ECE4560 Projects
Default Projects
The course currently has three default projects.
1. The Robotic Arm Track.
The original project for the course which is a 5DOF robotic arm. A recent addition to this track includes a 4DOF planar robotic arm. The robotic arm track, as the default project, has historically been incorporated into the homeworks.
2. The Mobile Robot Track.
This newer mobile robot project has a mostly established program of study. It revolves around learning to use the Robot Operating System (ROS) to control a robot to move about. The culmination uses visual sensing to perform tracking and target following.
3. A Bipedal Robot.
The newest is a (planar) bipedal locomotion project. It combines some of the course material with numerical optimal control methods to synthesize a quasi-static walking gait. The project deliverables will be posted to this wiki as the semester progresses. What the term “planar” means is that we constrain the robot to walk in a circle using a boom, so that it cannot tip sideways. It can fall forwards/backwards.
Research-Inspired Projects
1. Kitty/Quadruped
A slightly modified version of the planar biped, here the objective is to generate a walking gait for a quadruped robot. In addition to having two bipedal halves, there is some articulation or actuation in connector between the front and rear leg pairs. The additional degrees of freedom can be used to assist with realizing quadrupedal gaits. Still works in Matlab.
2. Bi-Manual Arm
Also a modified version of the traditional manipulator project. Here there are two manipulators that can be used to solve tasks requiring two hands, whatever those may be. Planning now also needs to worry more about arm-to-arm collisions. Interfacing and programming is through ROS/Python or ROS/C++.
3. Vision-Based Manipulation
Adds a camera to the robot arm and aims to use it for successfully executing grasping tasks on objects within the field of view of the camera. Most likely will be a depth camera to facilitate grasping analysis. Recovery of reference frames will involve the use of AR Tags (ArUco Markers, specifically). Interfacing and programming is through ROS/Python or ROS/C++.
Program of Study: An attempt to formalize this project will be made. Look here.
4. Mech-Warrior
Similar to the biped project, but the geometry is flipped, and there are some shape differences. Depending on the scope, it may be the same grading structure as the Biped, or may follow the Custom project structure. Still works in Matlab.
Group Creation
Students can define their own project, through discussions with instructor. Usually the discussions are to assess the appropriateness of the chosen topic, both in terms of its relation to the course material and in terms of its level of difficulty. Starting in Fall 2018, custom projects are expected to align with the expertise of the research group, so that we can more readily guide the group. Thus it is anticipated that the Custom project would be one of the above or a minor variation.