EL2310 Scientific Programming (7.5 ECTS)

Scientific Programming is a programming course tailored for the Systems, Control and Robotics program. The aim is to ensure that everyone can use MATLAB which will be used in many of the coming courses as well as to be able to program in C/C++. The examination of this course is through projects that should be solved individually. There is one project for MATLAB, one for C and one for C++. Each project is preceded by an optional lab that provides an additional opportunity to train before the project.

The themes for the projects are mainly from robotics. Over the past years, algorithms and methods such as path planning with potential fields and probabilistic road maps, scan matching and the control of robot manipulator arms have been investigated. Solving the projects requires not only the ability to program, but to analyse a problem and to go from a mathematical formulation to an algorithm and then to an implementation. Finally, and just as importantly, an evaluation should also be carried out to make sure that the implementation works as expected.

A full description for this course can be found in the KTH Course Catalogue.

Feedback

The course has been developed and improved over several years by several people, including Patric Jensfelt, Carl Henrik Ek, Kai Huebner, Andrzej Pronobis, Florian T. Pokorny. Please provide feedback and let me know how we can further improve this course!

Links

• Please check the EL2310 page on Bilda to discuss questions about the course and to submit your projects.
• Matlab
  Matlab Documentation,
  StackOverflow Matlab
  "Matlab for Engineers Explained", F. Gustafsson och N. Bergman, Springer Verlag, 2003 (ISBN 1-85233-697-8)
  
• C
  Programming in C Video Course, C Programming WikiBook, Pointers and arrays in C, Coding Conventions, C/C++ Reference, C/C++ Library Reference, StackOverflow C
  "C Programming Language (2nd Edition)", Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie, Prentice Hall, 1988
• C++
  Programming in C++, C++ WikiBook, Google C++ Style Guide, Another C++ Style Guide , StackOverflow C++
• Linux and programming tools
  Introduction to Linux, Vi/Vim file editor, Emacs file editor, Makefile Tutorial

Virtual Machine

In order to provide an identical environment for all students working on the C and C++ projects, an Ubuntu virtual machine was prepared in VirtualBox. The VM has all the required tools preinstalled (gcc/g++/emacs/SDL etc.) and will be used to run the submitted project code for grading. You can download a RAR compressed VirtualBox VM here.

To use the virtual machine, download and install VirtualBox. Then, download and unpack the virtual machine and add it to VirtualBox using Machine->Add. To exchange files between the virtual machine (guest operating system) and your OS (host OS), use shared folders. More information about VirtualBox can be found here.

Lectures

Details about labs, downloadable slides etc will be posted here as we proceed. Please check this website for updates to the schedule. Note that this course largely relies on your self-study and that the slides are mainly there to provide you with a frame of reference.

• Mon 29.08.2016

  Lecture 1, Course overview and introduction to Matlab: Slides, and some exercises.
• Thurs 01.09.2016

  Lecture 2, Matlab as a Tool: Slides, and some exercises.
• Matlab project announced!

  Here is the project Description, and here is an associated file. The deadline to submit your solution is 12th September (Monday). Help session will be on 7th Sep (Wed) 1-3pm at Teknikringen 14, room 304.
• Mon 05.09.2016

  Lecture 3: Scripts and Functions in Matlab: Slides, and some exercises.
• Thurs 08.09.2016

  Lecture 4: Moving from Matlab to C: Slides, and some exercises.
• Mon 12.09.2016

  Lecture 5: Basics of C: Slides, and exercises
• Wed 14.09.2016

  Lecture 6: Basics of C (contd.): Slides and exercises.
• Thurs 15.09.2016

  Lecture 7: Programming basics in C: Slides and exercises.
• Mon 19.09.2016

  Lecture 8: Scope and Pointers in C: Slides and exercises.
• Tue 20.09.2016

  C Project announced Description and associated data file .
• Thurs 22.09.2016

  Lecture 9: Pointers and Structures: Slides and exercises.
• Mon 26.09.2016

  Lecture 10: Memory, External Input, File and Bitwise Operations: Slides and exercises.
• Wed 28.09.2016

  Lecture 11: Introduction to C++, : Slides and exercises.

  Example code for allocating/deallocating double arrays in C, : Code.
• Thurs 29.09.2016

  Lecture 12: Memory Management, Object Oriented Programming and Classes in C++, : Slides and exercises.
• Mon 03.10.2016

  Lecture 13: OOP and Classes in C++ : Slides and exercises
• Tue 04.10.2016

  Lecture 14: Inheritance and Polymorphism in C++ : Slides and exercises
• Wed 05.10.2016

  Lecture 15: Templates, STL, File I/O and Strings in C++ : Slides and exercises.
• Fri 07.10.2016

  C++ project: Description, files, dataset-link, submission instructions . Example results for the SVM Classification. Dataset reference: [1], [2].
• Wed 12.10.2016

  Lecture 16: C++1y and Conclusion Slides.