HelpProgramming Assignments

About the Programming Assignments

These seven programming assignments (one for each week) are optional, and will focus on

implementing what you have learned in the video lectures. You will be provided with a robot simulator,

which will allow you to design and test controllers for a mobile robot. This robot simulator is based on

MATLAB, so you will need MATLAB to complete the assignments. Please make sure to read the

Getting Started with MATLAB section on this page. It is recommended that you watch the

Programming & Simulation video lecture for each week (listed on both the syllabus and in the

Assignment List below). These video lectures and the manual will provide you with all the information

needed to complete the assignments. If you are interested in feedback for your assignments, you can

submit each assignment for grading (see Submitting the Assignments). Each assignment will be

due at the end of the week, but can be submitted for another seven days after the due date. Any

grade received for any assignment will not count towards your course grade, because these

assignments are optional.

Getting Started with MATLAB

Thanks to support from MathWorks, you will have access to a license of MATLAB and all required

toolboxes for the duration of the course. You can download your copy of MATLAB directly from

MathWorks here, but you will need to create a MathWorks account first if you have not created one

already. Make sure to download the latest version, MATLAB R2013b, and follow any on-screen

instructions. If you require additional assistance, please refer to these installation instructions.

To help you get started with learning MATLAB, here is a selection of short video tutorials that covers

concepts you will encounter in the assignments:

What is MATLAB?The MATLAB

Environment

MATLAB

Variables

Mathematical

Functions

MATLAB as a

Calculator

Creating Vectors

via Concatenation

Creating

Uniformly Spaced

Vectors (Colon

Operator)

Creating MatricesConcatenating

Arrays

Array Creation

Functions

Array Size and

LengthVector Arithmetic

Accessing

Elements of a

Vector

Accessing

Elements of an

Array

Matrix

Multiplication

Using the

MATLAB EditorFor Loop Logical Operators If-Else Statement

Calculating

Eigenvalues and

Eigenvectors

Line PlotsWorking with

ClassesStructure Arrays

Created Sat 26 Jan 2013 4:53 PM PET

Last Modified Fri 28 Feb 2014 6:37 PM PET

Assignment List

Here is a condensed list of all the assignments, video lectures, and lecture slides for the programming

assignments from the syllabus:

Week

1

Introduction to the Programming

Assignments

Programming

Assignment

Video

Lecture

Lecture

SlidesSolution

Week

2

Differential Drive, Odometry, and

IR

Programming

Assignment

Video

Lecture

Lecture

SlidesSolution

Week

3Go-To-Goal

Programming

Assignment

Video

Lecture

Lecture

SlidesSolution

Week

4Avoid Obstacles

Programming

Assignment

Video

Lecture

Lecture

SlidesSolution

Week

5Arbitration

Programming

Assignment

Video

Lecture

Lecture

SlidesSolution

Week

6Follow Wall

Programming

Assignment

Video

Lecture

Lecture

SlidesSolution

Week

7Navigation

Programming

Assignment

Video

Lecture

Lecture

SlidesSolution

The master list of all currently posted assignments can be found here.

Submitting the Assignments

Each assignment can be submitted to Coursera for automatic grading and feedback. From within the

unzipped simulator package, type submit into the MATLAB command window. Use your submission

login and password from the Assignments page. Your Coursera login and password will not work.

Select which parts of the assignments in the list you would like to submit, then click Submit to Coursera

for Grading. You will receive feedback, either a green checkmark for pass, or a red checkmark for fail.

If you receive a red checkmark, check the MATLAB command window for a helpful message.

Remember, submitting your assignments is optional.

Alternative Programming & Simulation Opportunities

If you are looking to apply what you have learned the course in another programming language or

software, here is a list of projects you may want to consider:

Timofey Fuchs and Jonathan Whitten, students of the previous iteration of this course,

collaborated with other prior students to create PySimiam, which recreates the simulator and

programming assignments in Python. You can find their project website here.

Nick McCrea, a student of the previous iteration of this course, has created Sobot Rimulator, a

Python mobile robot simulator that simulates our research robots, the Khepera III mobile robots.

You can find his project repository here.