Robotic Navigation Project in Unity

This Assignment assesses the following module Learning Outcomes (from Definitive Module Document):

 

1. Have a knowledge and deep understanding of a variety of AL techniques and methods applicable across domains ranging from molecular computational biology and evolution of agents to behaviour-oriented and social robotics.

In this project you must program a simulated robot in Unity to autonomously navigate a track with a range of obstacles. You will be provided with a complete Unity project for this assignment and must not change any parameters of this project, the only aspect of this project you should edit is the RobotController.cs script. You are free to develop the controller in any way you see fit, the measure of success on this project will be how far the robot makes it round the course, the time it achieves, and the smoothness of the trajectory taken, this is an entirely results based assessment.

 

Example of basic expected behaviour

 

You must write a piece of code to control the robot to enable it to successfully complete the track provided. Your code must adhere to the following requirements:
• All code must be in the cs file

• Do not change the name of any pre-existing variables in the code.

• Do not modify the model in Unity, all students are being assessed against the same model meaning only your cs file will be used for testing.

• You are only allowed to use the Sensors provided in the model, theses are named: 

o SensorFR – Must be a Raycast sensor (for proximity)
o SensorL1 – Must be a Raycast sensor (for proximity)
o SensorL2 – Must be a Raycast sensor (for proximity)
o SensorL3 – Must be a Raycast sensor (for proximity)
o SensorR1 – Must be a Raycast sensor (for proximity)
o SensorR2 – Must be a Raycast sensor (for proximity)
o SensorR3 – Must be a Raycast sensor (for proximity)
o SensorOR – Must be an eulerAngles sensor (for robot orientation)

 

• Whilst you must use these sensors as defined above you can set these up however you see fit.

• You can rotate the sensors placed on the robot in your code but their physical position coordinates and scale must not change and any changes to the rotation of the sensor must be applied via the code.

• You must use the WheelCollider to facilitate the robots movements, these are named:

o frontLeftWheelCollider
o frontRightWheelCollider
o rearLeftWheelCollider
o rearRightWheelCollider

 

• You must use Transform visualise the movement of the wheels, these are named:

o frontLeftWheelTransform
o frontRightWheelTransform
o rearLeftWheelTransform
o rearRightWheelTransform

 

You must use the following variables but can set these as you see fit, when setting these they must be set in the code:
• maxSteeringAngle – for the maximum steering angle
• motorForce – for the maximum motor power (speed)
• brakeForce – for the maximum breaking force (slowing down)

 

It is advised that you use at least the following two functions in your code:
• private void Start() – This will be called before the first frame is rendered so is useful for setting up parameters.
• private void FixedUpdate() – This is called around 50 times per second so ideal for physics elements.

 

Marks will be awarded for

Basic Model Requirements (20 marks)

• Wheels being driven appropriately using motorTorque
• Visual representation of wheels appropriately applied (steering and rotational movement visible)
• Sensors reasonably orientated to facilitate robots’ perception of the environment
• Robot physically capable of moving forwards
• Robot physically capable of steering to turn

 

Basic self-driving capabilities (70 marks)

• Successfully follows the track to the end without coming off
• Maintains a smooth optimal path in completing the track
• Avoids obstacles without collision
• Adjusts speed and power to wheels appropriately whilst traveling around the track
• Compensates for angled road surfaces
• Successfully completes track in a good time (not crawling round slowly)
• Successfully navigates tight spaces with multiple obstacles 

 

A screen recording of your robot running (10 marks)

• Regardless of the performance you must provide a screen recording of your robot running from start to finish using the controller you developed
to illustrating the performance of the robot.