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ANTICIPATED CLASS SCHEDULE

Week 1.

• Definitions:
• What is a robot?
• What is an autonomous robot?
• What is a mobile autonomous robot used for?
• Sensors and actuators.
• Group dynamic: play robot.
• Forming teams
• Homework: report on current robotics articles.


Week 2.

• Introduction to robot building:
• Locomotion: legs vs. wheels.
• Typical wheel patterns
• Basic physics of gear trains.
• Each team makes first Lego robot design.
• Introduction to the Handy Board and Handy board programming syntax.
• Exercise: write a program for following a line or bouncing off walls, test it with previously built robots.


Week 3.

• Mounting and assembling sensors.
• Improvement of the robot design.
• First task assigned: Move from point A to point B, robot starts facing to a fixed location.
• Strategies: wall bouncing, line following, wall color detection.
• Programming syntax for basic actions: turn on/off motors, read sensors, etc.
• How to interpret sensor readings.


Week 4.

• Presentation of task 1.
• Second task assigned: Move from point A to point B, robot starts facing to any of  several locations.
• Multiprocessing in robotics.
• Assignment: define an interesting project for the Lego robot.


Week 5-7.

• Presentation of task 2.
• Selection and approval of Lego project.
• Third task assigned: find an object on the court.
• Programming strategies: classical and subsumption.
• Presentation of task 3.


Week 8.

• Presentation of Lego projects.


Week 9.

• Knowing the Amigobot robot.
• Interpretation of sonar readings.
• Compilation and execution of Amigobot programs.
• Demo program: Move a fixed distance without hitting an obstacle.
• Programming syntax for basic Amigobot actions.
• First task assignment: Find an opening in a corridor.


Week 10.

• Presentation of first task.
• Assignment of task 2: add obstacle avoidance.
• Program testing on simulated environments.
• Assignment: select or propose a project.


Week 11.

• Using subsumption for controlling behavior.
• Task three assigned: maze navigation.
• Presentation of task 2.
• Project approval.


Week 12-13.

• Presentation of task 3.
• Development  of final project.


Week 14.

• Presentation of final projects.