Due Monday, January 12
If you haven't already done so, you should review the lecture notes for this week, entitled "Introduction", "Mechanisms", and "Configuration space". You should also download the paper that we'll be discussing next week, listed as "Minsky" on the syllabus. You'll need to read it by Thursday at noon, our x-hour.
Here are the problems due Monday. Write the answers out and hand me a physical piece of paper with the answers to all questions except #1 by Monday.
1) Log on to the private forum, and write a 3-4 sentence introduction for yourself. Other students will read your introduction, so if you're shy, you don't have to say anything particularly personal. Tell us why you're taking the course, for example.
There's a password to join the private forums. I've already told you what it was in class, but if you've forgotten it, e-mail me at "devin at cs dot dartmouth dot edu". To post your message click on Introductions then click on "start a new thread". The title of the message should be your name. I've already posted an introduction for myself.
2) Assume x (maybe the x coordinate of a robot arm) is a function of two angles, 
(maybe the angles of joints in a robot arm). Those angles angles change with time, and we know the functions 
and 
.
Compute 
(how x changes with time) as a function of 
. In other words, take the derivative with respect to time. You'll need the chain rule and the product rule.
3) Use the symbols from the "Mechanisms" lecture to draw representations of models C01 and C02 from the Cornell Reuleaux collection.
4) Use the symbols to draw a representation of your arm, starting with your shoulder, and ending with your hand (you do not need to draw fingers). Notice that you don't have a way to draw spherical joints, but you can imagine using three revolute joints in a row (separated by links of length 0 ) to get the same effect. Your figure should have seven joints: three for the shoulder, one for the elbow, one for rotation of the forearm, and two for the wrist.
5) Draw a 2R planar arm. You choose the link lengths and put bounds on the joint angles. For example, maybe is in the range -45 degrees to 45 degrees. Tell me what the bounds are. Draw the workspace for the end effector of your robot using the graphical method from the mechanisms lecture.
