Summer Term 2013

Tutor: Dr. Jesus Capitan

Nowadays, mobile robots are used in many applications, such as rescue missions, surveillance or people assistance. In these applications, robots usually need to operate in unknown environments, so they need to obtain information with their sensors and take intelligent decisions. In general, they proceed in a loop with several steps: (i) Information is obtained with the sensors on board the robot; (ii)
Given the current information the best decision is made; (iii) The decision is carried out by the robot autonomously.

Mainly, mobile robots need to know where they are located and how to navigate safely to other places. For that, they have to use external sensors (e.g., GPS, compass, laser, etc.), plan trajectories, avoid obstacles, etc.

In this project, the motivating application will be a rescue mission in an indoor building after a catastrophe. For that, a robotic simulator will be used in order to develop algorithms to localize a robot, to navigate avoiding obstacles, to build a map of the environment and find the victims and to report back the results. The Robotic Operating System (ROS) will be used in order to program
the robot and communicate to the simulator.

This course will be taught in English and will require programming in C++. The project is suitable for students at the bachelor and the master level. However, the course contents and the requirements for passing are different depending on the level. As a consequence, it is not possible to create mixed teams. If you want to participate in this project or further information, please contact Jesus Capitan (jesus.capitan@uni-due.de).

The kickoff meeting for this project will take place in Room BC504, from 16:00h to 18:00h, on Thursday, April 11th, 2013. It is mandatory to attend this meeting in order to participate in the project.

Tutor: Dr. Jesus Capitan
Nowadays, mobile robots are used in many applications, such as rescue missions, surveillance or people assistance. In these applications, robots usually need to operate in unknown environments, so they need to obtain information with their sensors and take intelligent decisions. In general, they proceed in a loop with several steps: (i) Information is obtained with the sensors on board the robot; (ii)
Given the current information the best decision is made; (iii) The decision is carried out by the robot autonomously.

Mainly, mobile robots need to know where they are located and how to navigate safely to other places. For that, they have to use external sensors (e.g., GPS, compass, laser, etc.), plan trajectories, avoid obstacles, etc.

The objectives of this seminar are to learn about different robotic issues and learn how to present this scientific knowledge. In particular, the following issues will be covered by this seminar:

• Obstacle avoidance.
• Path planning.
• Indoor localization.
• Outdoor localization.
• Map building.
• Collision avoidance for UAVs.
• Visual-based navigation.
• Formation control for UAVs.

This seminar is suitable only for master students and it will be taught in English. The students need to select one of topics proposed and perform an in-depth research study. By the end of the semester, the students are required to write a scientific report and prepare an oral presentation to demonstrate the result of the study. If you want to participate in this seminar or for further information, please contact Jesus Capitan (jesus.capitan@uni-due.de).

The kickoff meeting for this seminar will take place in Room BC504, from 14:00h to 16:00h, on Thursday, April 11th, 2013. It is mandatory to attend this meeting in order to participate in the seminar.

Tutor: Marcus Handte 

Nowadays, most devices are equipped with differnt types of networking technology and a broad spectrum of sensors. Examples include gyroscopes, accelerometers, cameras, and microphones. To provide better task support, future applications will have to use the sensors of multiple devices to determine the state of their environment in an automated fashion. This requires novel software systems and signal processing algorithms to derive high-level context information from low-level sensor readings.

The seminar topics will cover a selection of systems and algorithms to recognize different types of context. Furthermore, they cover supportive architectures and protocols to recognize context in a distributed manner. Thereby, the seminar focuses on light-weight approaches that can be implemented on resource-poor devices. Participants will be able to select their topic of choice from the set of available topics.

Participants will have to do a literature research and they will have to create a high quality written report. Furthermore, they will have to give an oral presentation of their topics. Note that it is not possible to combine this seminar with the context recognition with mobile devices project at the master/diploma level.

This seminar is suitable for students at the bachelor or master/diploma level.  However, the requirements and grading scheme will be different depending on the level. Furthermore, depending on the number and type of participants, this seminar might be given in English and German. Please also note that the maximum number of participants is limited. If you want to participate in the seminar, please send an email to marcus.handte@uni-due.de.

The kickoff meeting for this seminar will take place on Thursday, 11.4.2013 between 10.30h and 12.00h in BC504. Participation in this meeting is mandatory.

Tutor: Marcus Handte 
More and more mobile devices are equipped with a broad variety of sensors such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, video cameras, and microphones. To provide better task support, future applications will have to use these sensors to determine the state of their environment unobtrusively. As a simple example consider smart phones that are deactivating the touch screen when they detect that the user is holding them close to his ear.

In more complicated scenarios, this requires applications to “make sense” of the multitude of inputs received at any point in time. To simplify this task, the participants will develop a software system that is able to automatically categorize different situations. This system will be developed for and tested on Android-based mobile phones which will be given out to the participants. Due to the use of Android as operating system, participants should be able to program in Java.

