Final

The idea of posting them before the exam itself is the following.

The answer to the questions are not things that you can just look up in the notes or even the textbook. Rather they will require that you take the ideas that we covered in the course and apply them to new situations.

Giving you the questions beforehand means that you have time to do some thinking about the questions before you have to answer them. Use the time wisely :-)

Though you can think about the questions before the exam, and you can bring up to one sheet of notes (letter size, you can write on both sides) into the exam, you are not allowed to bring in a complete answer and just copy it out.

For each of the following questions, you should be prepared to write at least one side of a letter-sized sheet of paper.

Be sure to explain why you give the answers that you give, and if you are quoting information that you look up online or read somewhere (and by all means read papers or books that you think will help you to answer the questions) be sure to acknowledge your sources.

1. Imagine that you are planning to build a robot that can play soccer. What do you think would be the particular challenges in:
   • Locomotion
   • Perception; and
   • Localization.

   for such a robot. What role would there be for planning and navigation algorithms?

   In your answer be sure to describe how these challenges are related to the fact that robot soccer is a fast-moving game involving many robots.

2. The main types of map are:
   • Continuous metric
   • Discrete metric
   • Topological
   • Metric toplogical

   Which of these kinds of map would you use to program a robot that is going to give tours of the Brooklyn College campus. Why?

   What about if you were programming a robot to deliver mail in New Ingersoll?

   Be sure to consider issues like localization and path planning in your answer.

3. List three different commercial applications of robotics (robots that are actually being sold) and for each one explain:
   • Why you think they are, or should be, successful.
   • Which, of the features of robots we discussed in the course, the applications make use of.

   Describe a robot application that doesn't currently exist, but which you think, based on what you have learnt in the class, could be developed given the current state of technology.

4. Imagine that you are desigining a robot car, similar to those in the DARPA Urban Challenge.

   What do you think are the most critical decisions that your robot car will have to make?

   What data will the car need in order to be able to make those decisions, and what sensors will you equip the car with in order to obtain that data?