CSE 481C: ROBOTICS CAPSTONE

SPRING 2020

COURSE INFO

Quarter: Spring, 2020

Class times: Tuesdays, 10:00am-12:50pm

Office hours: TBD

Location: Zoom/Canvas

Webpage: www.cs.washington.edu/cse481c

Canvas: https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1371938/

Github: TDB

TEACHING STAFF

Maya Cakmak, Instructor

e-mail: mcakmak@cs

Vinitha Ranganeni, Teaching Assistant

e-mail: vinitha@cs

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The main goal of this course is to introduce computer science and engineering students to robotics and give them hands-on, project-based experience programming robots. To that end, the course will teach you the basics of robotics and give you implementation experience. We will touch on robot motion, navigation, perception, manipulation, planning, and interaction through mini-lectures, labs and assignments, eventually integrating these components to create autonomous or semi-autonomous robotic functionalities. The project will give you team-work experience with large scale software integration and it will get you thinking about opportunities for using robots to make people's lives easier. At the end of the quarter students are expected to:

  • Understand basics of robot navigation, perception, planning, interaction; have a sense of challenging problems in robotics
  • Have experience with a robot programming software framework or development kit
  • Be comfortable operating a physical robot platform
  • Understand the importance of interface design and robustness of functionalities in robotics

Find out more about general capstone objectives here.

Links to webpages of previous offerings of the robotics capstone: Winter 2019, Winter 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2013

PROJECT: SMALL ROBOT, BIG AMBITION

This year's robotics capstone will use the little Cozmo robot platform. Every student in the class will have their own Cozmo robot to work with on their own, but will work in teams of 3-4 to develop software for new functionalities.

Although Cozmo may seem like a toy, it has many of the key components of a sophisticated robot; various sensors and a camera for perception, differential drive wheels for mobility, a forklift for manipulation, and an expressive face and sounds for interaction. We want your projects to clearly demonstrate the potential value of robots by finding the right problem or application domain, and engineering the right environment for Cozmo.

The first few weeks of the quarter will be focused on building basic robotics skills and developing basic capabilities for Cozmo robots. We will simultaneously brainstorm and narrow down project ideas. We will then split into project groups to execute these ideas.

Project ideas should be ambitious and creative. They should be problem-driven and useful, rather than capability-driven or just "cool" or "cute." Here are some example project prompts:

  • A robot that disinfects hard surfaces like, tables or countertops, by navigating on them to cover them
  • A robot that teaches social-emotional skills to young children
  • A robot that prepares kits by fetching different items needed for the kit and collecting them in a container
  • A robot therapist that asks open-ended questions and "listens" (i.e. gives a realistic impression of listening through back-channeling)

To ensure collaboration within teams we will emphasize generalizabililty of robotic functionalities; i.e. we expect to see the robot functioning in different environments with different users.

LOGISTICS & RULES

Please keep in mind:

  • Zoom: We will use Zoom to meet once a week as a class, during the originally scheduled class time. See Canvas for the Zoom link. Please make sure your preferred name is displayed on your Zoom avatar and if possible join with video making sure your face is visible; otherwise use a photo with your face visible for your avatar. We would love to be able to recognize you when we see you in Allen School corridors next year.
  • Lecture versus lab: This is largely a lab course. Labs will be in the form of written tutorials to be completed individually or as a team. New labs will be released on the day of class each week. We will use the first 30-60 minutes of the class time to introduce or discuss a new topic in robotics, and give an overview of the new labs. Students are encouraged to work on the labs during the remaining time of the class. The instructor and/or the TA will be available for the duration of the class time. Later in the quarter we might do breakouts to check in with project teams, after the first part of the class.
  • Collaboration:
    • Teams will form around Week 4 of the quarter.
    • Our main collaboration platform will be GitHub. If you do not yet have an account please create one.
    • One member from each team will create a repository for the project and add the others as collaborators.
    • The wiki of your GitHub repository can be used for documentation.
    • Sharing the driver's seat: During team-based labs, please make sure that the lead programmer role rotates among team members, no matter how slow you type or how little experience you have.
  • Assignments:
    • Starting in week 2, you will give have weekly assignments (either individually or as a team). Most assignments will involve submitting a video showing the progress made through labs, but some will also require creating documents that the teaching staff can give feedback on. A rubric for each assignment will be available on Canvas.
    • Assignments are due on the following Monday at 5pm. The teaching staff will review and grade blogs shortly after this deadline.
    • For team assignments, one member from each team should submit a link to the post on Canvas by this deadline.
    • There is no penalty for late assignments, other than the fact that they will be reviewed late also. However, we strongly encourage sticking to the schedule to make steady progress and succeed in this class.
  • Office hours: There will be an office hour with the TA once a week on TBD. If you are having team issues or feel lost in terms of your project direction, you can schedule a team meeting with the instructor from this calendar.
  • E-mails: When you email the instructor and/or the TA, please remember to include the word "CSE481" in your subject line.
  • Discussions: Please use Canvas discussion boards for questions that might be relevant for the rest of the class.
  • Robotics news of the day: At the beginning of class each week at least one person will give a brief presentation of a robotics-related news or fun-fact. You can volunteer for this by posting link to a news and a 1 or 2 sentence blurb about the link on the related discussion thread.

GRADING

The distribution of your grades will be as follows:

60% Weekly assignments

20% Final project video

20% Participation and teamwork

Grades will be available on Canvas.