Fall 2020
This is an EARLY draft. Information subject to change.
The course catalog says:
Introduces autonomous mobile robots with a focus on algorithms and software development, including closed-loop control, robot software architecture, wheeled locomotion and navigation, tactile and basic visual sensing, obstacle detection and avoidance, and grasping and manipulation of objects. Offers students an opportunity to progressively construct mobile robots from a predesigned electromechanical kit. The robots are controlled wirelessly by software of the students’ own design, built within a provided robotics software framework. Culminates in a project that connects the algorithms and hardware developed in the course with a selected topic in the current robotics research literature.
Section | Location | Time |
---|---|---|
4610-01 | RB 109 | Tu 11:45am-1:25pm; Th 2:50pm-4:30pm |
5335-01 | RB 109 | Tu 11:45am-1:25pm; Th 2:50pm-4:30pm |
In person class meetings are optional. You can find Zoom links for remote participation on Canvas.
Name | Location | Hours | |
---|---|---|---|
Nat Tuck | MS Teams | We 1pm-2pm | ntuck ⚓ ccs.neu.edu |
Xingyu Lu | MS Teams | Tu 1:30pm-2:30pm | lu.xingy ⚓ northeastern.edu |
Sarfaraz Quadri | MS Teams | Th 5pm-6pm | quadri.s ⚓ northeastern.edu |
Due to the ongoing pandemic, we'll be using an altered course structure this semester as well as following the Northeastern policies.
Course structure changes:
Make sure you are familar with the university policies for being on campus and attending classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Specifically, keep in mind the following for our in-person meetings:
Assignments will frequently be due at 11:59pm on Thursday.
Information about assignments and due dates appear here, on Canvas, and on Inkfish. Only the assignments and due dates listed on Inkfish matter.
Week | Starts | Topics | Work Due |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Sep 7 (α) | Intro; Sim Demo | - |
2 | Sep 14 | Gazebo Simulator; Reactive Control | HW1: Hello Sim Robot (δ) |
3 | Sep 21 | Kerbal Space Program; Kerboscript | HW2: Hello Spaceship (δ) |
4 | Sep 28 | ... | HW3: ?? |
5 | Oct 5 | ... | HW4: ?? |
6 | Oct 12 | ... | HW5: ?? |
7 | Oct 19 | ... | HW6: ?? |
8 | Oct 26 | ... | HW7: ?? |
9 | Nov 2 | ... | Project Proposal (δ) |
10 | Nov 9 | ... | HW8: ?? |
11 | Nov 16 | ... | (work on project) |
12 | Nov 23 (β) | ... | (work on project) |
13 | Nov 30 | Presentations | Final Project Due Monday (δ) |
14 | Dec 7 (γ) | Wrap-Up | - |
We won't be using the robot kit in September, so you can safely hold off on deciding if you want to buy it until you have more information on what we'll be doing with it.
For all regular assignments:
Homework:
Project:
4610 vs 5335:
Participation:
Final grades:
Bonus points:
Late submissions will be penalized 1% per hour late.
Final project submissions will not be accepted after presentations start.
Late Registration
If you register late for the course please contact the professor for extended homework due dates as soon as possible. In general you will be expected to complete all of your assignments in order, and you will recieve an extension on at most one assignment due after your registration date.
Late submissions will be penalized per the normal policy without an explicit written extension from the instructor.
Grades are mostly deterministic in this class:
If you think you have an incorrectly assigned grade:
Whether or not your final project was "excellent" is a subjective judgement by the course staff and cannot be appealed.
If you misunderstood the instructions and failed to complete a portion of a homework assignment your grading TA may, at their option, allow you to fix it either when the submission is graded or if you request the opportunity to do so. TAs probably will accept the first such request, and probably will not accept the third for a given student this semester.
Students needing disability accommodations should visit the Disability Resource Center (DRC).
If you have been granted special accomodations either through the DRC or as a student athlete, let me know as soon as possible.
Copying code and submitting it without proper attribution is strictly prohibited in this class. This is plagiarism, which is a serious violation of academic integrity.
Providing solution code to other student that solves the core challenge of an assignment is also strictly prohibited unless you're working with them on a team project.
Collaboration and Attribution
Using code written by others with appropriate attribution is frequently appropriate. Properly attributed code will never be treated as plagarism in this class.
You are still expected to complete the assignment yourself, which includes writing the solution code to solve the core challenge of the assignment. If you submit code with attributions that show that you did not appropriately complete the assignment yourself, you will not recieve credit for that assignment.
Posting Code on the Web
You may post code written for this class publically on the web as long as:
If your code is potentially useful to others, it would be nice for you to post it as a git repository and explicitly license it under an open source license.
Penalty for Plagarism or Providing Solution Code
First offense:
Avoid copying code if you can. If you're looking at an example, understand what it does, type something similar that is appropriate to your program, and provide attribution. If you must copy code, put in the attribution immediately, every time or you will fail the course over what feels like a minor mistake.