CS 295   Special Topics in Computer Science:  Introduction to Mobile Robots

Winter 2002,  Instructor: Jeffrey Horn
 

CLASS ANNOUNCEMENTS (Thurs. March 21, 2002)

• General Announcements (for all students)
• What IS New:
  • Here is IR test code
  •  
  • HW 4 added below.

  •  

• What Was New

• HW 2 added.  See below.  Due next Tuesday, Feb. 19!
• HW1 added.  See below.  Due next Tuesday, Feb. 5!
• Welcome to CS 295!  The main news this first week is that I am gone all week to a conference, so you are "on your own"!  (not entirely).  Here's the deal:

1. I will be back next Monday, the 21st and so will be in our class next Tuesday.
2. In the meantime, I want you folks to do your best to get us started.  This is not like a regular course.  We are very project-oriented.
3. So, we can't blow off this week.  Here's what we'll do.
4. Today, Tuesday, start off with some movies.  I know you didn't come here to watch Battlebots for hours, BUT I have picked out just two that I think are worth watching.  They are in the bottom of the CS 490 cabinet there in the lab.
   1. Someone, with some leadership potential, go to DW in the dept. office and get the "robot cabinet" key.  The same key will open both cabinets, CS 490 and CS 295.  Your tapes and vcr are in 490, while your projects are in CS 295 cabinet.  
   2. Get the two tapes out from the bottom of the cabinet, along with the VCR and hook it all up to the projector.  It should work!  (try adjusting tracking on the remote control for the projector if no video shows up.)
   3. Watch the short one first (the promo for the robomower system).
   4. Then put in the longer tape, a Sci. American Frontiers episode. This is an hour and although it is a very good one, some of you might have seen it before, etc.  SO while it is playing, you can start the MINI-PROJECTS (below)!  Continue with these on Thursday.
5. MINI-PROJECTS:
   1. I have picked THREE projects, and arbitrarily divided everyone up below.  Get as far as you can with each of them.  The equipment is clearly labeled by project in the CS 295 cabinet.  
   2. PROJECTS:  click here.
6. Put everything away in the cabinets, where they were, before you leave, and get the key back to DW.  Otherwise, things might get lost, stolen, or abused!  (Don't forget the CS 302 class is in there this semester too!)
7. Continue watching videos or working on projects on Thursday.
8. Also, start reading our text book, Moblie Robots, (at the bookstore if you don't have one yet!)  It is a great book.  Read the preface and Intro, then skip ahead to Ch. 6 and read as much as you can so you will be prepared for lectures and class exercises when I return.
9. Don't forget that I can be reached by email every day!  (Might be a little delay in my response...)

 

Not so New (Older Announcements):

Syllabus (tentative)

HOMEWORKS

• Homework 1, Digital Braitenberg Vehicles.  Click here.
• Homework 2, More Sophisticated Stimulus-Response (S-R) Robots  (Digital Braitenberg Vehicles, Mark II).  Click here.
• Homework 3,  Amigot Programming in COLBERT:
  • PART A:  WALL HUGGING

    1. Install the software from ActiveMedia Robotics (from my CD). 

    2. Familiarize yourself with running the simulator, especially the demo programs.

    3. Start up the "trainer" package in the "tools" menu, and try implementing WALL HUGGING behavior in the simulator.  (Suggestion:  Take demo 6 and modify it.  You don't have to have sophisticated wall hugging.  Just keeping an object on your right (or left) is basic wall hugging.)

    4. Once it works on the simulator, we'll try it out on the real thing.  We'll also compare to see who does better wall-hugging. 

  • PART B:   MAZE ESCAPE

    1. Using wall hugging, or obstacle avoidance, or both, or whatever, have your robot escape from an arbitrary maze.

    2. Assume that Amigobot starts somewhere in the middle, and its goal is simply to get as far from the middle as possible.

    3. Use the "mapper" tool to build your own test mazesl.

    4. We'll compare strategies later.

  • PART C:  MAP BUILDING

    1. Use the mapper tool to build the TOUGHEST WALL TO HUG, or the HARDEST MAZE TO ESCAPE FROM, that you can.

    2. The harder it is, the more points you will earn. 

    3. But here is the constraint:  YOUR code (for A or B above, as appropriate!) MUST be able to hug your wall (or solve your maze)!

  • Turning it in:  Use webCT.
• Homework 4, RoboCode Simulator
  • Assigned:  Thursday, March 21, 2002
  • Due:     Thursday, March 29, 2002
  • How to get started?
    1. Go visit the robocode website.  Download and install.  Also look around on the site and on related sites (go to google.com and type in "robocode".  Browse the documentation that comes with game.
    2. Extend the "Robot" or "AdvancedRobot" class.  Choose a class name that will very likely be different from anybody else's in the class.
    3. Experiment.  Try out your 'bot in battles with the built-in 'bots, multiple copies of your own, anybody else's you can get hold of, etc.
    4. Whenever you like, drop in both the .java and .class files in to the drop box on WebCT.
  • Now, to earn the last 10 out of 100  total grade points, we will hold a tournament, of 20 rounds of combat among all those who contribute a working tank (by dropping in BOTH the .java and .class files into the "ROBOCODE I" folder in WebCT, by the due date Thursday, 3-28-02).
  • The overall (total) scores are ranked by the robocode game.  I will award points as follows:  let's say 12 of us enter the contest.  The first place winner receives 12 points.  Second place gets .  Third gets 11, and so on.  So even dead last gets a point!  And the more who enter the more total points are available.  
  • I might or might not throw in some of the built-in 'bots, or one or two of my own, if I have time to write them!  
• Homework 5,