IofT 1910W: Fall 2006
Assignments
Weekly Writings
- Week 14 - Tuesday December 5
Read the paper on Speech recognition and answer the following questions:- explain briefly the parameters that affect the complexity of speech recognition.
- can you provide an intuitive explanation of the formula used for the error rate?
- Week 13 - Tuesday November 28
No new reading or writing for this week. We will work on the project. - Week 12 - Tuesday November 21
No new reading or writing for this week. Remember that your paper is due Tuesday November 21. - Week 11 - Tuesday November 14
No new writing for this week. Remember that you have to work on your paper. Preferred submission date in November 14, due date is November 21. - Week 10 - due Tuesday November 7
This week we have no new readings, but we will spend time reflecting on what we have done so far and planning for the rest of the semester. Please address the following questions:- As a result of your work in this class, how well do you think that
you have increased your skills in:
- Writing papers
- Solving problems
- Designing and implementing programs
- Critically reviewing articles
- Working effectively with others
- What are the different types of writing we have read? what was your favorite reading? Why? What was your least favorite? Why? Can you describe how writing for college differs from writing in high school?
- As a result of your work in this class, how well do you think that
you have increased your skills in:
- Week 9 - due Tuesday October 31
Read Section 2 of the paper. The paper was written in 2000. Currently the camera in the AIBOs uses the YUV color representation. Answer the following questions:- what is the YUV color space? What are the advantages and disadvantages of YUV over other color spaces?
- Using the representation given in Section 2.2 which uses two bit integers for the colors, what is the color of a pixel with values (1,2,4)? Explain briefly your reasoning.
- What is a run lenght encoded image? why are images run length encoded?
- Why are connected regions extracted from images? How?
- Week 8 - due Tuesday October 24
Read the short introduction to python. Try to answer the questions posed in the exercises, preferably testing your answers on the computer. - Week 7 - due Tuesday October 17
Read section 3.9.2.3 (psges 88-92) of the report of the German RoboCup team on the kinematics of the AIBOs. Answer the following:- Are you familiar with the notation used for rotations and translations? If yes, in what context have you seen it? If not, can you figure out what it is?
- The paper describes two problems, forward kinematics and inverse kinematics. Can you explain, with your own words, what these two problems are and why they are relevant for programming robots?
- Why is inverse kinematics much more difficult than forward kinematics?
- Let's simplify the AIBO leg and assume the angle q2 is always 0. This means that the leg will move in a plane. Can you compute the coordinates of the foot, given the angles q1 and q3 and the length of the two limbs l1 and l2? If you do not follow the notation used in the paper, you can use simple trigonometry to obtain the answer.
- Week 6 - due Tuesday October 10
Read the paper on human-robot relationships. In your writeup answer the following:- The structure, organization, and style of this paper is different from the papers we have read so far. Can you explain what is different and why?
- Summarize what are the major results and conclusions of the study.
- Did anything in the study or in the results surprise you?
- Find out:
- where the paper was published.
- What is CHI?
- What is SIGCHI?
- What is ACM?
- What is IEEE?
- Who are the authors of the paper?
- Week 5 - due Tuesday October 3
Read the paper on humanoid robots. In your writeup answer the following:- Describe briefly what are the fundamental principles that guided the research work described in the paper.
- The paper presents a control architecture to control the humanoid. Explain how is it different from Brooks' subsumption architecture and what does it have in common with the subsumption architecture.
- What aspect of the paper was the most interesting? Why?
- What is the part of the paper that was the most difficult to understand. Can you say what made it difficult?
- Week 4 - due Tuesday September 26
Read the paper on symbiotic robotic systems listed in the reading list (this is a really short paper!). In your writeup answer the following:- what is a symbiotic robotic system?
- what is an RFID tag and how does it work? (you might need to look for additional sources of information)
- what do you think about the vision and challenges described in the paper?
- Week 3 - due Tuesday September 19
Read the paper by Rodney Brooks listed in the reading list. This is a long paper, but hopefully it will not be too hard to read. This is perhaps the most widely cited paper in robotics. It has changed the way robotics software is written.
In your writeup answer the following questions:- What is the difference between a suppressor and an inhibitor? Why are both needed?
- Explain in your own words what the modules in level 0 do.
- What would be the effect of removing the module "runaway"?
- Explain how Level 1 is added to Level 0. You should focus on explaining the connections between the modules of level 0 and the modules of level 1.
