Artificial Intelligence for Robotics
Build intelligent robots that perform human tasks using
AI techniques
Francis X. Govers
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Artificial Intelligence for Robotics
Copyright 2018 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Commissioning Editor: Vijin Boricha
Acquisition Editor: Namrata Patil
Content Development Editor: Sharon Raj
Technical Editor: Mohit Hassija
Copy Editor: Safis Editing
Project Coordinator: Drashti Panchal
Proofreader: Safis Editing
Indexer: Pratik Shirodkar
Graphics: Tom Scaria
Production Coordinator: Arvindkumar Gupta
First published: August 2018
Production reference: 1290818
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham
B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78883-544-2
www.packtpub.com
I would like to dedicate this book to the memory of my father, Francis X. Govers II, who taught me from a young age to dream big and never stop reading and learning.
mapt.io
Mapt is an online digital library that gives you full access to over 5,000 books and videos, as well as industry leading tools to help you plan your personal development and advance your career. For more information, please visit our website.
Why subscribe?
Spend less time learning and more time coding with practical eBooks and Videos from over 4,000 industry professionals
Improve your learning with Skill Plans built especially for you
Get a free eBook or video every month
Mapt is fully searchable
Copy and paste, print, and bookmark content
PacktPub.com
Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.PacktPub.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. Get in touch with us at service@packtpub.com for more details.
At www.PacktPub.com , you can also read a collection of free technical articles, sign up for a range of free newsletters, and receive exclusive discounts and offers on Packt books and eBooks.
Contributors
About the author
Francis X. Govers is an autonomous vehicle designer at Bell Helicopter Textron. He is the designer of 28 unmanned vehicles or robots for land, sea, air, and space, including RAMSEE, the autonomous security guard robot. Francis helped design the International Space Station, the F-35 JSF Fighter, the US Army Future Combat Systems, and systems for NASCAR and IndyCar. He is an engineer, pilot, author, musician, artist, and maker. He received five outstanding achievement awards from NASA and recognition from Scientific American for World Changing Ideas.
I want to thank everyone who supported me in the writing of this book, starting with my wife, Carol, who cheered me on; our adult children, Jessica, Peter, Corbin, and Ammie, for their encouragement. To my grandchildren, William, Oliver, Amelia, and Henry, for their inspiration. To my editors at Packt Publishing, Namrata Patil and Sharon Raj, for encouragement and tireless dedication. I also have to thank Dr. Bob Finkelstein, my robotics guru and mentor. Finally, to Jay Blanchard, my oldest and dearest friend and fellow author.
About the reviewers
Nikhil Borkar holds a CQF designation and a post-graduate degree in quantitative finance. He also holds the Certified Financial Crime examiner and Certified Anti-Money Laundering Professional qualifications. He is a registered research analyst with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and has a keen grasp of the Indian regulatory landscape pertaining to securities and investments. He is currently working as an independent FinTech and legal consultant. Prior to this, the worked with Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) as a global RFP project manager.
Lentin Joseph is an author and robotics entrepreneur from India. He runs a robotics software company called Qbotics Labs in India. He has 8 years of experience in the robotics domain, primarily in ROS, OpenCV, and PCL. He has authored seven books on ROS, which include Learning Robotics Using Python, both the first and second edition, Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming, first and second edition. He has a master's in Robotics and Automation and also did research at Robotics Institute, CMU, USA.
Packt is searching for authors like you
If you're interested in becoming an author for Packt, please visit authors.packtpub.com and apply today. We have worked with thousands of developers and tech professionals, just like you, to help them share their insight with the global tech community. You can make a general application, apply for a specific hot topic that we are recruiting an author for, or submit your own idea.
Preface
The objective of this book is to deliver exactly what is on the cover Artificial Intelligence for Robotics. The emphasis is on machine learning techniques applied to ground mobile robots. The book starts with professional robot design principles that have been scaled down for smaller robot projects. The AI section begins with convolutional neural networks for object recognition and continues with reinforcement learning and genetic algorithms. The robot gets a voice and learns to tell jokes using AI-based voice recognition that can discern user intent. The book introduces a novel way to navigate without a map using a literal divide and conquer program that uses the upper part of the room to remember paths, and the lower part of avoid obstacles. The book demonstrates how path planning, decision trees, object classification, and navigation are all part of the same problem set. We finish by giving the robot an artificial personality. The final chapter concludes with thoughts on the future of robots and gives advice on robotics as a career.
The entire book is built around a single fun example task, which is to design and build a robot that can pick up toys in an indoor, unstructured environment. As you will learn, this project is anything but easy.
Next page