NOTE: This assignment, like others in this class, is due at the beginning of the class period. This means that if you are even a minute late, you lose 20%. If you are worried about potentially being late, turn in your homework ahead of time. Do this by submitting them to me during office hours or by sliding it under my office door. Do not send assignments to me through email or leave them in my departmental mail box.
Consider navigation, a fundamental capability of mobile robots, as described in Part II of your textbook. Real robots, such as Xavier (described by Simmons, et al.), need to be able to navigate in order to accomplish their missions. Which components (variously described by Simmons, et al. as "layers" or "modules") of Xavier's
List all components (variously described by Simmons, et al. as "layers" or "modules") of Xavier's software that are dedicated to navigation. Explain how each of these components is used in navigation. In particular, list which of the four fundamental navigation questions each component helps to answer and explain how that component helps to answer that question (or those questions, if there it helps to answer more than one).
If there are multiple components of Xavier that help to answer a single question, explain how those components interact with one another (how the parts communicate, how they share the work in answering the question, and so forth).
Explain whether you believe that Xavier is capable of performing SLAM.
Turn in a typed copy of your work for this assignment. In total, your homework should run from 1.5 to 2 pages in length (roughly 80 characters per line, 50 lines per page). This does not count any figures that you may choose to include, which may be of any size.