Homework Assignments

Schedule

Homework and Team Project	Due date
Controlling a Robot Arm	Friday, April 8th
Obstacle avoidance and wall following behaviors	Monday, April 18th
Foraging behaviors	Monday, May 2nd
Final Projects - project data sheet or requirements (here is an example )	Monday, May 9th
Final Demonstrations	Wednesday June 1st

Assignment #1

Objectives:

build a robotic arm using hobbyist servo motors and Legos
perform the reverse kinematics of the arm to precisely determine the position of the end of the arm
read data from an analog sensor
implement a control loop that positions the arm

Acquire and display the 2-D outline of an object lying on 8.5x11 inch sheet of a paper. Give the smallest bounding rectangle of the object.

Use a robotic arm and a Sharp GP2D12 distance sensor. Assume that all the objects will be no taller than 2 inch.

Assignment #2

Objectives:

Start working on the robot you will use for your final project and develop a parts list of things you need to replace or augment on your robot.
Learn to program simple behaviors for your robot.

Using one of these two PC104 controlled robotic vehicles, implement the following

teleoperated motion control,
obstacle avoidance that stops the robot from running into things, even when you command it too, and
wall following along straight walls, inside corners and outside corners.

Information about the car can be found at Lenny's robot site. The tank uses the same CPU board but different I/O boards.

Assignment #3

Locate and capture a red flag using computer vision while avoiding obstacles. This will be a competition. The wining team will get to pick where we go for pizza and get to brag the entire time.

Final Projects

Mapping Hazardous Terrain

Using the robotic tank map a hall way and the objects in the hallway. Detect when objects move or are removed.

Collecting Hazardous Material

Go down the same hallway and pick up and transport all the small objects in the hallway.