
Bonaventure
Undergraduate Robotics Laboratory

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| Catherine Mellon and Brian Zimmel experiment with a Khepera robot. |
The Bonaventure Robotics Laboratory supports the integration of robotics into the undergraduate computer science curriculum and permits experimentation with behavior control algorithms. The current robotics equipment was purchased through National Science Foundation CCLI-AI Grant 9980999 Science Foundation and includes eight robotics workstations based on the Khepera miniature robot, hardware for object manipulation and vision, and a larger Koala robot.
The lab supports the Department's Robotics and Computer Vision course, CS 342,and original research under faculty supervision by its undergraduates. Seven undergraduates have served as co-authors of the labs technical reports listed below.
About the Robotics Lab
The lab was established in 1997 to support a robotics course. We purchased four "MIT-style" autonomous robots robots based upon the Handy Board micro-controller and Legos. Students experimented with basic behavior control algorithms. The capstone project was Cabbie, an autonomous robot that could navigate between locations in an abstract downtown Manhattan.
Robert Harlan and David Levine wrote a successful National Science Foundation CCLI-AI grant application to expand the lab and to integrate it into the undergraduate curriculum. The grant, awarded in May of 2000, enabled the purchase of the Khepera miniature robots. This platform was selected because it permits the development of large programs that run on a host computer and communicate with the robot via a tether. Each robotic workstation has a PC running Linux, a Khepera robot and a four-foot square environment within which to experiment with control algorithms.
The department has developed an object-oriented interface for the Khepera robots in C++, which it makes available for non-commercial use free of charge through the GNU General Public License.
The lab has turrets to support object manipulation and computer vision which can be added to the Khepera platform. It also has a larger Koala robot to permit real-world experimentation.
Technical Reports and Associated Software of the Laboratory
Parsing as Search: An Easy-to-Understand RTN Interpreter
Bonaventure Undergraduate Robotics Laboratory Technical Report 1, September, 1993
Robert Harlan and David Patrone '93
Originally published
SIGCSE Bulletin, 25, 3, September 1993
This paper discusses an RTN interpreter developed in LISP for testing the conformity of commands given in English to a grammar.
Software
Parsing as Search 2: An Easy-to-Understand ATN Interpreter
Bonaventure Bonaventure Undergraduate Robotics Laboratory Technical Report 2, September, 1996
Robert Harlan, David Patrone '93 and Scott Alexander '96
An extension of technical report 1, this paper discusses an semantic grammar capable of interpreting commands given in English and issuing commands in LISP to a simulated robot problem-solver.
Software
BARD: The Bonaventure Autonomous Robot Delivery System
Bonaventure Bonaventure Undergraduate Robotics Laboratory Technical Report 3, April 2000
Shelly McClarigan '00
BARD uses a topological map of an office complex model to plan and carry out delivery tasks. It was developed using a Khepera robot.
The kRobot Class Interface for the Khepera Robot
Bonaventure Bonaventure Undergraduate Robotics Laboratory Technical Report 4, July 2000
Robert M. Harlan, David B. Levine, Shelly McClarigan '00
Originally published in the Proceedings of the 32nd SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education SIGCSE Bulletin vol. 33(1), 2001, ACM Press, New York, NY, pp. 105 – 109.
The kRobot Interface for the Khepera and Koala Robots, version 3.2
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Descriptions of Projects at the Bonaventure Robotics Laboratory
Bonaventure Bonaventure Undergraduate Robotics Laboratory Technical Report 5, March 2001
Robert M. Harlan
Originally presented at AAAI Robotics and Education Conference, Stanford University, March 2001
This paper discusses both lab assignments and student work on autonomous robot navigation developed at St. Bonaventure.
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Mapper II: A Robust Mapper of Unknown Environments
Bonaventure Bonaventure Undergraduate Robotics Laboratory Technical Report 6, July, 2001
Robert M. Harlan, Michael Neel '02 and Brian Zimmel '02
This paper discusses an autonomous robot map generator that uses its wheel encoders to generate a metric map an unknown, rectilinear environment such as a model office building. The robot uses the rectilinear features of the environment to maintain its localization, generating an accurate map that can then be used for autonomous navigation by the robot.
Mapper I
Mapper II
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Scout: A Robot Capable of Generating a Map of an Indoor Space and Using the Map for Navigation
Bonaventure Bonaventure Undergraduate Robotics Laboratory Technical Report 7, July, 2002
Robert M. Harlan, Matthew Cowles '03 and Jamie Casilio '03
This report discusses an autonomous robot explorer that is capable of generating a topological map of its environment and then using the map to navigate. Localization of the robot is enhanced by recording information about the features of the environment that connect the landmarks or distinctive, identifiable features of the environment.
The report is currently being revised and thus is not available.
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AI and Robotics Labs
Bonaventure Bonaventure Undergraduate Robotics Laboratory Technical Report 8, March 2004
Robert M. Harlan
Originally published in
Accessible Hands-on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Education. AAAI Press. Menlo Park, CA. 2004
The paper discusses six labs used in the Robotics and Computer Vision course to introduce applied artificial intelligence techniques.
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Creating Emergent Behavior
Bonaventure Bonaventure Undergraduate Robotics Laboratory Technical Report 9, August 2004
Robert M. Harlan and Shelly McClarigan
Originally published in
36th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. February, 2005.
This paper presents two labs that enable undergraduate students to create emergent behavior, behavior that is not programmed by the roboticist but that emerges from the interaction of lower-level behaviors and the environment.
Emergent Behavior Labs
Video
Research Projects
vRobot: A Graphical Simulator Using the kRobot Interface
Honor's Project
Greta Heissenberger '05
Flaky: The Robot Explorer
Summer, 2000
Catherine Mellon '01
Brian Zimmel '02
Cabbie: A Centralized Planning System
Spring, 1997
Robert Harlan
Student Lab Solutions from CS 342, Robotics and Computer Vision

Spring 2008
Spring 2006
Spring 2004
Spring 2002
Spring 2001
Laboratory Sponsorship
The Bonaventure Robotics Laboratory and the work conducted there is sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation's Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement -- Adaptation and Innovation Program, DUE- 9980999.
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This page last updated:
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
