Fall 2010
Time: Tuesdays, Thursdays 2:00pm - 3:15pm
Location: SN 115
Instructor: Prof. Ron Alterovitz
Office hours: Thursdays 3:15pm - 4:30pm or by appointment, 223 Sitterson Hall
Robots are having a significant impact on our daily lives, from medicine to transportation to personal home assistance. Creating robotic systems raises a unique combination of questions in algorithm design, computational geometry, control theory, and systems engineering. This course will provide an overview of robotics with an emphasis on the computational and algorithmic aspects.
The course will begin by introducing the fundamentals of robotics systems and algorithms and then lead to discussions on current research and applications. The topics to be covered, which may be modified based on the interests of enrolled students, include:
Who should enroll: Students with interests in robotics, motion planning algorithms, graphics, and computational geometry, as well as application areas such as those listed above. Students from Computer Science as well as other departments are welcome. For students in Computer Science, the course project report could serve as a basis for the MS Program Product requirement and/or the department technical writing requirement.
Credits: Students can register for either 1 or 3 credits. Students who register for 1 credit will be required to participate in class discussions and present 2 papers. Students who register for 3 credits will complete a project of their choice as well as a paper presentation and assignments as described below.
Grading: For 3 credits: 40% course project, 40% paper presentation/assignments, 20% participation. Each student will select the topic of his/her course project, orally present background material on the project topic, and write a final report. Each student will also complete a pair of written/programming assignments and present one paper of his or her choice. For 1 credit: 60% paper presentations, 40% participation.
Prerequisites: Undergraduate level calculus, linear algebra, data structures, algorithms, and proficiency in programming (Java, Matlab, C, C++, python, or another language with permission of the instructor). Prior coursework in robotics, motion planning, or graphics is not required. Undergraduates and students from outside Computer Science who are unsure if they meet the prerequisites should contact the instructor.
Textbook: There is no textbook for this course. Course notes, in-class handouts, and links to relevant papers will be provided.
Date | Topics | Details |
---|---|---|
August 24 | What is Robotics? | |
August 26 | Robot Motion | |
August 31 | Robot Motion and Configurations | |
September 2 | Introduction to Configuration Space | |
September 7 | Computing Configuration Spaces | |
September 9 | Path Planning for a Point Robot | |
September 14 | Sampling-based Motion Planning | |
September 16 | Probabilistic Roadmaps | Paper presentation selection due |
September 21 | Improving PRMs | Assignment 1 posted |
September 23 | Single-query Motion Planning | |
September 28 | Biologically-inspired robot motion
Yusuf Simonson: Robotic insects Jared Heinly: Sand-swimming robot |
|
September 30 | Course Project Requirements/Ideas
Optimal path planning Elizabeth Cavazos: Informative path planning |
|
October 5 | Optimal path planning and Multi-robot planning
Eric Boren: Optimal incremental planning Zheng Feng: Real-time multi-agent navigation |
Assignment 1 due |
October 7 | Sensing | |
October 12 | Sense, Plan, Move: Closing the Loop | Project proposal due |
October 14 | Markov Decision Processes | |
October 19 | Markov Decision Processes (continued) | |
October 21 | Fall break | |
October 26 | Solving Markov Decision Processes | |
October 28 | Planning with uncertainty
Tianren Wang: Beleif roadmaps Anant Pradhan: Task allocation under uncertainty |
|
November 2 | Kinematics and Jacobians | Progress report 1 due |
November 4 | Apprenticeship learning
Joseph Tighe: Helicopter flight Chad Spensky: Quadruped locomotion |
Assignment 2 posted |
November 9 | Handling complex dynamics
Belinda Kerchmar: Learning surgical tasks Alexander Jackson: Autonomous driving |
|
November 11 | Learning new skills
Jeff Ichnowski: Learning biped locomotion Wade Gobel: Adjusting to new situations |
|
November 16 | Medical robotics
Luis Torres: Precurved-tube continuum robots Jinghua Fu: MRI-guided microrobots |
Progress report 2 due
Send by e-mail with ranked list of final presentation dates 12/7, 12/2, 11/30, and 11/23 (optional) |
November 18 | Assistive robotics
Anya Derbakova: Cloth folding Final project report guidelines and Course review |
Assignment 2 due |
November 23 | Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (guest lecture)
Final project presentations: Joe Tighe, Elizabeth Cavazos |
|
November 25 | Thanksgiving holiday | |
November 30 | Final project presentations:
Eric Boren, Yusuf Simonson, Tianren Wang, Alex Jackson |
Progress report 3 due |
December 2 | Final project presentations:
Jared Heinly, Luis Torres, Anya Derbakova, Feng Zheng |
|
December 7 | Final project presentations:
Chad Spensky, Jinghua Fu, Belinda Kerhmar, Anant Pradhan, Wade Gobel |
|
December 16 | Final project due at noon | By noon, send an e-mail containing your report and code, and a separate e-mail with no attachments saying that you submitted the project. For the report, use IEEE template (not for Magnetics/ Photonics) |
There is no textbook for this course. Below are standard textbooks in the field that you may find useful or interesting.