Since I came to the lab not knowing Linux I spent the first three days getting used to the different commands.

On Monday after I went to work and set up my ID for getting into the building and got an account for the computers I read a paper on the RoLE framework and some information on STL.

I was offered several projects to get used to the framework, one of which included remote control of the robot, but I picked the obstacle avoider. I was supposed to use an Artificial Potential Field algorithm which created an imaginary field using vectors whose magnitude is proportional in some way to the distance between the goal and the robot and the distances between the robot and the  obstacles.

Frederick gave me a book to read on that and I also looked at some papers online from Google Scholar. On Thursday I began to write code which by Friday afternoon finally had no errors. It took forever to write a simple command like " move here " because I was very unfamiliar with the framework and all of the interfaces.

On friday morning i began compiling and I had to learn some basics such as how to make a makefile, etc..

Fortunately everyone was very helpful and always answered my questions. The group of people I work with ( Bill Smart, Frederick Heckel, Timothy Blakely and Chris Wilson) met daily around 4pm to discuss what we have done so far and what will have to be done next. During those meetings I was able to ask questions about any problems or misunderstandings I was having.

I am getting more and more excited about my work. I am sure that starting next week, things will become slightly easier since I will be more used to the framework and linux.