TSU

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, TECHNOLOGY AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION FOR COMP 4440 (MOBILE ROBOTICS)

 

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

 

This course provides students with hands-on experience in mobile robot design, implementation, and testing. It covers mobile robot topics such as robot hardware, robot sensing, actuation, embedded system programming, and algorithms for localization, path planning, and mapping. It briefly covers multi-robot systems. Students are expected to work in laboratory in teams to build and test increasingly complex LEGO-based mobile robots and compete in an end-of-semester robot contest.

 

PREREQUISITES

 

(MATH 3120 OR MATH 3610) AND a semester of programming (ENGR 222L or ENGR 223L or COMP 2240 or equivalent). Those who do not meet the prerequisite should withdraw this course.

 

COMPETENCY LEVEL

 

1.          Understanding of hardware structures of mobile robots.

2.          Understanding of software structures of mobile robots.

3.          Understanding of embedded systems.

4.          Ability to write embedded programs.

5.          Ability to design and develop independent autonomous software agents for mobile robots.

6.          Ability to develop and integrate intelligent behaviors for mobile robots.

7.          Ability to work on multi-disciplinary teams.

8.          Ability to communicate and present effectively.

9.          Ability to use modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice.

 

DETAILED COURSE OUTLINE

 

 

 

 

0.         

INTRODUCTION

 

 

1.         

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

 

a.      General introduction to the field of mobile robotics

b.      Existing hardware platforms (Trilobot, Amigibot, Pioneer AT/DX)

c.       Software platforms

d.      Applications

 

 

 

2.         

HARDWARE

 

a.      Motors

b.      Controllers

1.      Microcontrollers

2.      Microprocessors

c.       (Microcontrollers – Microprocessors)

d.      Sensing Mechanisms

1.      Why do we need them?

2.      Contact, Light, Resistive

3.      Optical Encoders

4.      Ultrasonic – Sonar

5.      Laser

6.      Infrared

7.      Vision

e.      Lego Systems

 

 

3.         

SOFTWARE

 

a.      Object-Oriented Software Development

b.      Embedded Software Development

c.       Robotic Software Architectures

d.      Distributed System Programming

 

 

 

4.         

AI and MOBILE ROBOTICS APPLICATIONS

 

a.      Simple reactive tasks (such as obstacle avoidance)

b.      Behavior-based tasks (such as follow-wall, follow center, and move-to-point)

c.       Deliberative planning

d.      Mobile Robotics Issues (such as localization, mapping, and path planning)