Computer Science 154
Robotics, Spring 2005
Assignments/Grading Policies
There are two main components to the coursework in CS 154:
two large robot "lab projects" and several
short assignments with written and/or programming
questions. Assignments and labs are generally due by 11:59 pm
on Wednesday evenings.
Schedule
Lab Project Possibilities
- The Silicon Mudder (the "default") (one lab project)
This project seeks to enable an Evolution ER1 to recognize where it is
in the Libra complex while wandering around so that it can get to class (or
back to it home base in the lab). It involves a balance of construction
and programming and can be extended to span both lab projects in many ways.
For example, in Spring 2004, an ER1 used the strength of the wireless signal
as a map feature in order to assist its localization. Additional possible
extensions include additions to the simulator, visual reasoning, autonomous mapping,
and robot collaboration.
- AAAI Mobile Robot Competition (both lab projects)
This is one of the oldest robotics competitions around. "AAAI"
is the acronym for the American Association for Artificial Intelligence,
the leading AI organization, at least in the U.S. This year there
is a flexible "scavenger hunt" competition that an Evolution ER1 could
certainly tackle. The competition is in Pittsburgh in July -- last year
we had three students at AAAI in San Jose. See the call for participation at
http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/National/2005/aaai05-robotcall.pdf.
Note that a publication is a likely result of a reasonable entry to
this competition (you might consider this a plus or a minus, I suppose...).
- Beyond Botball Competition (both lab projects)
Another contest venue that has been around a while. This is a new twist
on a competition in which HMC participated last year, and the most
likely approach would be to use the Legos and a Handyboard to create
robot(s) to participate. Details of the contest task are at
http://www.botball.org/tournament/beyondbb.html
A publication is also a likely outcome
here, as well as a stop at Disney World for those who go to the contest
in Florida in July.
- The Extinguisher (one lab project)
This is a classic Lego/Handyboard task, in which a robot must find and
extinguish a candle within a maze. It can be approached in a number of ways, and
creativity is welcome. This project includes robot localization, but it
can also be extended to encompass mapping and navigation, if a team would
like to continue into the second half of the semester: such ambitious robots
enter the growing research area of sensor-limited robotics.
- More with less (one or two lab projects)
Sensor- and computation- limited robotics (mentioned above) is a field
emerging as costs drop and interest in ubiquitous computational systems rises.
It would be an interesting challenge to coax a lego robot to localize or
map an environment using only the Mindstorms on-board processing... .
- The Nomad - HMC's robotic tour guide (both lab projects)
The ER1 is probably too small to act as a tour guide, though Ian
Horswill's thesis project (named Polly) was a successful, vertically-challenged
tour guide at MIT. The Nomad would be a reasonable size, however... .
Speech synthesis could be added easily from an on-board laptop. The real
challenge is getting it to take the elevators in the Libra Complex.
- Build/Investigate your own bot (both lab projects)
XPort, AIBO, PINO, our existing Pioneer, or another approach...
- Design your own project (both lab projects)
An approach that has resulted in several of our most successful robotic systems...
Course Grading
The weight that the assignments and projects contribute to
a final grade breaks down as follows:
- Written and programming assignments -- 30% of the grade all together
- Lab Project #1 -- 30% of the grade
- Lab Project #2 -- 40% of the grade