According to the curriculum, a project module is scheduled in both the Bachelor's and the Master's program of the Applied Computer Science - this summer semester it was that time again. Under the project supervisor Patrick Herbers from the IIB, the three bachelor students Simon Spettmann, Banujan Baskaran and Erim Caliskan as well as the master student Ali Nematkhah worked for three months on their study project "Spot Route Planning with Python". What exactly was involved and how the project went, they tell in the interview.

What was your task in the project?

Simon: The chair owns a robotic dog and the task was to program it with a controller so that it can autonomously run routes in a building. Additionally, one goal was for the robot to detect and automatically check fire extinguishers and other fire safety installations. On the one hand, the route had to be defined and the process trained, and on the other hand, the recognition of the fire protection elements had to function during this process.

Ali: In the meantime, we have reached the point where the robot looks for objects on its way and recognizes them. When it sees fire protection elements, it goes and takes a picture of the object. In the process, the AI that was provided to us scans the existing information and then the route is continued.

How did your project go? Were there any difficulties?

Simon: In general, I would say that it went well. There were ups and downs and every now and then the project had some surprises that you didn't expect, but all in all it went well. For example, we were working with the Boston Dynamics interface and some information was missing in the associated documentation due to an update from the robot. This means that the documentation is not yet up to date and there are no instructions for the desired function. So we had to get creative ourselves!

Banujan: We work with special QR codes that the robot has to run through in order to move along the planned route. It sometimes happens that the QR codes are recognized once and not again in the next sequence, even though nothing has changed in the initial situation. This happens every now and then, but we have not yet been able to find out why this is the case. After all, every now and then it works absolutely smoothly. This is a challenge, for example, where you then have to change your own tactics.

Would you recommend the project to others?

Simon: I thought it was good, it was very exciting. In general, the topic of robotics interested me and you get the opportunity to do something tangible. In the real world, the robot acts on the commands that you have worked on yourself. If that then works out exactly as you hoped, that's great!

Ali: It has to be said that the project was a great challenge for bachelor students, especially with the difficulties regarding the instructions from the Boston Dynamics interface. Even if one could not have expected this, the task of the project is clearly made more difficult by these things. But of course that makes it exciting again and spurs you on. And above all, Simon was a great help, since he already had a little experience in this area.

Banujan: I think these surprises are part and parcel of a project in computer science. You quickly learn to get to grips with a lot of things and take away a lot of experience from different areas. I liked it a lot and overall I think we found good solutions.
 

• Patrick Herbers, M. Sc.
• Curriculum