- Week 2 - due Tuesday September 12
Read the material distributed in class from Braitenberg's book and comment on it. No specific questions are given for this writing. You should include a short summary of what you read and your opinions on it. As we move through the semester we will experiment with different types of writings on the material we read. - Week 1 - due Thursday September 7
Find, by searching the Web or other sources, a "cool" robot or a "cool" application where robots are used. Submit a 1/2 page description of the robot and/or application. If possible, include a picture. Do not forget to give credit to the source of information!
Be prepared to describe briefly what you have found to the class on Thursday Sept 7.
Lab Activities
- Week 14 - Tuesday December 5 and Thursday December 7
Work on your project. You'll have to demonstrate it to the class on Tuesday December 12. - Week 13 - Tuesday November 28 and Thursday November 30
Work on your project. - Week 12 - Thursday November 23
More practice with URBI and start working on your project. - Week 11 - Thursday November 16
More practice with URBI (or start working on your project). To help making progress with Urbi, you will have to program a set of (simple) tasks - Week 10 - Thursday November 9
More practice with URBI (or start working on your project). To help making progress with Urbi, you will have to program a set of (simple) tasks - Week 9 - Thursday November 2
Back to URBI to use the camera of the AIBO. - Week 8 - Thursday October 26
More on Pyro. - Week 7 - Thursday October 19
We start using Pyro. - Week 6 - Thursday October 12
More on URBI. - Week 5 - Thursday October 5
We will start using URBI. Material on URBI was distributed in class. URBI can be used either with the memory stick or with wireless communications. - Week 4 - Thursday September 28
More on MEdit. We will use sounds and the LEDs on the face of the AIBOs. - Week 3 - Thursday September 21
This week we will get familiar with MEdit and start writing motion sequences for the AIBO. - Week 2 - Thursday September 14
This week we will start working in the Undergraduate Robotics Lab, which is located in room EE/CS 2-140.
What we will do:- initialize your cs accounts. You will be given your account and initial password in the lab.
- basics on programming the AIBOs
- how to set up the Medit software and use it. To get ready you should read the notes on Using MEdit with the Sony AIBOs.
Term Paper
Your paper should take the form of a well-written paper that- introduces a topic related to the material we covered in class,
- explains its importance,
- summarizes related work, and
- outlines what you think are promising directions for future work in the area and/or describes what you would do to advance the state of the art in the area.
Essential guidelines for writing a research paper
The paper should:
- have a thesis, i.e. a statement which requires evidence or support;
- include evidence or support for the thesis;
- show knowledgeable use of library resources and scholarly work;
- show your creativity and imagination.
The page Write right provides simple and concise instructions on how to write and structure a research paper. It is short but well written and useful. Please check it out.
Examples of paper topics
- Topic: robot pets as companions
Thesis: there is evidence that robot pets can replace real pets in providing emotional support to people
Support: results of studies in nursing homes and children hospitals, results of studies on how people perceive their AIBOs. - Topic: RFID tags
Thesis: RFID tags provide convenience but reduce privacy.
Support: evidence of using RFID tags for various applications, evidence of how RFID tags add convenience, evidence of how RFID tags reduce privacy. - Topic: intelligent houses
Thesis: intelligent houses will increase the level of confort of people without affecting their privacy.
Support: research on the technologies needed for intelligent houses, results of studies of people who lived in an intelligent house, data on aging of the population, issues on maintaining privacy.
Grading Rubric for the paper.
Project
The project is the culmination of your work with the AIBOs. You can work on the project alone (we have enough dogs) but you are strongly encouraged to work with someone else. Sharing ideas and responsibilities will produce a more interesting project.Requirements for the project:
- you have to produce a working program that makes the AIBO to do
something non-trivial. To quantify (somehow) the complexity,
the AIBO should
- move for at least a minute,
- use at least two output devices (perform some motions plus use another device such as play music or use the LEDs) and use at least one input device (the camera, one of the buttons, the sensors in the paws, etc).
- you have to write a 1 page description of the technical aspects of the project.
- you have to demonstrate your project during the last day of the class Tuesday December 12 to the rest of the class. You will have 5-10 minutes to show your work, explain what your project is about, and answer questions about it.
Ideas for projects
- Make the AIBO to dance. For inspirations, look at Aibo Dancing, the movie I have shown in class and other movies from video.google.com.
- Make two AIBOs to dance.
- Make the AIBO to rollover. For inspiration look at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~coral-downloads/aibo-class03/rollover_high.mov
- Make the AIBO to climb a small obstacle. For inspiration look at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~coral-downloads/legged/movies/index.html under climbing.
- Find the ball, reach it, and kick it.