Date: Wed, 22 May 2002 10:39:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: Howie Choset <choset@cs.cmu.edu>
To: kavraki@cs.rice.edu, kmlynch@northwestern.com, kuffner@jsk.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp,
choset@cs, burgard@informatik.uni-freiburg.de, seth@uiuc.edu,
kuffner@andrew.cmu.edu
Cc: jiyeongl@andrew
Subject: Book info: Long Email
Lady and Gentlemen,
SHORT VERSION
1. Email me outline in two weeks
2. Finish your sections by the end of the summer
3. Plan on a telephone conversation with me throughout the summer
LONG VERSION
It was good seeing all of you at ICRA last week. I am very much looking
foward to pushing this book forward in a big way. I want to remind you
that this is OUR book, not HOWIE's book, so when I say, "This is what I
want," I really mean, "This is what I suggest, please correct me with a
better suggestion!" We are going to
1. Update and consolodate a collection of ideas, concepts, etc. in
motion planning, e.g., probabilistic techniqies
2. Expand what people normally think is motion planning, e.g., sensor
based planning, slam, coverage
3. Make the mathematics of motion planning accessible to the advanced
undergraduate, early graduate student and perhaps the incredibly talented
hobbyist. In this vein, I want to go from good theory to implementation. I
want people to read our sections and then be able to implement something.
I have asked each of you to make an outline of your contribution. Please
look at motionplanning.com to see the current outline and how you fit into
it. I am still not 100% sure where Kuffner fits in, but I would like to
see it in the probabalistic section, not the grid and graph search
methods. However, I would like there to be a hook in Kuffner's text and
and the graph and grid sections to tie them together. I think the book
should progress from easiest concepts to more difficult ones.
The outline for your section could go as follows, but depending upon the
topic and what was presented before, you may not want to follow this
outline
1. Introduction to Problem
2. Intuition of Basics or just enough basics to understand how to solve
the problem
3. The basic version of the motion planning algorithm (e.g., Kavraki may
just introduce her PRM first)
4. Specific and important examples and extensions (e.g., Kavraki may then
talk about other methods including hers)
5. More detailed math to tie things together, if necessary. I do this a
bit which adds intuition to my sections and probably serve as a basis for
Kevin's sections
This outline is not set in stone. It may be more reasonable for you to do
something else. However, I still think it is important that people walk
about learning your stuff, the basics behind it, and then have the ability
to implement it. I think Wolfram will have some difficulty in doing this
because he has to tie some of the Bayes rule stuff in it.
I would like you to also put your version of the outline on a web site
with papers downloadable in PDF format. Look at how we hav ethe papers
stored online right now. We will integrate that into a giant paper list.
Also, I would like you to include a bibtex reference. I would like to use
the following convention:
@InProceedings{KML/MTM:97,
author = {K.M. Lynch and M.T. Mason},
title = {Dynamic Manipulation with a One Joint Robot},
booktitle = {ICRA},
year = 1997,
month = {April},
pages = {359-366},
volume = 1
}
for the labels. It is the initials of the author(s):date. If there are
multiple papers from that year, then we can do datea, dateb, etc.
I would like this done within two weeks from TODAY. Email me the URL and
text of your outline. I want the sections/chapters by the end of the
summer (actually, middle of August). I would happily take them earlier so
I can integrate the text in better. Now for page length: I was hoping for
about 40 pgs for each of you. However, I would like you to write what is
natural and see where you end up. I can see Kuffner not requiring as much
and Wolfram requiring more, but we shall see.
Here is how the latex file should begin
\documentclass[10pt,onecolumn]{book}
\pagestyle{plain}
The book class is the standard latex book thing which should be common to
all of us. If it is not, then let me know. I did include it as an
attatchment for fun. I would like us all to use the same definition,
lemma, prop. environments. I will send you some style files for that later
on. However, it will go like this
\begin{lemma}[IF YOU WANT TO NAME IT]\label{lemma.sethiscool}
STUFF
\end{lemma}
similar for proposition, definition, etc.
Finally, there is the issue of figures. I would like us to each make a PPT
presentation of our figures. It is not that hard. Just gif or jpeg them,
and then put them in a PPT pres. ALso, I will need PS copies of your
figures anyway for when I late the jumbo document.
Based on Wolfram's suggestions, I am going to rewrite the first chapter,
so please ignore it for now. I am also going to write the cell
decompoistion section and redo the kalman section as well.
OK, I think we are the "core" group of co-authors. There are others as
well who will add, help, etc. For example, Dieter and Sebastian should be
helping Wolfram if he needs it, but I consider them co-authors as well. We
are the first authors and the rest of the second authors, for lack of a
better choice of words.
I also suggest that we each have an assigned grad student so that we may
be able to cc stuff to them to make sure we dont loose anything. My grad
student is JiYeong Lee. His email is jiyeongl@andrew.cmu.edu. I will ask
JY to make a page from motionplanning.com that saves important emails like
this one
I look forward to a successful project with you guys. I think the key to
succcess here is getting everything done and being organized. Please do
not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding this effort
or any other for that matter. You all are among my favorite people in
robotics and most of the fun of this effort is having the opportunity to
work with you.
Take care,
Howie
Howie Choset, Associate Professor
Mechanical Engineering, The Robotics Institute,
and Electrical and Computer Engineering
Scaife Hall
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
tel: 412-268-2495
fax: 412-268-3348
choset@cs.cmu.edu
http://voronoi.sbp.ri.cmu.edu/