of two algorithms. The first algorithm is Spreading Activation Network (SAN) that provides the basis for selecting appropriate behaviors (Action Selection) for completing a given task. To perform well, parameters of the Spreading Activation Network must be manually tuned. The second algorithm is the Reinforcement Learning (RL) technique that enables a robot to automatically learn multiple policies. This research will show we trained an ATRV-Jr robot, called Scooter to learn policies and automatically adapt to unexpected variables.
Files	Filename       Size       Approximate Download Time (Hours:Minutes:Seconds)     28.8 Modem   56K Modem   ISDN (64 Kb)   ISDN (128 Kb)   Higher-speed Access    Thesis-Kanok.pdf 776.34 Kb 00:03:35 00:01:50 00:01:37 00:00:48 00:00:04