Computer Science 155: Graphics
Fall 2000
Homework 5

This assignment is due by midnight Friday, October 27.


In this assignment you will implement an OpenGL robot that can be controlled by the user. This assignment is loads of fun! Below are the list of requirements for this assignment:

  1. The robot should have a body, a head, and a right arm. Left arm and other body parts are optional. Be creative!
  2. The robot's position should be user controllable via the keyboard or mouse.
  3. The right arm should be user controllable via the keyboard or mouse. In particular, the user must be able to rotate the arm (about at least one vector) at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist. Use hierarchical coordinate systems as described in class. Clearly comment the section of code that builds the robot including the words BUILD ROBOT. We will want to check that this is done correctly.
  4. The robot's head must be user controllable via the keyboard or mouse. The head should be able to rotate left, right, up, and down.
  5. You should use a lighting model with ambient, diffuse, and specular lights and materials.
  6. There should be one fixed light source as well as one spotlight mounted on top of the robot's head. The spotlight should rotate and move with the head. The fixed light source should provide enough light so that the entire scene is visible (even if it's dim) without the robot's spotlight. The spotlight will be used to provide additional illumination in the direction in which the robot is looking.
  7. The robot should live in a 3D space with a shiny floor and at least a few 3D objects in it so that the robot can be moved around the scene and shine its spotlight on the various objects. Make sure to partition the floor into a number of separate tiles so that specular reflection from the light sources looks reasonably good.
  8. Use perspective viewing.
  9. The 'v' key should toggle the view mode. In one mode, the camera remains fixed and we get a view of the scene from some fixed location. In the second mode, the view is from the robot's eye. Thus, in this case we see what the robot would see. In particular, as the robot moves or rotates its head, the view changes.
When implementing the assignment you should start with just fixed color objects (no lighting) and orthographic viewing. Once you get the geometry of the robot working (50 points), then add (one at a time) perspective viewing (10 points), lighting (30 points), and secondary camera position (10 points). Ten bonus points if your robot can juggle four or more balls.

Submit your code with a README file that contains both compiling instructions (for example, you might have a makefile or some other means of compiling your program) AND instructions on how to operate the robot. Have fun with this!!!