CS 371 - Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Homework #8

Due: Last day of class
Note: Work is to be done in three teams (formed in class).

Lego Robotics Challenge

The CS 371 Lego Robotics Challenge consists of a series of successive challenge tasks that build on one another.  In the fall of 2000, a single team successful completed challenge tasks #1, #2, and #3 below.  In fall 2002, teams placed a new Java-based OS on the robots (LeJOS), redesigned the robot for structural strength and finer control, and completed the same challenge tasks.  In fall 2004, teams refined the design slightly and achieved challenge #5 somewhat unreliably.  In fall 2006, no new challenges were achieved, but some design elements were critiqued and made arguably more robust.  In fall 2008, we began anew with Lego Mindstorms NXT platform with improvements in both physical design and motion control, yet much needs to be done to achieve robust success of the early challenges with this new platform.  In fall 2010, student teams sought to both extend challenge achievements, and improve the previous iteration code and/or physical design.

This time, each team must demonstrate the achievement of one or both of the following:

Goal 1: A significant improvement to previous challenge solutions.
Goal 2: Use the previous design to achieve the next challenge(s).

Unlike challenges from 2010 and before, this project is semester-long and fulfills the Gettysburg fourth hour requirement, so teams should plan to meet an average of 1 hour per week, and work and average of 2 hours per week.  Thus, teams are expected to achieve better results than were possible in the previous 2-3 week project assignment periods.

Groups will need to (1) form, (2) set specific goals based on these general goals, and (3) develop a time table for work by the end of class on (TBA). 

Finally, groups will need to document their work on the web such that future classes can reproduce it and learn from it.  It is recommended that one team member be designated as team webmaster, fully documenting not only the final results, but also the process leading to those results.

Challenge Tasks

  1. Challenge #1 - Line-Following: Design and implement a lego robot that will follow a line through sudden turns up to 90 degrees.
  2. Challenge #2 - Intersection-Finding: Design and implement a lego robot that will follow a line as in (1), but stop when it comes to an intersection of two or more lines.
  3. Challenge #3 - Intersection-Choosing: Design and implement a lego robot that will, beyond (1) and (2), exit the intersection at the nth spoke clockwise from the line it travelled.
  4. Challenge #4 - Intersection-Traversing: Design and implement a lego robot that will perform (3) in succession given n1, n2, n3, ...
  5. Challenge #5 - Search and Traverse: Design and implement a lego robot that, given a graph topology, its current intersection and heading, and its goal intersection and heading, will generate a sequence of moves and perform (4).
  6. Challenge #6 - Localize, Search, and Traverse: Design and implement a lego robot that, given all that is given in (4) except its current intersection and heading, will take action to ascertain its state (localize), and then perform (5).
  7. Challenge #7 - Explore, Search, and Traverse: Design and implement a lego robot that explores lines and intersections, forms a graph roadmap, and moves to a graph intersection with the following property: Let d(i,j) be the minimum number of edges to travel to get from intersection i to intersection j.  Let D(i) be max(d(i,j)) for all j.  A goal intersection has the minimum D(i).
Work on either goal should essentially be complete by early in the last week.  Teams will need to budget time to document their work (see previous semester examples below) for the benefit of future teams.  A large portion of the final team grade will be devoted to the quality and completeness of your documentation.  Our last class will be open to visitors and will feature demonstrations and small presentations of work by each team.  Work hard, have fun, and enjoy the challenge!

Useful links