Basic concepts

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What is a robot made up of?

Your robot is made up of a few key components:

• Joints/Actuators: The motors of the robot that allow the links to move relative to each other.
• Links: The rigid plastic parts of the robot that are connected by joints.
• End effector: The last part of the robot that interacts with the environment. i.e. gripper
• Sensors: The robot’s eyes and ears. They allow the robot to perceive the world around it.
• Controller: The robot’s brain. It processes the sensor data and sends commands to the actuators.

The hard part is making sure all these components work together to achieve a goal. How do you make the robot move to a specific position? How do you make it pick up an object?

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What is a policy ?

A policy is a function that maps the current state of the robot to an action. It tells the robot what to do in a given situation.

For example, a policy for a robot vacuum cleaner might be:

• If the robot detects dirt, move towards it.
• If the robot detects a wall, turn left.

The policy is what allows the robot to make decisions and take actions based on its environment.

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Vocabulary

• State: The current configuration of the robot. This includes the positions of the joints, the orientation of the end effector, and any sensor readings.
• Action: The movement or command that the robot takes in response to its state.
• Reward: A value that the robot receives based on its actions. The goal of the robot is to maximize its reward over time.
• Environment: The world in which the robot operates. This includes the objects in the environment, the robot itself, and any other agents.