CORC 3303 Review

Notes about the final exam:
1) You can bring one sheet of notes to the final exam. It has to be a letter-sized (8.5” x 11”) paper, two sided is fine,
any size of font you can read.
2) NO electronic devices, including your phone, can be used during the exam.
Areas of interest
CORC 3303 Review
1. Fundamentals of Robotics and their relationship to case studies
2. Familiarity with the Lego RCX kit (parts) and the RoboLab software
3. Introduction to elementary programming with a GUI environment
1. FUNDAMENTALS
A. Introduction to Robots
What is a robot? (autonomous embodied agent)
History, where does the term come from? The Three Laws of Robotics
Five components of a robot (Actuators, perception (sensors), control, power, communications)
Effectors, types of effectors: manipulator (gripper, arm) or mobile (leg, wheel), actuators
Sensor modalities, environment (accessible, deterministic, dynamic, etc)
BigDog
B. Construction
Types of actuators (electric, hydraulic, pneumatic)
Degree of freedom (x, y, z – positions, roll, pitch, yaw – orientations), controllable vs uncontrollable. Holonomic, nonholonomic,
redundant
Gears (driver, idler, follower): transferring motion, changing speed (in rpm), torque and direction, gearing ratio (gearing
up vs. gearing down). Given gear sizes and wheel perimeters, calculating rotational speeds and distances.
DARPA Grand Challenges
C. Locomotion
Modes of locomotion, legged vs wheeled, dynamic stability vs static stability, gaits, differential steering.
Definition of algorithm: a step-by-step sequence of instructions for carrying out some task.
The algorithm to solve a problem is not unique (think the different ways of solving the same problem in your projects)
Good algorithms vs. the bad (in speed, memory, complexity, whether allowing parallelism) -> algorithm analysis
Syntax error vs. logic error, debugging

Multi-tasking: a job of the operating system, managing the CPU usage among processes, context switching.
Considerations in designing a stairway detecting and climbing robot
D. Sensing
Sensors: proprioception / exteroception, types of sensors, issues with sensors (signals, not symbols), different levels of
processing, simple sensors (switch, light) vs complex sensors, active vs passive, sensor fusion, calibration
How roomba works, RCX decision making, light sensor fork and touch sensor fork.
E. Control
Feedback control, types of feedback control (P, PD, PID controls).
Control architectures: principles for organizing a control system, there are: deliberative control (planner-based
architecture, look-ahead with internal representation), reactive control (fast, little internal representation), hybrid
control (combining the two, working in parallel), and behavior-based control (think the way you act)
F. Robot Teams
Benefits of robot teams, their challenges, coordination strategies, communication, control architectures for robot teams.
RoboCup: purposes and goal, leagues of competition, Aibo, NAO.
2. PARTS OF THE LEGO RCX SYSTEM AND BASICS OF THE ROBOLAB ENVIRONMENT
Recognizing parts and explaining their functions, input/output ports, sensors, motors (polarity), lamps, communication,
gears, building blocks.
Recognizing common RoboLab icons and how they are modified.
3. PROGRAMMING FOR THE RCX SYSTEM
Writing simple programs using icons shown above.