18-649 Project 7

Design Process Cleanup and Midterm Acceptance Testing

Check the course webpage for due dates

Please submit all project-related correspondence to

Assignment:

Throughout this semester your group has designed, implemented, and tested a basic elevator system.  Before you proceed with optimization, you will make sure the entire design package is 1) organized well and 2) consistent with your current implementation.   Your design will also need to pass all previous tests and the additional tests provided for this project.  If you have been following the process in the prior design stages, this project should be pretty straightforward.

Note that this project is more heavily weighted than previous projects.

What you need to do:

1) Make sure you have the latest version of the simulation framework from the download page.

A note about control periods:
The control periods for controllers instantiated during acceptance tests are defined in MessageDictionary.java.  For this project, the following control periods are required.  Note that these are the default periods in the simulator, so if you have not changed them, you should be fine.
We believe these control periods are reasonable.  If you wish to change the control period used by any controller, you MUST obtain the approval of the course staff.  In order to convince us, you will need to make an argument based the timing of the physical system.  "Because it makes my elevator work" is not a valid argument!

If you obtain TA approval, you must write up the justification for the change and include it in the description of the relevant control object(s) in the Elevator Control package (elevatorcontrol/package.html) in your portfolio.  You should also record the name of the TA that approved the change.  If you either a) do not obtain TA approval or b) do not note the changes and the justification for the changes in your portfolio, significant points will be deducted.

2) Organize your design portfolio.
    Make sure that your portfolio documents conform to the structure and guidelines described in the projects and the portfolio page.  If you have been using the portfolio template and following the project guidelines, you should have very little work to do here.

3) Complete your integration tests, including all the steps specified in project 5 (logs, reviews, traceability, summary files, etc).
4) Peer review your integration tests. You should peer review at least 4 of the newly created integration tests for this project. Although you are only required to review 4, we highly encourage you to do more to ensure testing coverage.

5) Ensure your design portfolio is complete and consistent.  If you have been keeping up with updates in the previous project stages, most of this work will already be done. The following is a partial list of the characteristics your portfolio should exhibit:
6) Use Runtime Monitoring to Study Performance

For this part of the project, you will use the runtime monitoring framework to study the performance of your elevator.  Later on, in Project 11, you will use the runtime monitoring to verify that your final design has met the high level requirements.

First, read the description of the runtime monitoring framework in the Runtime Monitoring Overview. 

Then use the SamplePerformanceMonitor.java as a starting place to create your own runtime monitor.  Add a new class to the simulator.elevatorcontrol package called Proj7RuntimeMonitor.  Be sure you use the right name because the monitor may be graded by an automated script that relies on this name.  Make sure Proj7RuntimeMonitor extends simulator.framework.RuntimeMonitor.

Your monitor shall record the following performance information:
Make sure you implement the summarize() method to report these results at the end of the test.
You must also complete a peer review of your runtime monitor and add it to the peer review log
You are not required to improve your design based on these metrics, only to measure the performance of your current design.  However, it should get you thinking about ways to improve your design and the performance of your elevator.

If your monitor does more than monitor the system (e.g. outputs any framework or network messages, or affects the simulation state in any way, you will receive significant deductions on the assignment.


7) Pass an acceptance test.

Read the Acceptance Testing section of the Testing Requirements.   Running an acceptance test involves:
We have provided three acceptance tests:
In order to receive full credit for this assignment, you must run all three tests with a random seed of 8675309 and document the test results.  You must pass proj7acceptance1.pass.  This constitutes "have a working elevator" for the purposes of the midsemester project handin.  You are not required to pass proj7acceptance2.pass and proj7acceptance3.pass, but you can do so for bonus points (see below).  For any of the three tests, if your elevator does not pass the test, you must document the problem in the Acceptance Test Log and the Issue Log.

Note 1: You may notice passengers not boarding/leaving your elevator. This is possibly because you haven't correctly implemented the leveling speeds for the drive controller. To handle situations such as cable slip when the elevator is overweight, you will need to level with the doors open. See the requirements for the Passenger and the DriveControl speeds for more information. You might wish to disable leveling with the relevant simulator flag to see if this is what is going on, but the leveling flag must be enabled for hand-in.

Note 2:  If you do not pass proj7acceptance1.pass by the time you hand in Project 7, you MUST (eventually) pass this test in order get a grade for this course.  In that case, contact the course staff to arrange a demonstration when you are ready.

Note 3: You are strongly discouraged in this project to use exception handling. Starting in Project 8, you will be forbidden to do so without course staff approval.

8) BONUS:  pass additional acceptance tests

You can earn bonus points by also passing proj7acceptance2.pass and proj7acceptance3.pass.  These tests model the up-peak and down-peak conditions with a light-to-moderate passenger load.  You must fully document the test results and any associated bugs (as described in Part 4 above) even if your elevator does not pass these tests.  Note that you will eventually be required to pass these tests in Project 8.

The bonus is substantial (1% of your total course grade), but the requirements for getting the bonus are also substantial!   In order to be eligible for bonus points, you must:
If you do not meet all these criteria, you will not get bonus points even if your elevator passes the bonus acceptance tests.   This is because we don't want you to ignore other parts of the project in order to try and hack together an elevator that passes the additional acceptance tests.  We want to give you an incentive to submit a complete design package.  We also want to reward teams that have put in a substantial effort on the project.

All that having been said, if you have time, we STRONGLY suggestion you complete testing and do the runtime monitor sections (sections 1 & 2) of project 8, even if you don't meet the deadline to hand them in. (1) Project 8 has a lot of activities at once and this will help you get ahead, and (2) testing an monitors will help you find bugs more readily even for project 7.

Handing In Results

Each team shall submit exactly one copy of the assignment.

Follow the handin instructions detailed in the Project FAQ to submit your portfolio into the afs handin directory ( /afs/ece/class/ece649/Public/handin/project7/group#/ontime/).

Be sure you follow the required format for the directory structure of the portfolio and its location in the handin directories.

Be sure to follow ALL the portfolio guidelines detailed in the Portfolio Layout page.

Any submission that contains files with modification dates after the project deadline will be considered late and subject to a grade deduction (see course policy page for more information).

Grading (135 Points + 10 bonus points) :

Here's the minimum requirement spread sheet. Though there are no constraints on how you assign work for this project, you must still fill out the minimum requirements sheet with your hours since project 6. The project will be late until this sheet is handed in.

This assignment counts as one team grade. If you choose to divide the work, remember that you will be graded on the whole assignment.

A detailed grading rubric is given here(PDF).  Grading will be as follows:

Each team member must satisfy the minimum stated per-member requirements. Team members who omit any required per-member activity will receive a zero contribution grade.

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