Robotics: Integrated Systems Design

1
Robotics Integrated Systems Design

• Today
• How to work in a multidisciplinary team
• Form teams
• First Team Assignment
• Monday
• Labor Day
• Wednesday
• Kinematics

2
Announcements

• Reading for next week
• Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots by
  Siegwart Nourbakhsh
• Chapter 3
• Course Website
• http//roboti.cs.siue.edu/classes/integratedsystem
  s/
• Class drop box http//classes.cs.siue.edu/
• CS Senior Projects Lab EB 2029
• Available for teamwork
• Store materials

3
More Announcements

• Office Hours
• Shaun M-F 9 to 11am
• Chad MWF 9 to 11am
• Mobile Robotics Lab (EB 1022)

4
What is a Team?

• Two or more people who work together to achieve a
  common purpose
• What will be your teams common purpose in this
  class?
• To perform the lab assignments
• To design and implement a robot for the Urban
  Search Rescue Project
• To learn about each other areas from one another

5
How do you recognize a team when you see one?

• Two or more people who are interacting with each
  other, are interdependent
• Otherwise you are a group
• Or a party (if there is a beer).

6
Team Process

• How are decisions made?
• How are conflicts resolved?
• Team Roles
• CTO Chief Technical Officers (Facilitator)
• Keeps the team focused and productive
• Scribe
• Documents the activities and decisions of the
  team
• Rat Hole Watcher
• Makes sure the team doesnt get too far off topic
  

7
Running an Effective Team Meeting

• Meetings must have a detailed agenda
• What topics are to be covered, what activities
  will be performed
• Agendas are sent out in advance of the meeting
• Team Roles Assigned
• Team Leader (CTO), Scribe, Rate Hole Watcher
• Document the Meeting
• What was discussed or accomplished
• What are the action items and who is
  responsible for each one.
• Provides a group memory
• Reminds individuals the assignments they need to
  complete

8
Team Meeting Exercise

• Get into your assigned teams
• Run a 20-minute team meeting
• Assign roles, use the meeting minutes template
• Here is the meeting agenda
• Introduce each other and trade contact
  information
• Discuss the characteristics of a good team
  member. Come to a consensus of the top 5
  characteristics in order of priority.
• Beginning next class period your team will sit
  together in class, come to a consensus of where
  your team will sit.
• Every team must have a team name. Decide on your
  team name.

9
Review Lists

• My list of top 5 Do Bes
• Completes assignments on time
• Communicates
• Uses constructive criticism rather than
  destructive criticism.
• Is on time for meetings
• Sense of humor

10
Puzzle Game

• Solve the given jigsaw puzzle without looking at
  the picture

11
What did we observe?

• It is difficult to solve the puzzle without
  having a clear picture of what the objective is
• Team members automatically assumed certain roles
  based on their personality types and styles

12
Creative Thinking

• Notes from A Whack on the Side of the Head How
  you can be more creative, R. von Oech, U.S.
  Games Systems, Inc., 1990
• Creative Thinking is looking at the same thing as
  everyone else and thinking something different.
• Shifting the context in which you think about
  something
• Requires an attitude that allows you to search
  for ideas and manipulate your knowledge and
  experience

13
Mental Locks/Mental Blocks

• Mental Locks are attitudes that lock our thinking
  into the status quo and keep us thinking more of
  the same. Inhibit creative thinking.
• Habitual Thinking Doing things or thinking
  about things in way that is out of habit. Habit
  reduces cognitive load but can keep your thinking
  in a rut.
• The Right Answer Thinking that there must be
  only one right answer or the best answer. By
  being stuck looking for the right answer we
  tend to discard potentially good solutions before
  we have a chance to explore them.
• Making unwarranted assumptions Making
  assumptions about the problem that are unfounded
  or unnecessary.

14
Mental Locks/Mental Blocks

• Play is Frivolous Business thinking leads us to
  believe that the bottom-line is about
  productivity, so any activity that is not
  directly productive must be unproductive.
  Sometimes it helps to look at ideas in playful,
  humorous, or imaginative ways. These can possibly
  lead to new insights that can potentially be
  productive down the line.
• Im Not Creative Self-fulfilling prophecy. Give
  yourself a license to be creative.

15
Creative Thinking Methods

• Vertical Thinking
• Systems and sub-systems
• Lateral Thinking
• "You cannot dig a hole in a different place by
  digging the same hole deeper"
• searching for different ways of looking at things
• http//www.edwdebono.com/debono/lateral.htm

16
Vertical vs Lateral Thinkinghttp//www.revision-
notes.co.uk/revision/961.html
Vertical thinking Lateral thinking
Looking for the right approach Looking for as many approaches as possible
Rightness Richness
Proceeds if there is a direction Proceeds to generate direction
Is analytical Is provocative
Is sequential Can make jumps
One must be correct at every step One does not have to be correct at every step
Uses negative to block off certain pathways There is no negative
Excludes what is irrelevant Welcomes chance intrusions
Fixed categories/labels Labels may change
Explores most likely paths Explores least likely paths
Is a finite process Is a probabilistic process
17
SCAMPER Questions

• Idea generating questions
• Substitute something
• Combine it with something else
• Adapt something to it
• Modify it
• Put it to some other use
• Eliminate something
• Rearrange it
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vDgp8wSuC_HA

18
Example

• An Electric Plant in Great Lakes area is having
  problems with zebra mussels. The mussels are
  forming a thick layer inside the cooling intake
  and reducing flow rate resulting serious problems
  in the plant. Since they are not a native
  species to the area there are no natural
  predators.
• How can we reduce the impact of the mussels?
• Also, how can they be economically dispose of
  once they are removed?

19
Team Assignment

• Lab 1 Mouse Trap!
• Intro to Robot Kit
• Working as a Team
• Thinking Creatively
• http//www.cs.siue.edu/robotics/integratedsystems/