Due: Mar 9, 5:00pm
It is crunch time! Only two weeks left to complete your projects :-) This week you'll continue to execute the project implementation plan proposed in Blog #7, get started on your final presentation video, and complete course and peer evaluation.
1. (2 points) Post #1 -- Video script: Write a draft script for your final presentation video. See the final video assignment below for more details and examples. If you would like feedback on your script earlier than the assignment deadline, please submit only this post on Canvas and send us a note.
2. (1.5 points) Post #2 -- Team evaluations and reflection: It is time to fill out your peer evaluations. Everyone should fill those out individually. In addition, we would like you to reflect as a team and write a brief blog post about your reflection. In particular, talk about which strategies from Blog #3 Post 2 did you actually adopt as a team, what other strategies did you adopt along the way, which ones worked well, and which did not.
3. (1.5 points) Post #3 -- Course evaluations and feedback: Reflect individually and as a team about the Robotics Capstone Winter 2018 offering and write a blog post touching on (a) what was most fun, (b) what was most useful, (c) what was not so useful, (d) what would have been useful but was missing. As this is a continually changing course, we would like to hear from you any information that can help make future offerings better. Please also have everyone in your team fill out the official course evaluation.
4. (2 points) As in Blog #8, post an update on your progress on the project. As before, you may have multiple progress updates from different subgroups focusing on different aspects of the project.
Submit links (one for each blog post) as text entry on Canvas. See Canvas for more details on grading.
Due: Mar 12th, 11:59pm
You final assignment involves creating a video that presents your project, based on the script you prepared in Blog #9. Your video should be three minutes or shorter. Your video should both introduce and "sell" your design. The following example videos might inspire you:
Your video script (Blog #9) should include a plan for narration and accompanying visuals (footage or images). Your script should be in the form of a three column table.
To allow for creative freedom and avoid obtaining many cookie-cutter videos, we are not constraining the sections in your video. But please make sure that your video follows these guidelines:
You will receive feedback about your scripts shortly after submitting them. Afterwards you will have a week to shoot and edit your videos. Try to incorporate any feedback you received about your script.
The evaluation of this assignment will be done by a panel of judges and it has two components:
The rating sheet that the judges will use is available here. To avoid file format related challenges and allow judges to view videos remotely, we request that you upload your video to YouTube (you can make it Unlisted if desired) and submit a link to the video on Canvas.
Due: Feb 26, 5:00pm
From here on you will execute the plan you proposed in Blog #7. Your assignments will involve reporting on your progress according to this plan. You will have a few additional tasks (creating a video script, reflection/evaluation) in your last blog post next week.
At this point in the project it is likely that you are working in parallel on several aspects of the project in subgroups. We recommend that each subgroup posts a separate progress update. For example if you have one person working on the UI, that person can be responsible for posting a progress update on that. Progress updates should include the different deliverables mentioned in your plan (Post #3, Blog #7), e.g. pictures, videos, screenshots, or any other evidence of progress. Make sure to indicate who has been working on what.
Optionally, post any updates to your business model, design, target use cases, and technical requirements, as well as refinements to your project plan and system architecture.
Submit links (one for each blog post) as text entry on Canvas. See Canvas for more details on grading.
Due: Feb 20, 5:00pm
This week we get started on fabrication and complete our last lab, before we ramp up our project-specific implementation. Here are the blog posts we would like to see for this assignment.
1. (1 points) Post #1: In the fabrication tutorial you will learn to design objects that can be laser cut or 3D printed. As part of this assignment, you will create an initial design for something that you would like to fabricate as part of your projects, e.g. a custom tool for your robot to handle tennis balls; a custom handle to attach to objects that the robot will need to manipulate; shelf dividers that position items so they are graspable by the robot, etcetera. Let us know if you are unsure about what to design. Post a picture of your CAD model and briefly explain what it is for.
2. (2 points) Post #2: Lab 34 will introduce you to object recognition. After completing the exercise for the dataset provided for the lab, collect a dataset that includes objects that you would like to be able to recognize for your project and train a classifier for it. Post screenshots (similar to the last picture in the lab) or a video demonstrating your classifier's output on your objects of interest as well as "distractor" objects.
3. (2 points) Post #3: You have only three weeks left to complete your projects! The good news is you now know almost everything you need to implement your projects. The labs from next week on will be optional labs with additional tools that might help some teams. So this is a good time to create an action plan for the next three weeks so you can complete your projects on time. To that end, your third blog post should include the following:
4. (Optional) Post any changes or refinements to your lean canvas (i.e. your business model), sketch (i.e. your design), story board (i.e. your target use cases), or technical/environmental requirement based on the feedback you get from peers or the teaching staff or based on your elaborations.
Submit three (or four) links (one for each blog post) as text entry on Canvas. See Canvas for more details on grading.
Due: Feb 12, 5:00pm
This week we jump into perception with detection and tracking of so called “AR markers” or “fiducials” and then get more serious with point cloud processing.
