Robotics and autonomous systems

Project

You will most likely spend most of the time in the course working on the project. It gives you a chance to work together in a team and solve a task. The tournament at the end adds a little extra spice to it.

If you have any questions about the project work please contact Anders Dovervik ado@kth.se who is in charge of the lab and workshop and knows the hardware and software you will be working with well. Please remember that Anders is not on 24 hour call to assist you. This is part of the game, you need to plan ahead. That said, he will try to help you as soon as he can. Contact him and set up an appointment.

Something that is very important to note and remember when you work on the project is that there are no replacements available for some of the components (motors and eyebot) that you have been given. Repairing an eyebot controller card can take more than a month. Be careful! No over clocking of eyebots for example.

Lab 0

To get you started working on the project as early as possible you can get 3 points added to your exam score if you complete Lab0 in time and shown to the lecturer or the project assistant no later than 13:00 on Friday April 13. Someone will be in the lab
Wednesday April 11, 15-16
Friday April 13, 10-13. You need to make an appointment ahead of time to present the results at other times than these, primarily with Anders ado@kth.se.

The task

You should build a robot that is able to drive straight or turn on the spot and switch between these as a result of some external stimuli. The idea is to show that you can control the motors of the robot and that you can react to some event and use this event to change the behavior of the robot. It is not ok to have one program that drives straight for a while and then turns based on time for example. It should change based on some stimuli from for example camera, bumper or even the keypad on the eyebot.

Lab 1

The second lab is equivalent to fulfilling the course requirements on the project and will give you 5 credits if it is completed and shown to the lecturer or the project assiatant before May 4, 15:00. You need to make an appointment ahead of time to present the results, primarily with Anders ado@kth.se.

The task

The robot should be able to score a goal unopposed with several initial ball positions.

the robot should be started from the extended goal line and be placed before the ball is on the filed
the ball is placed somewhere along the centre line

Project examnination

At the end of the project there will be a competition where the robots will compete against each other. This event will be open for the public. The rules for the competition can be viewed here . The competition starts with each robot trying to make as many goals as possible unopposed. The results of this will give the robots the seeding into the tournament.

Each team should prepare a brief presentation (3-5 mins) (pdf or powerpoint) of the robot that should be given in connection with the seeding procedure. Each team should also make a one page leaflet describing the robot and distribute one copy to each of the 3 people in the tournamement jury before the start of the tournament.

Project report

After the competition the team should put together a report about the project. This project will serve as the documentation for the project and as such be read by students in coming years of the course. Please think of them when you write the report and how useful it was for you to read well written reports from other teams.

Competition date

The competition will be help in E1 May 15 14-17. The room is booked from 13 so that you have some time to prepare.

Grading of the project

The grading of the project is given by the robot and the report you write about it. See the main page for details on the grading.

Old robots

Just like in the real world it is good to look at what has been done before so that you do not re-invent the wheel too many time. Your are therefore encouraged to look at the reports, videos and robots from previous years.

You find this information if the you the "Previous years" option in the navigation bar. Links to the reports and robots from the last two years can be seen here along with the reports from this year