ME132a TA-Instructor Meeting, Winter 2011

This page is used for facilitating discussion between the instructors and TAs of ME/CS 132a (Winter 2010). Please note that the content of this page is open to the public.

Course Preparation

Platform

• Which robots we are going to use (ER-1 from Joel's lab vs Pioneers from JPL)
  • ER-1: there is some maintenance to do. The unit I was using summer had a motor controller failure. We have bought the

replacement, but haven't installed yet (it is not a 5 minute thing, as the software driver has changed, so there will be a little tinkering required).

• Software stack.
  • What interface/drivers do you want people to work with? (player, ROS, ...)
  • What would be the format for data files? (HDF, carmen, ...)

• Labs organization
  • For example, the first lab assignment: Should I give them a charged robot with installed drivers, and let them write the software to collect the log? Or should I write all the software and let them collect the log? Is this done as a group (all the students together), as many small groups, or once for individual students?

• Matlab vs. Python