IGVC About Project Architecture

=About=

=Software Strategy= The 2009 IGVC architecture is based on the lessons learned from the 2008 AUVSI Competition. This year's software efforts will be focused on two key components:
 * Algorithm Performance and Optimization
 * Interconnect Optimization

Focusing on these components will allow us to make drastic simplifications to our software layout, eliminating redunancy and increasing simplicity and robustness.

Algorithm Performance and Optimization
One of the biggest problems we faced in the 2008 competition was the low speed and relatively high ineffeciency of many of the algorithms we employed. Most of the development effort was spent trying to get the algorithms to work, and very little time was devoted to optimization. Because of this, complexity was added to the system to attempt to compensate for shortcomings elsewhere. For instance, the Global Path Planner would only refresh itself once every 3-4 seconds on average. When the Local Path Planner reached a waypoint just after the Global planner refreshed, the robot would stop and effectively wait for the Global planner to hand the Local planner the next destination, which could take up to 3-4 seconds. A waypoint manager was created to keep the Local planner heading towards a goal at all times, but adding the manager just increased the complexity of the entire process. Focusing on optimizing components such as the Path Planners allows us to remove things like Waypoint managers, and keep the architecture simple. site

Interconnect Optimization
Because of the time it took to get each component to individually work, little time was devoted to optimization of communication between the software components. For example, each time the Global Path Planner requested map data from the Map Builder component, the entire area map was sent to the planner. When the map is on the order of 50x70 meters, with .1 meter resolution, this data request can be quite large. Player is set up so that a Map proxy can send map "tiles" or portions of the map, instead of sending the whole thing. Devising a way to send only updated components of the map to the Global Planner can reduce network congestion significantly.

=Hardware Strategy= Hardware layout on the IGVC platform is also based mainly on lessons learned from the 2008 competition.