1. (4 points) Post #1: Labs 27-29 will show you how to work on perception problems in simulation and introduce you to a package for tracking fiducials in the pointcloud stream from Fetch’s PrimeSense camera. Using this and other functionality developed in previous assignments, you will develop a new system that allows you to: (a) save end-effector poses relative to a fiducial and (b) move the robot’s arm to the same relative poses after the fiducial has been moved. Using this system you will be able to define different actions for manipulating objects that have fiducials attached to them, simply by saving a sequence of end-effector poses and gripper states (open/closed) relative to the fiducial on the object.
The system should allow you to specify end-effector poses by physically moving the robot's arms to the desired poses. It should detect the pose based on the robot's sensor data (i.e., using TF). You will need some kind of interface (command-line or web-based) to save poses after moving the arm to each pose. For each pose, you will need to use your interface to specify which fiducial the pose is relative to (or if the pose is relative to the robot's base). Once you have finished defining an action, you should use your interface to save the action to a file. You also need to build a program executor that can load an action from a file and execute it.
To demonstrate the tools developed in this assignment, assume that you have box shaped object with a fiducial (F1) on its front face. Use of your tool *on the real robot* to define the following three actions:
Make a video to show how the tool is used for specifying three different actions as well as the execution of each action in two different initial configurations of the object with F1. Post your video with a brief description of what is being shown.
Your actions should actually succeed. So if you find that the action fails when you test it, you need to go back and re-define your actions differently (e.g. try having a different number of poses, using different pose configurations, or adjusting the motion speed).
2. (4 points) Post #2: Labs 30-32 will get you started on processing the robot's PointCloud stream to detect surfaces and segment objects that are on a surface. For this assignment we would like you to start thinking about using this functionality for your projects. Choose a representative object that needs to be perceived for your project (e.g. tennis ball) and tune the methods you learn in the labs to work for segmenting that particular object. Your blog post should include the following:
3. (Optional) Post any changes or refinements to your lean canvas (i.e. your business model), sketch (i.e. your design), story board (i.e. your target use cases), or technical/environmental requirement based on the feedback you get from peers or the teaching staff or based on your elaborations.
Submit two (or three) links (one for each blog post) as text entry on Canvas. See Canvas for more details on grading.
Due: Feb 5, 5:00pm
This week you will continue to learn about ROS and Fetch capabilities that will form the basis of your proposed projects. Your blog posts for the week include two videos based on lab milestones as well as some work on your project ideas.
Submit three (or four) links (one for each blog post) as text entry on Canvas. See the rubric on Canvas for details on grading.
Due: JAN 29, 5:00pm
The next group assignment involves the following blog posts based on the tools you will develop in this week’s labs.
Submit three (or four) links (one for each blog post) as text entry on Canvas. See the rubric on Canvas for details on grading.
Due: JAN 22, 5:00pm
Your next assignment will demonstrate the successful completion of this week's labs and build on your previous assignments to push your project ideas forward. Here is what we would like to see on your blog next week.
Make a screen capture video of the teleoperation process. At the end, open the Gazebo window to show that the object was successfully picked up by the robot. Upload your video to Youtube and post a link on your blog with a description of all elements on your tele-operation interface.
2. (1 points) Post #2: Assign team roles to everyone in your project team, considering common potential roles in this class. Write a blog post that describes everyone's roles and concrete responsibilities. Consider weekly responsibilities as well as quarter-term project responsibilities. In addition, write a paragraph about strategies you will follow to ensure everyone in the team acquires the knowledge and skills they hope to get out of the class (e.g. everyone in the team learns ROS).
3. (2 points) Post #3: Next, you will critique two project proposals by your peers. Review the sketch, storyboard, technical requirements (Post #2 in Assignment #2) and the associated Lean canvas (Post #1 in Assignment #2) for each project. Provide a critique in the following format:
We will separately post the assignment of projects that each team will critique with links to the relevant posts.
4. (Optional) You will likely pivot or refine your projects throughout the course of the quarter. We would like you to keep documenting these changes or refinements on your blog. Post any changes or refinements to your lean canvas (i.e. your business model), sketch (i.e. your design), story board (i.e. your target use cases), or technical/environmental requirement based on the feedback you get from peers or the teaching staff or based on your elaborations.
Submit three links (one for each blog post) as text entry on Canvas. See the rubric on Canvas for details on grading.
Due: JAN 16, 5:00pm
Here is what we would like to see as part of your first assignment as a team.
Submit two links to your blog posts on Canvas. See the rubric on Canvas for more details on grading.
Due: JAN 8, 5:00pm
Since you do not yet have teams, this assignment will be done individually and posted on the shared course blog. Here is what you need to do.
This is an individual assignment. Even if you already have a team you need to do this assignment independently. Team projects will be chosen later from a list selected by the teaching staff.
Submit two links (one for each blog post) as text entry on Canvas.