Project Overview:

The purpose of this project is to build and test an advanced robotic system. This can be a complete robot, or a part of a robot like a leg or arm. This project is an opportunity to use the skills and tools you have learned in this class and in other classes you have taken during your graduate study. The projects will take up the majority of the time you spend for this class, and represents the majority of your grade. Therefore, it is important that you pick a topic that you find interesting and challenging!

Project Requirements:
● Each project will be developed by a team of about 5, and no fewer than 3, students.

● The project must propose a research question or hypothesis that the robotic system will help to evaluate. You must propose and carry out an experiment with your system to test this hypothesis.

● The theme for this year is “Bioinspired Robotics”, and the project must address this theme in some way. However, projects do not have to be “A robotic copy of X animal”.

● Each student on a project team must complete an individual technical contribution drawn from their prior experience or the topics covered in this class. See the list below for suggestions on what that contribution could be for various specific classes. A portion of your grade for the project proposal and final project documents will be based on your individual technical contribution.
◦ This should be some sort of analysis, optimization, simulation, etc, that shows off some technical depth.
◦ The entire team is responsible for the entire project, and you are encouraged to help each other out with the individual contributions so that the project overall is a success.
◦ These contributions will be a relatively small part of the overall project, maybe
5-10% each, leaving a lot of the project (the overall design, fabrication, assembly, testing, etc) that will not fall under anyone’s “individual technical contribution”

● Every project must build a physical device that demonstrates a sense-plan-act cycle, as well as some sort of analysis or simulation. It is not sufficient to have a project that is entirely in simulation. It is also not sufficient to use exclusively pre-existing hardware. Your project must build something. You may, however, build something that is part of a larger system or redesign a part of an existing robot.

● Students may propose projects that take advantage of resources from their research labs, or the research lab of the instructor, such as a project that builds off of an existing robot. This is acceptable so long as the project meets all of the other requirements and the students receive written (email) permission from the lab PI.

● The final decision on the project scope and what constitutes a sufficient individual contribution is at the sole discretion of the instructor and any questions or concerns should be brought up as early as possible. In general, the purpose of the project proposal is to clarify and agree on what a good project is for each team.

Project Milestones:
The following is an overview of the project milestones. The specific requirements for the presentations, documents, and video will be detailed in a separate document.

● Project Team Selection: The second or third week of class. You will have an opportunity to discuss with peers during class to determine project concepts and team formation.

● Project Meetings: Approximately 6 times during the semester, generally during class period. Each project team will meet with the instructor to discuss their progress. In addition, peer meetings will be scheduled these weeks to get feedback from other project groups. You are strongly encouraged to use the remaining class time during other teams' meetings to work on your project as a group. An email with meeting notes must be sent after each meeting.

● Interim Project Updates: Refer to Canvas assignments for due dates. Each team will submit a white paper detailing technical progress, revisions of scope (with instructor approval) and updates to the design and experimentation timeline.

● Project Proposal Document: Refer to Canvas assignments for due dates. Each team will submit their proposal document online. The proposal document should outline the overall project, specifics of the individual technical contributions, and the required budget.

● Project Proposal Presentation: Refer to Canvas assignments for due dates and Canvas calendar for presentation dates. Each team will prepare a short presentation for the class discussing their research question/hypothesis as well as their plan for the robotic system.

● Final Project Presentations at Design Expo: Date TBD. Each team will present the results of their project and demonstrate their robotic system for the teaching team and the public. Bring your robot, a laptop to show videos, your final slides, and any additional pieces you think will be interesting.

● Final Project Document: Refer to Canvas assignments for due dates. Each team will submit their final project report online. This document should present the research question/hypothesis, robotic system development, experiments testing the research question/hypothesis, the individual technical contributions, and the final budget.

● Final Project Video: Refer to Canvas assignments for due dates. Each team will post a video summary of their project explaining the motivation, challenges, and results for a general audience.