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MCS5403: Robotics (Real-time Systems and Robotics Programming), Section 01

Summer E 2000, Department of Math. and Computer Science
Lawrence Tech. University

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• Office Room: S112 and CW21
• Phone: (248) 204-3504
• Fax: (248) 204-3518 (this fax number is for the whole building and senders should be sure to place instructor's name on the fax)
• Dept. Secretary: (248) 204-3560
• Math/CS Drop Box: in front of S120 door. Please put instructor's name and time of submission on your work.
• Email: CHUNG@ltu.edu
• LTU webpage at http://www3.ltu.edu/~chung (syllabus, announcements, lecture notes, etc.)
• Office Hours
  • CW21: TueThu 4:50 - 5:40pm
  • S112: MonWed 4:50 - 5:40pm

Required Text

• LEGO MindStorms user guide (will be provided by the instructor)
• Controlling LEGO(R) Programmable Bricks Technical Reference. Visit http://www.legomindstorms.com/ and click RCX SDK under Hacker Info.
• Pre-Alpa SDK for RIS 2.0 Technical Reference. Visit http://www.legomindstorms.com/ and click Pre-Alpa SDK under Hacker Info.
• NQC manuals
• legOS maunals
• Khepera Manuals (will be provided by the instructor)
  • Khepera User Manual
  • Khepera K213 Vision Turret User Manual
  • GNU C based cross-compiler for the Khepera robot
  • Khepera BIOS 4.0 Reference Manual
• Any Visual Basic and C/C++ textbook/manual

Recommended Texts

• The Unofficial Guide to LEGO(R) Mindstorms(TM) Robots, J Knudsen, O'Reilly, 1999
• Definitive Guide to LEGO(R) Mindstorms(TM), Dave Baum, Apress, 1999
• Any artificial intelligence, neural-nets, and fuzzy logic textbooks
• Cambrian Intelligence, R. Brooks, MIT press, 1999
• Artificial intelligence and mobile robots, Editors: Kortenkamp et. al, AAAI press 1998
• Behavior based Robotics, R. Arkin, MIT press, 1998
• Robot, H. Moravec, Oxford Univ. Press, 1999
• Vehicles, V. Braitenberg, MIT press, 1984
• Operating Systems Concepts Fifth Edition by Abraham Silberschatz,Peter Baer Galvin, Addison-Wesley, ISBN: 0-201-59113-8
• An Introduction to the CCITT SDL by Anders Rockstroem, ISBN: 91-7810-321-5
• Any LINUX(UNIX) book/manual

Robot Kits, Tools and Software to be used

• Bring a laptop, if you have one...
• LEGO(R) MindStorms Robotics Invention System (RIS)
• LEGO(R) MindStorms RIS CD-ROM for Windows 95 and 98, version 1.5 and 2.0
• LEGO(R) MindStorms RoboSports Expansion Set (RoboSports, Extreme Creatures, and etc.)
• An extra Lego Mindstorms RIS 1.5 kit is highly recommended. ($199 + tax)
• Additional sensors (Rotation, Temperature, Light, ...) and a fan will be provided by the instructor.
• Khepera Robots
• MicroSoft Visual Basic
• NQC(Not Quite C)
• legOS package including LINUX/GNU C++ compiler

Course Contents

• Introduction to Robotics
• Real-time embedded systems development
  • Characteristics of real-time systems/software
  • Concurrent programming, Message passing systems, and Modeling Finite State Machines
  • Design methodologies for real-time systems using SDL and Petri-net
  • Software environments and tools to develop real-time robotics software
• Lego robot programming using
  • RCX code v1.5, v2.0 with Lego Script
  • NQC
  • Visual Basic with ActiveX control
  • legOS in C/C++
  • Java: using TinyVM, a Java VM for the RCX ( http://www.crazyrobots.com/tinyvmsite) - only UNIX version.
• Khepera robot programming in C/C++
• Using artificial intelligence techniques for robotics programming
  • Developing fuzzy logic controllers,
  • Using Artificial Neural-nets and Kohonen's nets, or
  • Using Evolutionary Computation Techinques

Class Format and Grading: Total 200 points

• Homeworks: 20 points
• 4 robot games: 30 x 4 = 120 points
• An Individual Project (Due on 6-29-00): 30 points
• Final: 30 points

• Tue. 5-30-00: 1st robot game
• Thu. 6-1-00: Last day to setup and specify the Individual Project
• Thu. 6-8-00: 2nd robot game
• Tue. 6-20-00: 3rd robot game
• Tue. 6-27-00: 4th robot game
• Thu. 6-29-00: Last day to withdraw
• Tue. 7-3-00: Last day to submit Individual Project

   A : 90-100%                 C : 70-74%
   A-: 88-89%                  C-: 68-69%
   B+: 85-87%                  D+: 65-67%
   B : 80-84%                  D : 60-64% 
   B-: 78-79%                  D-: 58-59%
   C+: 75-77%                  F : 00-57%

Class Policies

• Attendance is essential to doing well in the course. The exams will focus primarily (but not exclusively) on material presented in the lectures and labs.
• If you are unable to attend a meeting, it is your responsibility to obtain the material from other students or instructor.

Exam. Policies

• There will be no makeup exams will be given.
• Closed books, closed notes, but closed neighbors. Some parts of the exam may be open book.

Homework Policies

• Assignments must be done individually.
• Must be submitted at the beginning of the class on the due date
• Late submission penalty is 30%.
• No submission will be accepted beyond a week after the due date.

Robot Game Policies

• Late submission penalty is 30%.
• No game demo will be accepted beyond a week after the due date.
• Source code of the programs in a diskette as well as hard copy of them should be submitted in an manila envelop.

Policy on Individual Project

Policy on Academic Misconduct