University of Calgary
Rob Kremer
Group Assignment: Multi-agent Robots in CASA

CPSC 601.68/599.68: Agent Communication
Fall 2011
Department of Computer Science
Computer
Science
Note: This is an group assignment. The work is shared among the group members and each member is responsible for all of the work. For example, if there is plagiarism is found in the assignment, every member is responsible. The group is expected to do it's own work, and must properly cite any and all work taken from external sources.
Each member is responsible to carry their own portion of the workload. To this end, there is a peer assessment process where each member must assess each other member's contribution. Individual marks may differ based on the peer assessment, the instructor's assessment, and other factors.
Another note: You will need to download the CASA project and the iRobotCreate project to this assignment. For details, see the getting CASA and the iRobot code page.
iRobot Create

This is a multi-agent (multi-robot) assignment in which you have to write agents to autonomously control two communicating robots. The environment will consist of a room with a loading ramp and guidance lines on the floor and ramp, where the task is to load a bean bag from on top of the ramp onto one of the robots and carry it away. The figure at left shows the environment layout.

The goal of the task is to program your 2 robots to:

  1. find the guide lines
  2. determine which of the robots is to play the roles of loader or loadee.
  3. the loadee should move into position at the bottom of the ramp.
  4. the loader should then move up the ramp to push the bean bag into the loading compartment of the loadee.
  5. the loadee should then move to loadee home.
  6. the loader is not required to move anywhere.
  7. both robots should play an interesting "victory song" when the loadee arrives at the loadee home with the bean bag,.

The referee (me) reserves the right to make up reasonable rules, with associated penalties and awards, as the game proceeds.

You may not use any other sensors other than the sensors the iRobot Create has built-in. The cliff sensors are very useful for detecting guide lines. You will be provided with software (available from the CVS repository) to help you in basic tasks. You are NOT required to use this software, and you may modify it as you see fit.

You should implement a run time command "start" to start your robots.

Your mark on this assignment will not necessarily have much to do with the performance on this task, but it is anticipated that there will be a reasonably strong correlation between marks and performance. Marks will be awarded for brilliant inter-agent communication design (based on the CASA architecture and social commitment theory), program design, documentation, and an oral "exam" immediately following the competition.

Demos are scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 17 at 11:00AM.

 

UofC
CPSC 601.68/599.68: Agent Communication
Department of Computer Science
Last updated 2011-12-13 11:33
Rob Kremer