From: donotemailme@nowhere.com   
      
   modpra wrote:   
   > Hello everyone,   
   > I was wondering if anyone knew any schools that have a M.Sc or M.E. in   
   > Robotics with Artificial Intelligence. So far I have found only USC   
   > offering anything of that nature (but without [any advertised] aid).   
   > Other schools seem to go the Industrial Robotics way.   
   > I was hoping to get some information on this topic and also a general   
   > feedback from all the people in this group about the general   
   > applicability of such a degree in (a non-defense) industry.   
   > Thank you all   
   >   
      
   I'm an AI expert myself, but recently I looked into   
   robotics, to see what the state of the art is.   
      
   My impression is that anyone making robots   
   uses knowledge of electronics, and knowledge of   
   mechanics.  In addition to this, some robot makers   
   also have some programming skills.   
   But the programming skills take second place to the   
   other skills.   
      
   The type of programming needed to program robots   
   is mostly low level programming.   
   In other words, its very detailed programming.   
   Its detailed work thats needed just to get the hardware   
   working.   
      
   This type of programming is very different   
   from the high-level programming thats done   
   by AI programmers.   
      
   Actually deciding what behaviour the robot   
   should have is hardly thought about.   
   Robot makers get bogged down in other work,   
   more detailed work.   
      
   Of course, this means that real-life robots are very dumb.   
   But maybe we need to make progress in AI before we can   
   make robots that are less dumb.   
      
   I think that few people are expert in both robotics and AI.   
   So you are unlikely to find a course that covers both robotics and AI.   
      
   --   
   Martin Sondergaard,   
   London.   
      
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