PREREQUISITES:      CS 122, and/or CS 330, or equivalent programming experience.

MEETING TIMES:    2-2:50 PM  MWRF                                                CREDIT HOURS:  4

DESCRIPTION:

This course will include an overview of the field of intelligent, mobile robots, but it is primarily a projects course, with students completing a series of projects, both individually and in small teams.  We will use several different platforms, both wheeled rovers and legged walkers, and incorporate various sensors and effectors.  The focus of the topics will be on intelligent, adaptive behavior, to include:  both high-level and assembly language programming, learning algorithms, evolutionary robotics, cooperative robot teams, and sensor fusion.  Final projects will be required, to include presentations with demonstrations, and possible entry into official robot competitions.  Some robot building might be included, depending on the hardware skills of students!

NOTE 1:  Non-CS majors are especially encouraged to enroll, as we would like to utilize the skills and knowledge of those with significant IT, ET, or other digital circuits coursework under their belts!  These projects will require diverse teams.

NOTE 2:  Those students on the Real-Time Linux competition teams, formed during Fall 1999, are asked to enroll in this course in lieu of CS 498 (directed study).  This course, CS 495, will be the "home" for those working on entries to this contest and desiring NMU credit hours for their participation.  If you have ANY conflicts with meeting times above, let the instructor  (Horn) know BEFORE registration.  In most cases, a one or two day per week conflict will be OK (you can make up the missed time by meeting with team members outside of class and lab hours) and can be overridden on SOLAR, but only if you let us know!

(see dept. web page at cs.nmu.edu for the latest information; this announcement is on the web at cs.nmu.edu/~jeffhorn/Classes/Robots/announce2000.html)

(photographs courtesy of Lynxmotion, Inc., http://www.lynxmotion.com)