CSCI 4969/6965 Assignments

Project - Each student will choose and explore some form of manipulation as a project. Students may work alone or in groups (if you choose to work in a group, you must be able to demonstrate your contributions in all three phases described below). Back issues of Scientific American and the American Journal of Physics often contain articles on interesting manipulation problems. You can also consult the International Journal of Robotics Research, the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, and robotics conferences to find interesting problems. Some possible projects topics are throwing a boomerang, designing a trebuchet, snapping one's fingers, juggling, grasping, dexterous manipulation, and humanoid robots. Project scope is very flexible. It can range from a report surveying the literature on the chosen topic to analyzing and building a working boomerang. Project presentations (time permitting) will occur during the last week of class. Click here for other project ideas.

The project report will be done in three stages: proposal, draft, and final.

Exercises - All homework assignments will be taken from Mason's text unless otherwise noted. Since this is the first offering of this course, the assignments will be determined as the semester progresses.

Due by midnight on the due date:

Assignment Due Date Value Max Ave Min
mtm PS1 - Exercises: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.6 1/29 8.3% 98 76 41
mtm PS2 - Exercises: 2.8, 2.9, 2.10, unicycle with trailer, 3.16 2/19 8.3% 100 78 47
mtm PS3 - Exercises: 3.17, 3.18, 4.1, 4.3 3/05 8.3% 100 77 0
Exercises: 5.2, 5.3, 6.2, 6.3 4/24 8.4%
Project proposal 3/16 10.0% 100 91 71
Project report draft 4/6 10.0%
Final project report 4/28 13.3%
Final exam 5/3-5/7 33.4%