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Autonomy Bootcamp - Archived F25

Autonomy Bootcamp - Archived F25

This bootcamp is being archived! If you have not started this bootcamp before 2025-09-04, please go to https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BOOT/pages/3355672582 and start that one.

If you started this bootcamp before this date, then you have until the end of 2025-09-20 to complete this old bootcamp. After that, only submissions for the new bootcamp will be accepted.

  • Alternatively, you can start working on the new bootcamp now if you want.

Overview

Before embarking on this subteam bootcamp, please ensure you’ve completed these instructions: https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AD/pages/2241298916.

Create a post in the #auto-bootcamps forum to get started! You can ask for help there and notify the Autonomy bootcamp reviewers when you are done.

Setup

Dear WARG Bootcamper,

Congratulations and welcome to the AutoBots family! We're excited to have you on the team. I'll be sending you our onboarding documents soon, please feel free to get a head start on that.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Doe
VP of Human Resources
AutoBots

Git and GitHub

“I’m still waiting for QA to give me back my code [on the USB stick].” - Overheard at the water cooler

Forking

Create a personal copy of the repository by forking it.

  1. If you haven’t already, create an account on GitHub. You can use either your UW email or something else. Otherwise, log in with the GitHub account you would like to use with WARG.

  2. Visit: https://github.com/UWARG/autonomy-bootcamp-2023

  3. Click on the Fork button (towards the top right, above the About section).

  4. Click on the green Create fork button.

  5. GitHub redirects you to your own copy of the repository.

Git setup (General for all autonomy projects)

Cloning the repository

Go to GitHub and navigate to your copy of the repository, under your account. Do not go to WARG’s copy of the repository!

Python and virtual environment

“It’s fine, it works on my machine.” - Overheard in the software development cubicle farm

Python is the programming language this bootcamp uses.

Activate the Python virtual environment

Install packages

  1. Open requirements.txt

    1. MacOS: Remove the line containing --extra-index-url [link]

    2. Windows and Linux:

      1. If you have a CUDA capable GPU but don’t want to use it for some reason, remove the line containing --extra-index-url [link]

      2. If you don’t have a CUDA capable GPU, don’t change anything.

  2. If you haven’t already, activate the virtual environment.

  3. Download and install required packages: pip install -r requirements.txt

    1. This will install in your virtual environment under venv . The rest of your system is unaffected.

  4. Done!

Directory

“I keep all my files in the recycle bin because they’re easier to get to.” - Overheard near the Director of Finance’s office

Now that you have everything needed to start, take a quick look at what you’re working with.

The repository is divided into 3 sections:

  • modules/ 's free floating files contains the common classes that are passed around the interfaces.

  • modules/bootcamp/ is where you will write your code.

  • modules/private/ is the black box to control. The bootcamp is completable without ever looking here. In fact, we encourage you to hold off until after completing all the tasks.

Why would you tell me not to do that? Now I really want to see what’s in there: https://www.reddit.com/r/MemeTemplatesOfficial/comments/ej4rr5/well_now_i_am_not_doing_it_pingu/

The reason for not looking through modules/private/ is teach you to rely solely on the documentation, provided interfaces, and behaviour of the system after interacting with the interfaces. Many systems Autonomy interacts with are basically black boxed, which is why this is an important skill to learn.

Each file has a docstring header that will contain one of the following:

  • BOOTCAMPERS DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE. : Do not modify this file! Your submission will not be accepted if these files are modified.

  • BOOTCAMPERS TO COMPLETE. : Search for BOOTCAMPERS MODIFY BELOW THIS COMMENT (there may be multiple) and follow the instructions.

Do not commit extra files! Your submission will not be accepted if you have extra files.

Do not import any additional libraries. The bootcamp is completable as is.

Development

“If it compiles, then it works, right?” - Top 10 moments before disaster

Every time you want to change code in your repository.

  1. If you haven’t already, activate the virtual environment.

  2. Follow the instructions in the tasks below.

  3. Code away! Run the tests! Please follow our style guide: https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CV/pages/2253226033

    1. Ask questions if you need help!

    2. Make sure the linter and formatter pass:

      1. Running Black is sufficient for it to pass: black .

      2. Flake8 outputting nothing is a pass: flake8 .

      3. Pylint outputting a code rating of 10.00/10 is a pass (9.99/10 is not passing): pylint modules

  4. Make a commit:

    1. Check which files have changed: git status

    2. Run: git add [files you changed] , where [files you changed] are the files you want to add to the commit.

      1. Use git add . if you want to add all of them (the dot means wildcard in Git).

    3. Run: git commit -m "Your commit message"

    4. When you’re ready to push your latest commits to GitHub: git push

      1. No harm in doing this after every commit.

  5. When you’re done, make sure to either close the terminal or run:

    1. Windows command prompt: venv\Scripts\deactivate.bat

    2. Everything else: deactivate

    3. This is important to avoid going to a different project and then accidentally polluting your current project’s virtual environment.