CS 5970-001: Main Class Project

Our class goal is to develop a planning and control approach that will enable a Baxter robot to cook a simulated meal from an "arbitrary" recipe. Because the Baxter itself is not mobile, we will employ the help of a set of Turtlebot robots to simulate mobility of the Baxter by carrying parts of the environment to the Baxter.

Here are the rules (which are negotiable):

• The recipe is a written text document that describes the items, the quantities and the steps that must be performed (note that this document may only specify a partial ordering of the necessary steps). We can assume that the text document is structured in some reasonable way.

• Items to be used in the recipe (both tools and consumables) may be located arbitrarily. Again, this can be structured like our human kitchens (for example, the "spices" may be located on a single shelf, but may not have a fixed location). We can assume some simple scheme for uniquely identifying items.

• Items may be stored on shelves, in cupboards, in drawers or in refrigerators. [we have to decide on the degree to which we want to address these].

• Cooking units include stoves and ovens.

• The robot should be physically capable of:
  • Finding and retrieving items.
  • Measuring quantities.
  • Pouring items from one container to another.
  • Mixing items in a container (a bowl) with a spoon.
  • Placing/removing containers or other large items on/from cooking units.

• The robot should clean up after completing the recipe.
• Time matters.
• Consumables will be modeled using one or a small number of cubes or spheres.