Assignment 2
CSCI-4290/6290: Robot Motion Planning
Fall 2003

FAQ

• Here are the test examples we used to grade your Assignment 2 programs.
  
  • PointRobot.txt
  • Problem_Example1.txt , World_Example1.txt
  • Problem_Example2.txt , World_Example2.txt

• To submit your assignment, go to the Assignment Submission page . Please do not submit executables or object files.

  Multiple submissions are permitted. Only the most recent one will be graded. Late days will be computed based on the submission time of the most recent submission.
  

• As discussed in class, you may use CGAL only for implementing methods that extend the capabilities of your planner. In particular, you should not use CGAL to perform the line intersection tests.
  
• In addition to the methods for line segment intersection we discussed in class, you can refer to the method described in Chapter 33 of Introduction to Algorithms , second edition, by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein, McGraw Hill/MIT Press, 2001. (Or Chapter 35 of the first edition.)
  
• Here is the version of dolt that is installed on the CS suns: dolt-090503.tar.gz.
• For those of you trying to install dolt under Linux, you may find it helpful to see some notes on this by Prof Huang.

Description

• Assignment 2. pdf file.
• Assignment 2 support code and examples. assign2code.tar . (Based on code from Wes Huang.)
• Tutorial on Makefiles .
• Assignment Submission page

dolt

(If you plan to install dolt on your personal machine, go here for information on dolt installation and to download dolt source code.)

Getting the Assignment 2 support code working

• dolt.
• filereader.
• CGAL. (this is optional and is currently included just to illustrate its usage.)

Getting Started

1. On the CS department Suns, you will need to edit your .bashrc file to include the following lines:

   export CGAL_MAKEFILE=/usr/local/make/makefile_sparc_SunOS-5.9_g++-2.95
   export DOLT_MAKEFILE=/usr/local/make/Makefile-dolt
   

   After you have done this, you should run the command:

   $ source ~/.bashrc
   

   That will make sure that these environment variables are set. In the future, your new .bashrc file will be executed when you log in.

2. Next install the filereader code:
   • Download the filereader source code to a directory of your choice.
   • Now compile the code.

     $ tar xvfz filereader-1.0.tar.gz
     $ cd filereader
     $ gmake 
     

   **Note**: I changed the make command above to just "gmake" instead of "gmake filereader" which causes an error. (Sept 18, 4:50pm)

3. Create a directory to work in, and download the assign2code.tar file to this directory. Then do the following:

   $ tar xvf assign2code.tar
   $ gmake assign2
   $ ./assign2 Problem1.txt
   

   Note that the Makefile must be modified so the directory path to the filereader library reflects its location in your account. Compiling the program will take a minute and produce a bunch of output. When you run the executable, it should open a window and draw the world. Press 'h' to get a list of commands.

Program specifications

• Here are the specifications for your program. It will be given an input file as a command line argument. The input file lists the files describing the workspace environment and the robot, as well as the initial and goal configurations, as below:

  % assign2 inputproblemfilename 
  

  For example, the input file may be Problem1.txt .

  Your program should output the length of the shortest path and the coordinates of the vertices on the shortest path to the screen, as per the format in the sample code.

• Your code must compile and run on the Solaris machines in the labs in Amos Eaton (see below).

Labs

• You can use the Sun Ultra10 machines in the Sparc Lab in Amos Eaton 217 or the OOT Lab in Amos Eaton 117. You should already have a CS ID and password to log on to these machines.

• There is an alias that has been created for remote access:
  solaris.remote.cs.rpi.edu
  will connect you to one of 16 computers running Solaris 9. This is the preferred machine name to use if you require remote access to lab machines running Solaris 9. Please do not access machines directly by their name unless you have a compelling reason to be using a specific computer. Certain computers come and go off our network, and reliance on a particular computer may cause you problems later on.

  These machines do not accept unencrypted connections. You should use some version of ssh to connect. If you are connecting from a PC, you can get TeraTerm with SSH extensions from the web page at: http://www.cs.rpi.edu/lab/software .

• Note: The Sparc Lab and OOT Lab are usually locked over the weekend. There may be students working in the lab at night or over the weekend -- you can enter and use the lab at any other time if you are able to get in.