UCSB “Introduction to Robotics: Planning and Kinematics”
ME/ECE 179P, Fall 2014
Instructor: Stephen L. Smith

This is the syllabus for the UCSB course ME / ECE 179P “Introduction to Robotics: Planning and Kinematics”, Fall 2014

Textbook

As a text we will use the following lecture notes: Lecture Notes on Robotic Planning and Kinematics (pdf)

The username and password will be provided in class.

Each chapter of the lecture notes will typically be covered in two lectures.

When and how to turn in homework and MATLAB assignments

Homework will typically be due one week after the corresponding lectures. For example, the homework on Chapter 1 will be due one week after we finish covering Chapter 1. Warning: The week-by-week schedule below includes few exceptions.

Handwritten or typed answers are to be placed in the homework box for ME179P near room 2243, Engr Bldg II by 6pm on the due date.

Electronic answer are to be emailed to introtorobotics-at-gmail.com with the subject “MATLAB Assignment #XYZ” or “MATLAB Project #XYZ”, where XYZ is the number of the assignment or project. Typically, M-files are to be emailed as attachments. For your information, we will run your M-files and MATLAB scripts through a test routine to check they work properly.

How to learn MATLAB

• MATLAB video tutorials by MathWorks: (html) and demos (html)

• MATLAB Primer (version 3, by Kermit Sigmon): (pdf)

Chapter 1: Sensor-Based Motion Planning (Bug Algorithms)
Oct 02 and Oct 07

Assignments:

• Reading: Lecture Notes Chapter 1

• Homework 1 (due Tues Oct 14): Exercises E1.1, E1.3, E1.5

• MATLAB 1 (due Tues Oct 14): Exercise E1.6 with required scripts : dist.m (m-file), getLineThroughTwoPoints.m (m-file), and test points (m-file). Can alternatively use Python hw1.py (Python module), but help will be provided only for MATLAB at the moment.

Chapter 2: Motion Planning via Decomposition and Search
Oct 09 and Oct 14

Assignments:

• Reading: Lecture Notes Chapter 2

• Homework 2 (due Tues Oct 21): Exercises E2.1, E2.2 and E2.6

• MATLAB 2 (due Tues Oct 21): Exercise 1.7

Project 1 (due in two weeks, Tues Oct 28):

• Exercise E1.8 “The Bug 1 Algorithm”. Some parts of the exercises are to be emailed and others are to be turned into the homework box. Project 1 requires the solution of Exercises 1.6 and 1.7 and solutions to MATLAB Exercise 1.7 will be made available.

• MATLAB scripts required for project: computeBugBasePath.m (m-file) and testBugEnvironment.m (m-file)

Solutions:

• Solution of Matlab 1: getDistancePointToLine.m (m-file) and getDistancePointToSegment.m (m-file). Solutions in Python hw1solutions.py (Python module)

Chapter 3: Configuration Spaces
Oct 16 and Oct 21

Assignments:

• Reading: Lecture Notes Chapter 3

  • Optional reading: “Chapter 4: The Configuration Space” from “Planning Algorithms” by S. M. LaValle: (html) (pdf)

• Homework 3 (due Tues Oct 28): Exercises E3.1, E3.2, E3.4, E3.6

• MATLAB 3 (due Tues Oct 28): Exercise 2.7 with required MATLAB m-file: exampleBFS.m (m-file). The required file in Python example_bfs.py (Python module).

Solutions:

• Solution of MATLAB 2: computeDistancePointToPolygon.m (m-file) and computeTangentVectorToPolygon.m (m-file). Solutions in Python hw2solutions.py (Python module)

Chapter 4: Motion Planning via Sampling and Collision Detection
Oct 23 and Oct 28

Assignments:

• Reading: Lecture Notes Chapter 4

• Homework 4 (due Tues Nov 04): Exercises E4.2, E4.3, E4.4, and E4.5

• MATLAB 4 (due Tues Nov 04): Exercise 4.7 and 4.8 with required MATLAB scripts sampleOneLinkFreeCSpace.m (m-file) and testCollisionDetection.m (m-file). Files in Python: sample_one_link_free_cspace.py (Python module) and test_collision_detection.py (Python module).

Solutions:

• Solution of MATLAB 3: computeBFSEdges.m (m-file) and computeBFSPath.m (m-file). Solutions in Python bfs_solutions.py (Python module)

Chapter 5: Motion Planning via Sampling
Oct 30 and Nov 04

Assignments:

• Reading: Lecture Notes Chapter 5

  • additional reading on PRMs: Robotic Path Planning and Protein Modeling

  • additional reading on PRMs and RRTs: Sections 5.4-5.6 of “Motion Planning” by SML

  • example RRT motion plans: gallery

• Homework 5 (due Tues Nov 18): Exercises E5.1, E5.2, E5.3.

Project 2 (due in 2 weeks, Tues Nov 18):

• Exercise E5.4 “The 2-link Manipulator with Polygons and PRMs” (Some parts of the exercises are to be emailed and others are to be turned into the homework box.)

• MATLAB scripts required for project: testTwoPolyLinkGrid.m (m-file), computeBFSEdges.m (m-file), computeBFSPath.m (m-file), testDisplaceLinkPoly.m (m-file), angDist.m (m-file) and checkCollisionBetweenPolygons.m (m-file).

Solutions:

• Solution of MATLAB 4: sampleTwoLinkFreeCSpace.m (m-file) and checkCollisionBetweenPolygons.m (m-file). Solutions in Python sample_two_link_free_cspace.py (Python module) and check_collision_between_polygons.py (Python module)

• Solutions for Homework 4, Exercise 4.3: samplingcode.m (m-file)

• Solution of Project 1: (computeBug1Path.m m-file)

Midterm: Thursday Nov 06

• The exam will take place in class

Chapter 6: Introduction to kinematics and rotation matrices
Nov 13 and Nov 18

Assignments:

• Reading: Lecture Notes Chapter 6

• Homework 6 (due Tues Nov 25): Exercises E6.1, E6.3, E6.4

Chapter 7: Rotation matrices (composition, parametrization)
Nov 20 and Nov 25

Assignments:

• Reading: Lecture Notes Chapter 7

• Homework 7 (due Thurs Dec 04): Exercises E7.1, E7.2, E7.3, E7.9

• MATLAB 7 (due Thurs Dec 04): Exercises 7.7 with required MATLAB script testCubeRotation.m (m-file)

Solutions:

• Solution of Project 2: (displaceLinkPoly.m m-file), (computeTwoPolyLinkFreePoints.m m-file), (computeAdjTableForFreeCSpacePoints.m m-file), and (testTwoPolyLinkPRM.m m-file)

Chapter 8: Displacement matrices (as models for rigid motion and transformations)
Dec 02 and Dec 04

Assignments:

• Reading: Lecture Notes Chapter 8

  • Additional reading: Motoman HP20 Brochure

• Homework 8 (due Thurs Dec 11, but will not be graded): Exercises E8.1, E8.2, E8.3

Chapter 09 Motion models
Dec 09 and Dec 11

Assignments:

• Reading: Lecture Notes Chapter 9

Solutions:

• Solution of MATLAB 7: rmtoaa.m (m-file), aatorm.m (m-file) and testCubeRotationFigure.m (m-file)

Final Exam

• Time: Wednesday December 17, 2014 from 7:30 - 10:30pm.

• Place: Engineering Building II, Room 2243

• Additional Practice: Exercises with answers on kinematics (PDF)