CX 337 - Spring 2000

Robotics

Assignments

  1. Assignment 1, due Monday, 2/14.
  2. Assignment 2, due Monday, 2/21.
  3. Assignment 3, due Monday, 2/28.
  4. Assignment 4, due Monday, 3/6.
  5. Assignment 5, due Monday, 4/3.
  6. Assignment 6, due Monday, 4/10.
  7. Assignment 7, due Monday, 4/17.
  8. Assignment 8, due Friday, 4/28.
  9. Assignment 9, due Friday, 5/5.

Student presentations

Readers: prepare a one-page summary, due in class on Friday. Be prepared to ask questions and participate in discussion.

Friday 3/3
  1. Lozano-Perez, Robot Programming. Presenter: Ben. Readers: Kris, Jin, Frank, Mike, Alex.
  2. Lozano-Perez, A Simple Motion Planning Algorithm for General Robot Manipulators. Presenter: Dave. Readers: Robb, Huan, Mark, Ryan, Sorin, Justin.
  3. Lozano-Perez and Wesley, An Algorithm for Planning Collision-Free Paths Among Polyhedral Obstacles. Presenter: Pedro. Readers: Ivan, Andy, Kevin, Gabriel, Jameson.

Friday 3/10: All students should read both of these papers by Monday 3/13. For Friday 3/10, prepare a one-page summary on the paper to which you have been assigned. Be prepared to ask questions and participate in discussion.
  1. Chee Yap, Algorithmic Motion Planning. Presenter: Frank. Readers: Kris, Andy, Mark, Dave, Sorin, Justin, Alex, Pedro.
  2. Russell & Norvig, Robotics, Sections 25.5-25.7. Presenter: Jameson. Readers: Robb, Huan, Jin, Kevin, Ben, Ryan, Mike, Gabriel.

Friday 3/31: All students should read Part 1 of the paper by Donald. In addition, you have been assigned one other paper to read. For Friday 3/31, prepare a one-page summary on the paper to which you have been assigned. Be prepared to ask questions and participate in discussion.
  1. Bruce Donald, Planning and Executing Robot Assembly Strategies in the Presence of Uncertainty, Part 1. Presenter: Andy. Readers: All.
  2. Bruce Donald, Planning and Executing Robot Assembly Strategies in the Presence of Uncertainty, Part 2. Presenter: Huan. Readers: Robb, Kris, Kevin, Alex, Pedro, Mike, Gabriel, Jameson.
  3. Amy Briggs, An Efficient Algorithm for One-Step Planar Compliant Motion Planning with Uncertainty. Presenter: Justin. Readers: Jin, Ben, Mark, Dave, Ryan, Sorin, Frank.

Friday 4/7: For Friday 4/7, prepare a one-page summary on the paper to which you have been assigned. Be prepared to ask questions and participate in discussion.
  1. Randy Brost, Planning Robot Grasping Motions in the Presence of Uncertainty Part 1. Presenter: Kevin. Readers: Dave, Frank, Justin, Robb, Sorin.
  2. Jean Ponce et al., Algorithms for Computing Force-Closure Grasps of Polyhedral Objects (in 1994 WAFR: Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics). Presenter: Mike. Readers: Ben, Jameson, Andy, Alexander, Jin.
  3. Michael Erdmann, An Exploration of Nonprehensile Two-Palm Manipulation Using Two Zebras (in 1996 WAFR: Algorithms for Robotic Motion and Manipulation). Presenter: Kris. Readers: Pedro, Huan, Mark, Ryan, Gabriel.

Friday 4/14: For Friday 4/14, prepare a one-page summary on the paper to which you have been assigned. Be prepared to ask questions and participate in discussion.
  1. Randy Brost, Planning Robot Grasping Motions in the Presence of Uncertainty Part 2. Presenter: Robb. Readers: Jin, Huan, Ryan, Mike, Kevin.
  2. Michael Erdmann and Matthew Mason, An Exploration of Sensor Manipulation. Presenter: Mark. Readers: Dave, Frank, Justin, Sorin, Ben.
  3. Mason et al., Experiments with Desktop Mobile Manipulators. Presenter: Alexander. Readers: Pedro, Jameson, Andy, Kris, Gabriel.

Friday 4/21: For Friday 4/21, prepare a one-page summary on one of the following papers (your choice). Be prepared to ask questions and participate in discussion.
  1. Mark Overmars and Petr Svestka, A Probabilistic Learning Approach to Motion Planning. Presenter: Jin. Readers: Your choice. This paper is one of the pioneering papers in the area of probabilistic roadmap methods for motion planning.
  2. Camillo Taylor and David Kriegman, Vision-Based Motion Planning and Exploration Algorithms for Mobile Robots. Presenter: Ryan. Readers: Your choice. This paper presents algorithms for exploring an unknown environment with a mobile robot using vision.
  3. Rodney Brooks, A Robust Layered Control System for a Mobile Robot. Presenter: Sorin. Readers: Your choice. This paper presents a control system for a completely autonomous mobile robot. It is one of the pioneering papers in the area of developing reactive behavior, rather than planning.

Lectures & Readings

  1. M 2/7 - Course Introduction. Reading: Russell & Norvig 25.1-25.4
  2. F 2/11 - 2D Configuration space.
  3. M 2/14 - Algorithms for constructing 2D configuration space obstacles. Reading: Lozano-Perez, Spatial Planning: A Configuration Space Approach.
  4. F 2/18 - Configuration space of translating and rotating polygons. Reading: Brooks and Lozano-Perez, A Subdivision Algorithm in Configuration Space for Findpath with Rotation.
  5. M 2/21 - Approximate algorithms for motion planning. Demo: Rotation diagram applet.
  6. F 2/25 - Winter Carnival. Reading: see above reading for 3/3 presentations.
  7. M 2/28 - Introduction to Lego Robots. Reading: Bruce Donald, Giving a talk; Coursepack pp. 40-70.
  8. F 3/3 - Student Presentations: Dave, Ben, Pedro. Introduction to Handy Logo. Reading: Coursepack pp. 1-39.
  9. M 3/6 - Sciborg race! Introduction to compliant motion planning. Reading: see above reading for 3/10 presentations.
  10. F 3/10 - Student Presentations: Frank, Jameson.
  11. M 3/13 - Motion Planning with Uncertainty. Reading: see above reading for 3/31 presentations.
  12. M 3/27 - Motion Planning with Uncertainty: Backprojections.
  13. F 3/31 - Student Presentations: Andy, Huan, Justin.
  14. M 4/3 - Introduction to Pioneer robot. Reading: Saphira manual handout; see above reading for 4/7 presentations.
  15. F 4/7 - Student Presentations: Kevin, Mike, Kris.
  16. M 4/10 - Guaranteed planning vs. EDR: Motion and Sensor Planning with Uncertainty. Reading: see above reading for 4/14 presentations.
  17. F 4/14 - Student Presentations: Robb, Mark, Alexander.
  18. M 4/17 - Wall following exercise; Visibility-based Sensor Planning. Reading: see above reading for 4/21 presentations.
  19. F 4/21 - Student Presentations: Jin, Ryan, Sorin.
  20. M 4/24 - Introduction to Computer Vision. Guest Lecture by Daniel Scharstein.
  21. F 4/28 - Highlights from the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, San Francisco, April 24-28, 2000.
  22. M 5/1 - Drive to goal exercise; Vision-based mobile robot navigation; Demo of visual servoing (Homework 9).
  23. F 5/5 - Visual servoing exercise; Course wrap-up.