This course may be held in German and English depending on the number and type of participants. The project is suitable for students at the bachelor and the master/diploma level. However, the course contents and the requirements are different depending on the level. As a consequence, it is not possible to create mixed teams. If you are not sure whether you fulfill the requirements or if you want to participate in the project, please send an email to marcus.handte@uni-due.de.

Tutor: The researchers of NES
This seminar aims to familiarize student with important research topics related to collaborating embedded devices in the areas of pervasive computing and sensor networks. The covered topics include: context-aware systems and algorithm, energy-efficient routing, localization, sensing coverage and communication connectivity, multi-channel communication, sensor networks simulation, sensor network monitoring, modeling techniques on radio models, mobility models and sensing modalities, context recognition, activity recognition, context privacy, location detection using different technologies, signal processing, robot obstacle avoidance, path planning, robot localization, map building, collision avoidance for UAVs, visual-based navigation, formation control for UAVs, etc.

This seminar is offered on the bachelor level. The student needs to select one of above topics and to perform in-depth research study on the chosen topic. By the end of the semester, the student is required to turn in a well-written report and to prepare an oral presentation to demonstrate the result of the study. The seminar is given in English and German.

If you want to take part in the seminar, please write an e-mail to Carina Kratz, with the topics that you are interested in, she will give you further information to the kick-off meetings.

Dozent: Prof. Dr. Pedro José Marrón, Übungen: Eduardo Ferrera

Die Veranstaltung (2V+2Ü) setzt die in den vorherigen Semestern gelernten grundlegenden Konzepte und Methoden der objektorientierten Programmierung (OOP) in C++ um.

Inhalte im Einzelnen:

• OO-Analyse, -Design und -Modellierung mit UML
• C++ als Erweiterung von C
• Zeigerkonzepte
• Klassen, Klassen-Hierarchien, einfache und mehrfache Vererbung, Zugriffsschutzmechanismen, virtuelle Basisklassen, virtuelle Funktionen, statisches und dynamisches Binden, Typisierung und Typkonvertierungen
• Funktions- und Operator-Überladen
• Exception Handling
• Templates
• Modularität, Namespaces
• Libraries
• Streams
• Standard Template Library (z.B. Algorithmen, Iteratoren, Container)
• kleine Projektbeispiele aus den Anwendungsbereichen der Ingenieurwissenschaften.

Die Veranstaltung findet auf deutsch statt und ist ausschließlich für BAI-Studierende hörbar.

Ort und Zeit:

• Ort: BC319 (Vorlesung), BC523 (Übung)
• Vorlesung: Wöchentlich mittwochs 10:00-12:00 Uhr
• Übung: Wöchentlich dienstags 12:00-14:00 Uhr

Einträge im LSF: Vorlesung und Übung
Moodle2-Seite mit Materialien

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Pedro José Marrón, Exercises: Songwei Fu
This lecture describes the fundamental concepts of sensor networks and how they differ from traditional networked systems that do not take energy and resource constraints into account. During the experiments, the students will deal with real-world deployments of sensor networks and use real sensor nodes to understand better the effects of real-world phenomena in aspects like link quality, localization, etc.

Place and Time:

• Place:  LE120(Lecture), LE120 (Exercise)
• Lecture: weekly Thursday 10:00-13:00 Uhr
• Exercise: weekly Thursday 13:00-14:00 Uhr

The first lecture on April 11th 2013 will start at 10:30 am.

Entry in LSF: Lecture und Exercise

More information can be found on our Moodle2 page(the password will be available from Songwei Fu after the first lecture).

Tutor: Dr. Chia-Yen Shih
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been widely deployed in many application domains including environmental monitoring, surveillance, healthcare, automation control and more. A typical WSN consists of a set of low-powered and inexpensive embedded sensor devices with specific sensing modalities and with computation as well as communication capabilities. These devices collaborate with each other by exchanging data through energy-efficient, short-range radio. The application provides its services by manipulating the sensory data collected by the deployed WSN.

In this project, you will learn how to develop an integrated application providing services by making use of a WSN. The topics that will be covered include:

• Wireless sensor system programming
• Sensory data collection
• Data delivery and communication through IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee networks
• Interfacing between the user and the deployed WSN

For further information about the project, please contact Dr. Chia-Yen Shih at chia-yen.shih@uni-due.de.

The kickoff meeting for this project will take place in Room BC504 on Tuesday, 09.4.2013 between 15.00h and 16.30h. Participation in this meeting is mandatory.

Tutor: Chia-Yen Shih
This seminar aims to familiarize student with important research topics in Wireless Sensor Networks. The covered topics include: routing, localization, sensing coverage and communication connectivity, multi-channel communication, sensor networks simulation, modeling techniques on radio models, mobility models and sensing modalities, camera sensor networks.

This seminar is offered as a master seminar. The student needs to select one of above topics and to perform in-depth research study on the chosen topic. By the end of the semester, the student is required to turn in a well-written report and to prepare an oral presentation to demonstrate the result of the study.

The first meeting for the seminar will take place in Room BC504 at 16:30 18:00 on Tuesday, 09.04.2013. It is mandatory to attend the first meeting in order to participate the seminar.