What I did last week

Wrote dense matrix RRT implementation.

What I did this week

This week I wrote the dense matrix A* implementation and its python bindings.  This completes our baseline implementation of motion planning.  We are currently capable of generating simulated perception data, running RRT to search the state space for viable paths, and then run A* to find and return the shortest path.

The next step I will be working on is the inverse kinematics module that takes the path returned by A* and generates control signals for the robotic arm.  I have already found an open source implementation and have begun to run some tests.  I do not have a complete understanding of inverse kinematics and have therefore found some resources to help strengthen my knowledge.  The inverse kinematics module is currently under development and I am targeting its completion by the end of next week.

What I plan to do next week

Work on inverse kinematics module

Setup serial communication to send commands to the arm