Creation of Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Franklin And Marshall College, Lancaster PA

Investigators

Abstract

Interdisciplinary (99) Recently much of the interesting research in artificial intelligence has involved mobile robotics and artificial life. Whether the resulting "creatures" are real (as with mobile robots) or virtual (as with artificial life), it is becoming increasingly clear that apparently intelligent behavior emerges most naturally out of the interactions between a creature and a complex environment. Consequently, research in these areas of artificial intelligence draws on electrical and mechanical engineering, computer science, and psychology, as well as biology and philosophy. Both mobile robotics and artificial life have proven to be highly effective at engaging students in hands-on, collaborative learning about a topic that is inherently interdisciplinary. The use of mobile robots in classrooms includes the Autonomous LEGO Robotics Course at Case Western Reserve University (See eecs.cwru.edu/courses/lego375), an Artificial Intelligence Course at Bryn Mawr (see mainline.brynmawr.edu/courses/cs372/fall98), a Robotics Course at Swarthmore College (See palantir.swarthmore.edu/~Maxwell/classes/e28), and many others. Similarly, artificial life and genetic algorithms have been successful in undergraduate courses recently. Examples are Emergence, Evolution, and Life at Reed College (see reed.edu/~mab/courses/mals555), Artificial Life Course at Cal Tech (see krl.caltech.edu/~charles/cns175), and Topics in Genetic Algorithms Course at the University of New Mexico (see cs.unm.edu/~forrest/ga-class/syllabus.html). These topics have also been used successfully in classes across the Scientific and Philosophical Studies of Mind (SPM) curriculum at Franklin & Marshall College (F&M). This project is expanding the current artificial intelligence offerings by implementing, over a three-year period, an artificial intelligence laboratory as a crucial component of the SPM curriculum. The new lab is equipped with 5 iMac computers for running various artificial life and mobile robotics experiments; HandyBoard robot controllers, sensors, and Lego pieces for building 5 additional mobile robots; and software (StarLOGO, CodeWarrior, Brainwave, and InteractiveC) to compile and upload programs to the robot controllers as well as to run artificial life simulations. During the first year of the grant, the PIs are building the necessary sensors and interface boards to create 5 new robot kits as well as to upgrade 5 existing robot kits, and adapt artificial life resources developed elsewhere to the kind of non-UNIX computing environment available at F&M. During the second year, they will integrate mobile robotics with artificial life (in particular genetic algorithms) so as to enable the robots to learn how to respond appropriately to their environments. During the third year, they will refine these implementation of robot learning so as to devise demonstrations and experiments for upper-level artificial intelligence courses in the SPM curriculum. Moreover, during the second and third years, the PIs will reassess the lab in light of student feedback and retool it where necessary. The result is that activities in the lab will allow students to develop conceptual understanding of self-organization, emergence, evolution, embodiment and the neural basis of intelligence, and practical abilities in engineering, robotics and computer programming. Indeed, given the limited resources of a liberal arts college like F&M, creating opportunities for this kind of hands-on, engineering experience is not possible without being linked in this way to fundamental components of a liberal arts education like philosophy, psychology and biology. Moreover, the lab will foster increased interdisciplinary connections among the Psychology, Philosophy, Computer Science, and Physics Departments, both affecting faculty development and increasing substantially the inter-disciplinary content of relevant courses.