TD 1: Design exercise - Model the structure of a robotic factory

Overview

In this design exercise, you will work in teams to create a class diagram modelling the structure of a robotic production factory. This exercise introduces the project you will develop throughout this course.

In this exercise, you will learn to:

• Understand the project context and requirements
• Identify system components
• Apply good software design principles
• Create a class diagram collaboratively

Project: Develop a simulator for a robotic production factory

Inspired by the Cyber-Physical Systems Laboratory of the Hasso Plattner Institute (Potsdam, Germany)

• https://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/giese/public/cpslab/

Why this system?

• Allows the implementation of essential OO concepts.
  • Delegation/non-intrusion, inheritance, polymorphism, abstract classes, ...
• Allows the implementation of interfaces for integrating different software components.
  • A graphical interface will be provided, and integrating this component will allow visualizing the simulation, making development more fun.
• Illustrates several design patterns and the importance of software architecture.
• Can be extended to implement advanced aspects (2nd year courses):
  • Data persistence
  • Parallel programming and resource access synchronization
  • Distributed applications
  • and more...

Project requirements

• R1: Model a simplified robotic production factory containing these elements:
  • Factory, robots, robot charging stations, rooms and doors, work areas, production machines, and conveyor.
• R2: Simulate the behaviour of robots transporting produced goods (washers) from one place to another within the factory:
  • For each robot, provide a list of positions to visit in the factory, and the robot must move to visit them in succession.
  • Robots must avoid obstacles on their path.
• R3: The factory and its simulation must be visualized through a graphical user interface.
• R4: The model (data) must be saveable to disk.
• R5: The application must handle exceptions that may occur during the execution of the program:
  • For example, when there are issues accessing data on disk.

Optional, if you have enough time:

• R6-opt: Simulate the robot's energy consumption. If a robot reaches a specified minimum energy level, it must move to a charging station and stay there for a certain time to recharge. (Assumption: Energy consumption is proportional to the robot's speed).
• R7-opt: Doors will open and close automatically when a robot needs to enter a room.

Development requirements

• R8-dev: Implement good programming practices discussed in class:
  • Definition and organization of classes.
  • Naming conventions.
  • Comments and code formatting.
• R9-dev: The architecture must follow the MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern as presented in class.

What is not required

• The details of the features to be implemented for the project will be provided in each of the lab instruction documents.
• Given the limited time available, several aspects of the simulator will obviously not be considered for this project; they will be covered in an advanced Java programming course in the second year.
  • For example:
    • Parallelism and concurrent access to resources (synchronization).
    • Distributed application.
    • Database.
    • Etc.
• This system is only intended to illustrate the concepts and good programming practices taught in the CSC_3TC36_TP course. It is not meant to be a professional simulator.

Example of robotic production factory structure

https://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/giese/public/cpslab/detailed-laboratory-description/

Importance of design: Another example of a very (very) simple system

• Bridge of the Troche quarry:
  • On the path to catch the RER B at the Guichet station from the school.
• Find two design errors.

Answer

Importance of design

"If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!" -- (Benjamin Franklin painted by Joseph-Siffrein Duplessis)