Design Project

The goal of the Design Project is to work in teams to propose, implement, and demonstrate a self-determined project. A project that integrates sensing, planning, and acting using physical robots (e.g., the MBot, a robot arm, etc.) is desired.

Teams

You will form your own teams (you may stay in the same group as Botlab or form new groups). 3–4 persons per group. Please sign up in the Google Sheet under the Design_Lab tab after your group is formed.

Sign up by Feb. 27, 2026. After this date the instructors will create teams for anyone who hasn’t yet formed a group.

Each team proposes a project (oral and written), sets milestones to track progress, submits a progress report (status update), prepares for and gives a final public demonstration, and submits a written final report.

Questions to Consider

When forming your group or brainstorming ideas, work through these questions:

1. Describe the project in one sentence.
2. What problem does this project address? Who are the stakeholders?
3. What compelling new capability will result from solving this problem?
4. How would a solution be verified?
5. What existing methods in the literature address this problem (if any)? Will your solution differ?
6. What are the main foreseeable challenges?
7. How would you mitigate those challenges?

Also consider budget, cost, timeline, and required materials.

Tentative budget: ~$50 per student. See the Reimbursement Process document (on Google Drive) for details.

Proposal

Oral Presentation

Due: March 20, 2026, 3:30 PM EST

Prepare a one-slide poster (use the basic template) and give an 8–10 minute oral presentation to the class addressing all the questions above. Submit your poster/slides to the Google Drive folder.

Written Proposal

Due: March 22, 2026, 11:59 PM EST

Format: 2-column IEEE style (Overleaf template). Submit via Canvas.

Required sections:

• Abstract — summary of aims, objectives, and proposed solution
• Keywords
• Introduction — problem overview and motivation
• Related Work — existing methods
• Proposed Method — system design, experiments, foreseeable challenges
• Proposed Evaluation — success metrics and expected outcomes
• Timeline — milestones and schedule
• Budget — materials and costs
• References

Status Update

Oral Presentation: April 3, 2026

Each team gives a ~10 minute status update presentation to the class. Submit to the Google Drive folder.

Final Project Presentation

Oral presentation/demo DUE: April 27, 2026, 10:30 AM EST

Written report and demo video DUE: April 27, 2026, 11:59 PM EST

Oral Presentation Requirements

Location: FRB Atrium, April 27, 2026, 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM (open to everyone — food around noon!)

1. Prepare a poster or slides and give a ~5 minute lightning talk per group.
2. Print a poster for the poster easels.
3. Bring live demos (preferred) and/or videos of your working system.

We will have an open vote for the “Audience Choice Award”.

Written Final Report Requirements

Format: 2-column IEEE style (Overleaf template). Aim for max 8 pages (excluding references). Submit via Canvas.

Required sections:

• Title and Authors
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Related Work
• Methodology — system description with sensing/planning/acting; include a list of materials
• Results — quantitative/qualitative results, plots/figures/tables
• Demo Video Link — must include project name, team members, approach, and demos
• Code Repo Link (highly encouraged)
• Discussion and Future Work
• Statement of Contribution — list all author contributions (serves as peer review)
• References

Previous Semester Project Videos

These are provided for reference and inspiration: