ECE 39595 - Experimental Mobile Robotics

Note:

1 credit hour may be used to satisfy part of the laboratory requirement for the BSEE degree.

Course Details

Lecture Hours: 1 Lab Hours: 1 Credits: 2

Counts as:

  • EE Elective
  • CMPE Special Content Selective

Experimental Course Offered:

Spring 2011, Spring 2013

Requisites:

MA 26500 or equivalent and consent of instructor.

Requisites by Topic:

C++ programming, elementary matrices

Catalog Description:

The emphasis of this lab course is on system integration for a functional robot. It is intended to address the issue of utilization and coordination of various concepts and knowledge covered in the areas of mobile robots, computer vision and programming languages. This can be achieved by requiring students to perform well-planned experiments in computer-controlled mobile robots. Students will be grouped into teams of two for each experiment. A total of five experiments on mobile robots are planned for the course, each takes about three weeks to finish. Each experiment will require students to understand the robotic system and its interaction with the environment. Students will be required to write programs in ?C++? to integrate with the existing system software to implement their systems/experiments. Upon completion of each experiment, each team has to demonstrate and present their results to the lab instructor. Finally, each group must complete a class project.

Required Text(s):

None.

Recommended Text(s):

None.

Learning Outcomes:

A student who successfully fulfills the course requirements will have demonstrated:
  1. An ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering to mobile robots. [a]
  2. An ability to design and conduct experiments in mobile robots, as well as to analyze and interpret data. [b]
  3. An ability to work in a team-oriented lab environment. [d]
  4. An ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for mobile-robot experiments. [e,g,k]

Lecture Outline:

Lectures Major Topics
Topic 1 Robot Kinematics
Topic 2 CCD cameras, camera calibration, segmentation, recognition and flood-fill algorithm
Topic 3 Localization algorithms (and Kalman filter concept as bonus credit)
Topic 4 Shortest-path algorithms (Dijkstra algorithm and A* algorithm)
Topic 4 Shortest-path algorithms (Dijkstra algorithm and A* algorithm)

Lab Outline:

Lab Activity
1 Understanding Pioneer 3-DX Robot ? Hardware and Software
2 Sensing and Control
3 Localization Problem
4 Path-finding Problem
5 Class Project

Assessment Method:

In each lab experiment, students must demo their design and operation results to the class Teaching Assistant (TA) as well as submit their lab report.