Each week, with the exception of the week when the lab verification test takes place, there will be a 3-hour lab session. The course will involve in total ten lab exercises. All the lab exercises will be ungraded and no points are therefore mentioned on their assignments. After six exercises covering the fundamentals in programming and signal processing the students will be required to solve a graded lab verification test which will include topics covered during the previous lab sessions. This test will not only verify that course and lab content has been properly acquired but also represent valuable training opportunity for the final exam.
Week 1
No lab this week.
Week 2
Refresh of C concepts learned at the first year of BS; Linux environment, compilation and editing tools, simple programs.
Lab 1 assignment
Lab 1 tutorial
Week 3
C/Matlab exercise showing differences between an interpreted and compiled languages; structure, matrix, and vector manipulations.
Lab 2 assignment
Lab 2 tutorial
Week 4
C exercise on pointers and memory management (e.g., dynamic allocation, pointer passing in functions); use of a debugger as support tool for memory management and proper coding.
Lab 3 assignment
Lab 3 tutorial
Week 5
Exercise in Matlab/C on signal processing concepts explained in the lecture.
Lab 4 assignment
Lab 4 tutorial
Week 6
Exercise in Matlab/C on signal processing concepts explained in the lecture.
Lab 5 assignment
Lab 5 tutorial
Week 7
Exercise in Matlab/C on signal processing concepts explained in the lecture.
Lab 6 assignment
Lab 6 tutorial
Week 8
Lab verification test – assignment
Week 9
Webots lab; programming in C but use of Matlab when appropriate.
Lab 7 assignment
Lab 7 tutorial
Week 10
E-puck lab, communicate data from and to the base station; reading sensor values and visualize with Matlab when appropriate, simple closed-loop control (Braitenberg, behavior-based).
Lab 8 assignment
Lab 8 tutorial
Week 11
Advanced e-puck lab, use the e-puck as a robot/robotic sensor node; local (in-network processing) and on the base station; recall initial signal processing; use Matlab when appropriate.
Lab 9 assignment
Lab 9 tutorial
Week 12
Real-time programming in embedded systems and field instruments; advanced field instruments for environmental engineering: mobile sensor nodes and networks.
Lab 10 assignment
Lab 10 tutorial
Week 13
No lab this week.
Week 14
No lab this week.