Each group must submit a one page project proposal, including group names, no later than Friday, March 8. This is to ensure that all projects are of roughly the same weight and degree of difficulty. Allowances will be made for the size of the group, that is, a project performed by a three-person group will have a broader scope than one on the same topic performed by an individual.
A final project report will be required, due absolutely no later than Friday, April 12 (last day of classes). During the last two lectures in the term, each person/group will make a non-graded, brief (approx. 8 - 10 minute) oral presentation, so that we can all see what the other groups did.
Here are some possible projects. For further information, see Dr. Toogood.
This project will involve programming the Mitsubishi robot to perform several tasks. The degree of complexity increases with each of the four tasks. You will need to know how to use several of the robot software packages provided and described in an additional hand-out. No programming of the PC by you should be required. Before starting to program the robots to do these tasks, you should become completely familiar with the software provided. A major hand-out describing the available software will be made available to groups undertaking this project.
It is suggested that this project be undertaken by students working in pairs.
NOTE: The degree of difficulty for this project is not high. This is compensated by the degree of frustration which will arise in dealing with these (sometimes) cranky robots!
Symbolic operations with homogeneous transforms and link A matrices are labour intensive and prone to error. MATLAB contains some powerful symbolic math functions. It would be very useful to use these to create functions that will automatically generate homogeneous transforms and the A matrices when requested and to perform symbolic matrix multiplication, inverse, etc. with simplification. These would be similar to some of the Toolbox functions, but deal with symbolic data rather than numeric data.
A program to assist in the inverse solution would be very useful. Guided by the user, the various combinations of matrices could be generated and multiplied. These would be displayed for the user as an aide in setting up the inverse kinematic solution. A program could also include the symbolic generation of the manipulator Jacobian.
For the computer-averse types, this report will examine the prospects for the use of robots in Alberta. There is relatively little (compared to other parts of the country) manufacturing activity in this province of the type where robots might be implemented. Are there other places in the local industrial scene where robots could be put to good use? What about applications in agriculture, forestry, mining?
This would require the addition of PID (or other) control elements to control a simulated robot, using the Toolbox dynamic analysis functions. The goal would be to define a trajectory in space, and use the controller to move the robot along the trajectory.
Considering a simple 2 or 3 DOF manipulator, devise an algorithm which will compute the required joint trajectories or knot points so that neither the payload nor the robot itself will contact obstacles placed in the work envelope.
This project involves the development of software which will analyze a pre-recorded digital image and identify simple two-dimensional objects in the scene (eg. a hex nut, a washer, an angle bracket, etc.). Some simple algorithms for non-overlapping parts can be implemented fairly easily and will be discussed in class. This project will require that the software successfully identify several of the objects mentioned above. There may be some software available at the Mathworks site to do some image processing.
These are suggestions only. If there is another project that you would like to do, write up a proposal and give it to Dr. Toogood by March 8.