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 (8/27): 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/ or at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~larg/bwi_web/

    • Week 1 (9/1, 9/3): Vision basics

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, 8pm)

    Programming: (due Wednesday, 9/2 at 11:59:59pm)
  • Programming assignment 1 is designed to get you familiar with the robots.

    • Week 2 (9/8, 9/10): Introduction to motion control

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (Email Response Due Monday At 8pm)

  • Ben Kuipers' control tutorial.
     (If Section 11 doesn't help your intuition, you can skim it)
  • Braitenberg, 1984.

    • Programming: (due Wednesday, 9/16 at 11:59:59pm)

  • Programming assignment 2
  • Beacon Visualization Examples

    • Week 3 (9/15,9/17): Motion control continued

    Jump to the resources page.

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

  • 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
  • Learning and Using Models of Kicking Motions for Legged Robots
     Sonia Chernova and Manuela Veloso
    In Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'04), May 2004.
    • Programming: (due Wednesday, 9/16 11:59:59pm)
  • Programming assignment 2.
  • Beacon Visualization Examples

    • Week 4 (9/22,9/24): Probability/Sensing

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, 8pm)

    Programming: (due Wednesday, 9/30 at 11:59:59pm)
  • Programming assignment 3.

    • Week 5 (9/29,10/1): Kalman Filters

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, 8pm)

    Programming: (due Wednesday, 9/30 at 11:59:59pm)
  • Programming assignment 3.

    • Week 6 (10/6,10/8): Localization

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, 8pm)

    Programming: (due Wednesday, 10/7 at 11:59:59pm)
  • Programming assignment 4 .

    • Week 7 (10/13,10/15): Action and Sensor Modeling

    Jump to the resources page.

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

    Programming: (due Wednesday, 10/14 at 11:59:59pm)
  • 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 (10/20,10/22): Path Planning

    Jump to the resources page.

    Readings: (email response due Monday, 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 Wednesday, 10/21 at 11:59:59pm)
  • Programming assignment 5 .

    • Week 9 (10/27, 10/29): 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.
  • Structured Control for Autonomous Robots.
    Reid Simmons.
    IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 10:1, pp. 34-43, February 1994.
    • Programming: (due Thursday, 10/29 at 9:00am)
  • Programming assignment 6 .

    • Week 10 (11/3,11/5): Walking

    Jump to the resources page.

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

    Programming: (due Wednesday, 11/11 at 11:59:59pm)
  • Final project literature survey. See the final project page for more details.

    • Week 11 (11/10, 11/12): 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.
  • Reciprocal n-body collision avoidance
    Jur van den Berg, Stephen J. Guy, Ming Lin, and Dinesh Manocha
    in Cedric Pradalier, Roland Siegwart, and Gerhard Hirzinger (eds.)
    Robotics Research: The 14th International Symposium ISRR, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol. 70, Springer-Verlag, May 2011, pp. 3-19.
  • Optimization and Coordinated Autonomy in Mobile Fulfillment Systems.
     John J. Enright and Peter R. Wurman.
    AAAI Automated Action Planning for Autonomous Mobile Robots workshop, 2011.
  • Optional (a predecessor to that paper)
  • For additional (optional) readings, see the resources page.
    • Programming: (due Wednesday, 11/11 at 11:59:59pm)
  • Final project literature survey. See the final project page for more details.

    • Week 12 (11/17, 11/19): 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
  • HERB 2.0: Lessons Learned from Developing a Mobile Manipulator for the Home.
    Siddhartha S. Srinivasa, Dmitry Berenson, Maya Cakmak, Alvaro Collet, Mehmet R. Dogar, Anca D. Dragan, Ross A. Knepper, Tim Niemueller, Kyle Strabala, Mike Vande Weghe, Julius Ziegler
    Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 100, No. 8, JULY 2012.
  • For additional (optional) readings, see the resources page.

    • Week 13 (11/24): 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 (12/1, 12/3): Project Demos

    Jump to the resources page.

    Programming: (due Wednesday, 12/9 at 11:59:59pm)

  • Final project report. See the final project page for more details.
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