1. #7 Robotic Video Game Learning Using Self-Detection
2. Should this project be considered for the Best Project award? No
3. Should this project be considered for the top 3 project awards? Yes
4. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the overall organization/clarity of the project report? 8
5. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the overall project idea? 10
6. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the overall research contribution of the project idea, methodology and/or results?  9

* Overall, is the project report clear, concise, and well-organized?

I thought the report was very clear, concise and well-organized. I liked the layout, and overall the report was very easy to read.


	
* How does the project idea and methodology fit within the framework of Developmental Robotics?

The authors are trying to develop a method by which a robot can learn to play a video game. The robot is given no instruction as to how to control the game and is only allowed to learn how to play through experience. This fits perfectly in the framework of Developmental Robotics



* Describe what you like BEST about the project?

I really liked the research topic. The idea of a robot playing a video game is kind of an interesting conundrum: a simulated human playing a simulated game. It just strikes me as funny. However, the research could prove very useful as it has further developed tracking and self-detection algorithms. 



* Describe what you like LEAST about the project?

My least favorite aspect of this project was the lack of an explanation of the results. The results were presented, but they were insufficiently explained. I understand that the project could not successfully control the game for extended periods of time, but I didn’t feel that the module results were explained. I didn’t understand the results from the vision process at all, and I didn’t understand the self-detection results either. These components need to be explained rather than merely presented.



* Do the methods, results and contributions of the final project correspond to what was presented in the initial project proposal?

The final report matches what was presented in the proposal very well. One of the main focuses of the proposal could not be completed in the in the final project because of performance limitations, but aside from this hiccups, the final project matches exactly what was proposed.



* Are there any major details left out with regards to the methods, algorithms, or experimental design described in the report?

I did not find any major details to be left out. Rather, I thought the methodology seemed quite in depth. I was curious, however, as to why the robot had to get the bounds for the joystick’s motion in a clockwise order.



* Do the experimental results reported in the paper demonstrate success?

The experimental results show that the method developed works, but the equipment used is not fast enough to competitively play the games used in the experiment. The computations were quite computationally power hungry, but even more of a problem, the robot could not move fast enough to successfully deflect the ball with the paddle.



* Do you have any suggestions for improvement and future work?

It would be interesting to see if a method could be developed that would allow for self-detection during the preliminary stages. 



* How close is the final project report to being publishable as a conference or journal paper (consider the research papers that were part of the course reading)? What would it take to get there?

The report has a few glaring issues seen almost immediately in the paper. The introduction ends with an unfinished sentence, and there are several other typos seen early in the paper. These would need to be eliminated to prepare the report to be published. I also felt that figures 11-13 were slightly unclear. It took me several read-throughs to understand what they were relaying. The graphs’ axes should be labeled, and what is being shown should be better explained. Figure 14 was labeled poorly, and I can’t follow what the different colored lines represent.