Free Online Course on Developmental Robotics and AI

A team of french scientists in developmental robotics led by Olivier Georgeon is launching the IDEAL MOOC on developmental robotics and AI. This free online course targets a wide audience, since no prior background is required. It aims at introducing the cognitive science and programming basics required to design robots and virtual agents capable of self learning by mere experience. They try some motor actions and analyze their outcomes using their sensors. This curiosity driven process is similar to how children and baby animals learn. Video 1 gives an overview of the IDEAL MOOC and gives some illustrations of developmental robotics.

Video 1: Overview of the IDEAL MOOC

Registration is open for a first session of the course that will be starting on Monday October 13th 2014. It will last six weeks and require approximately two hours of individual weekly work. Expect more if you plan to do the optional programming activities. For the eager, the course syllabus includes links to free materials that you can already download and read. You can also learn more on developmental robotics by watching the video playlist below, that gathers talks by the developmental robotics’ pioneer Pierre-Yves Oudeyer.