CS393R: Autonomous Robots -- Assignments

CS393R: Autonomous Robots -- Assignments

Things to do ASAP (before the first class if possible)

  • Make sure you have a CS account - if not, apply for one from the CS Dept. immediately (so it will be active by the time the class starts).
  • Send an email to jmenashe@cs and pstone@cs letting us know your CS account.
  • Join the class discussion group (see class main page).
  • Get access to the class textbook (see class main page).

    • Week 0 (8/29): Class Overview

  • If you would like to get a jump on the class, consider looking at the following:
  • The first 2 chapters of the course textbook.
  • Any of the research projects and papers listed at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~AustinVilla/

    • Week 1 (9/3, 9/5): Introduction to motion control

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday at 8pm)

  • Ben Kuipers' Control Tutorial.

    • Programming: (due Tuesday, 9/10 at 12:30pm)

  • Programming assignment 1 is designed to get you familiar with the robots.

    • Week 2 (9/10, 9/12): Motion control continued

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, at 8pm)

  • Braitenberg, 1984.
  • The UT Austin Villa 2003 Four-Legged Team, Extended version
    The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Computer Sciences, AI Laboratory Tech report UT-AI-TR-03-304.
    Read Sections 5.1.1-5.1.3.
  • A Model-Based Approach to Robot Joint Control
    Daniel Stronger and Peter Stone.
    In Daniele Nardi, Martin Riedmiller, and Claude Sammut, editors, RoboCup-2004: Robot Soccer World Cup VIII, pp. 297
    • Programming: (due Thursday, 9/19 at 12:30pm)
  • Programming assignment 2 (link not yet active).

    • Week 3 (9/17,9/19): Probability/Sensing

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, 8pm)

    Programming: (due Thursday, 9/19 12:30pm)
  • Programming assignment 2.

    • Week 4 (9/24,9/26): Kalman Filters

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, 8pm)

    Programming: (due Thursday, 10/3 at 12:30pm)
  • Programming assignment 3.

    • Week 5 (10/1,3): Localization

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, 8pm)

    Programming: (due Thursday, 10/3 at 12:30pm)
  • Programming assignment 3.

    • Week 6 (10/8,10/10): Vision

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, 8pm)

    Programming: (due Friday, 10/18 at 12:30pm)
  • Programming assignment 4 .

    • Week 7 (10/15,10/17): Walking

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, at 8pm)

    Programming: (due Thursday, 10/24 at 12:30pm)
  • Final project topic proposal
  • Once you have determined what you would like to do for your project and with whom you would like to work, send a description of your project as well as your particular goals for it (one per person - not per team). Make sure to include the name(s) of your partner(s). The more detail you provide, the more easily we will be able to provide meaningful feedback.
  • See the final project page for more details.
  • Your response should be sent as ASCII text (not encoded in any way) to Peter Stone & Jake Menashe with subject: "Project proposal".

    • Week 8 (10/22,10/24): Action and Sensor Modeling

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, 8pm)

    Programming: (due Thursday, 10/31 at 12:30pm)
  • Programming assignment 5 .

    • Week 9 (10/29, 10/31): Path Planning

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, at 8pm)

  • RRT: Rapidly-exploring random trees: Progress and prospects.
     Lavalle and Kuffner.
  • D* lite: Fast Replanning for Navigation in Unknown Terrain.
     Koenig and Likhachev
  • For additional (optional) readings, see the resources page.
    • Programming: (due Thursday, 11/14 at 12:30pm)
  • Final project literature survey. See the final project page for more details.

    • Week 10 (11/5,11/7): Behavior Architectures

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, at 8pm)

  • Intelligence without Representation.
     Rodney A. Brooks.
    Artificial Intelligence 47 (1991), 139-159.
    PDF version.
  • Structured Control for Autonomous Robots.
    Reid Simmons.
    IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 10:1, pp. 34-43, February 1994.
    • Programming: (due Thursday, 11/14 at 12:30pm)
  • Final project literature survey. See the final project page for more details.

    • Week 11 (11/12, 11/14): Multi-Robot Coordination

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, at 8pm)

  • Distributed Intelligence: Overview of the Field and its Application in Multi-Robot Systems.
    Lynne E. Parker.
    Journal of Physical Agents, March 2008.
  • Swarmanoid: a novel concept for the study of heterogeneous robotic swarms.
    Marco Dorigo et al.
    IEEE Robotics and Automation
  • Coordinating Hundreds of Cooperative, Autonomous Vehicles in Warehouses.
    Peter R.Wurman, Raffaelo D'Andrea, and Mick Mountz.
    AAAI Magazine, 2007.
  • For additional (optional) readings, see the resources page.

    • Week 12 (11/19, 11/21): Applications

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, at 8pm)

  • Autonomous driving in urban environments: Boss and the Urban Challenge.
    The CMU winning entry in the 2007 Urban Challenge.
    Journal of Field Robotics Special Issue 2008.
    This is a long article. More important than the details is the full scope of subproblems that arose, and how they were addressed.
  • Optional (the UT Austin team's approach)
  • Multiagent Interactions in Urban Driving.
    Patrick Beeson, Jack O'Quin, Bartley Gillan, Tarun Nimmagadda, Mickey Ristroph, David Li, and Peter Stone.
    Journal of Physical Agents, 2(1):15-30 March 2008
  • Cloth Grasp Point Detection based on Multiple-View Geometric Cues with Application to Robotic Towel Folding.
    Jeremy Maitin-Shepard, Marco Cusumano-Towner, Jinna Lei and Pieter Abbeel.
    In the proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2010.
    videos
  • For additional (optional) readings, see the resources page.

    • Week 13 (11/26): Social Implications

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, at 8pm)

  • Why the Future Doesn't Need Us by Bill Joy - Wired, 2000. (pdf version)
  • The Essence of Soccer: Can Robots Play Too?
    Peter Stone, Michael Quinlan, and Todd Hester.
    •

    Week 14 (12/3, 12/5): Project Demos

    Jump to the resources page.

    Programming: (due Tuesday and Thursday, 12/3 and 12/5 at 12:30pm)

  • Final project report. See the final project page for more details.
    • [Back to Department Home page]

    Page maintained by Peter Stone
    Questions? Send me mail