A major emphasis is normally placed on the motion planning problems. The first part of the course will cover fundamental topics and will be lecture oriented. The second part will consist of readings from the research literature and in the final part students will present their projects. The course involves a substantial project which could be either an individual or a group undertaking. There will be considerable flexibility in selecting projects within the broad theme of robotics.
Students can also propose their own projects.
A robot programming environment, ACT is available on an SGI Indigo in the Engineering Science Lab. It provides a nice geometric modelling and simulation environment. Although not mandatory, students will be encouraged to develop their projects within this environment. In past few years years students have implemented a local motion planner, generalized cones algorithm for moving a polygon among polygonal obstacles, and have presented surveys of research areas such as potential field based approach to motion planning. Grading There are no exams.