Course Schedule 🗓️

The following breakdown is tentative.

1. Robot Operating System

Aug 25

Introduction and Overview + Intro to ROS

Aug 27

ROS tutorials and examples

Sep 1

ROS tutorials and examples continued

HW 1 Released

2. Robot Kinematics

Sep 3

Introduction to Robot Kinematics and Rigid-body motion (2D), Mobile robot Motion

Sep 8

Mobile Robot Motion (cont), (Non)holonomic Constraints, Mobile Robot Steering Kinematics

Sep 10

3D Orientation: Rotation Matrices, Euler Angles

HW 2.1 Released

Quiz 1 (ROS + early kinematics (rigid-body, mobile robot))

Sep 15

3D Orientation: Axis-Angle, Rotation Vectors, Quaternions

HW 1 Due

Sep 17

3D Rigid-body motion: Homogeneous Transforms, Sequential Transformations

Sep 22

Robot Arms: Types of Actuators/Joints, Configuration Space vs. Task Space

Sep 24

Robot Arms: Forward Kinematics, Jacobians

HW 2.2 Released

Sep 29

Jacobians (cont): Velocity, Force, Singularities

Oct 1

Inverse Kinematics: Differential IK, the Gauss-Newton Method

Oct 6

Inverse Kinematics Cont: Differential IK, the Gauss-Newton Method

HW 2.1 Due

3. State Estimation

Oct 8

Introduction to State Estimation and Probability Fundamentals, Bayesian Filtering

Quiz 2 (3D rotations, homogeneous transforms, config space, FK, Jacobians, IK)

Oct 13

Fall break - No class

Oct 15

Bayesian Filtering continued + Kalman Filtering

HW 3.1 and 3.2 Released

Oct 20

Kalman Filtering Continued + Intro to Particle Filtering

HW 2.2 Due

Oct 22

Particle Filtering Continued

4. Motion Planning

Oct 27

Intro to Planning + Graph-based Methods

Quiz 3 (Probability, Bayesian filtering, Kalman, EKF, particle filters)

Oct 29

Graph-based Methods Continued

HW 4 Released

Nov 3

Sampling-based Methods

HW 3.1 Due, 3.2 Due Date TBD

Nov 5

Sampling-based Methods Continued

5. Controls

Nov 10

Intro to Feedback Control + PID

Quiz 4 (Graph-based and sampling-based planning)

Nov 12

PID Continued + Pure-pursuit control

Nov 17

State-space Representation + Linear-Quadratic Regulator (LQR)

HW 4.1 Due, 4.2 Due Date TBD

HW 5 Released

Final Project Released

Nov 19

Model Predictive Control (MPC)

Nov 24

Special Topics: Assistive Robotics Lecture

Quiz 5 (PID, pure pursuit, state space, LQR, MPC)

Nov 26

Thanksgiving Holiday - No class

Dec 1

Special Topics: Building Caregiving Robots

Quiz 6 (Integrative — draws across all five modules)

Dec 3

Robotics Lab Tour: EmPRISE Lab

Dec 12

Finals Week- No Class

HW 5.1 Due, 5.2 Due Date TBD

Final Project Timeline TBD