Robotics

( Will be updated. Last update: 06-03 2026 )

Contents

• Period

• Time

• Place

• Organizers

• Abstract

• Requirements

• Materials

• Schedule

• Links

Period: February 6^th - May 20^th 2026

Time:   Friday 15.15 - 17.00

Place (Rooms): Van Steenis F1.04

Exceptions:
March 6th: Gorlaeus CM.1.26
March 20th: Van Steenis E0.04

Organizers:

Lecturer:

Dr Erwin M. Bakker ( erwin@liacs.nl )

Room LIACS Media Lab (LML)

Please email for a meeting.
 

Teaching assistants:

• George Boukouvalas
• Tingyan Lu
• Kevin Bretz
  

NB Register on Brightspace

Description: 
During the last decade we have seen an "explosion" of all kinds of robots designed for tasks that previously were deemed too challenging for machines. Robots have evolved from robotic arms and karts that could execute repetitive or simple tasks such as painting, welding and vacuum cleaning to autonomous cars, drones and humanoid helpers and servants that execute their tasks in much less controlled and even natural settings. For this modern robots require sophisticated adaptive capabilities.

During the course we will have a thorough look at the important aspects of robot-architectures used in modern and state of the art robots. The use of various actuators and sensors will be studied. Algorithms for low level tasks such as movement, dead reckoning, obstacle-detection, and balancing will be presented. Intermediate level tasks such as mapping, obstacle recognition and avoidance, and more advanced modes of reckoning, navigation and object manipulation will be studied. Finally, high level tasks such as human-robot-interaction and adaptive behavior in natural environments will be studied and proto-typed using state of the art sensor analysis, computer vision and audio recognition techniques.

Course objectives
After successfully finishing the Robotics course the student:

• Is able to explain and apply the underlying methods, architectures and operating systems of modern state of the art robotic platforms.
• Is capable of designing, developing, implementing, analysing and evaluating algorithms for low-, and mid-level robotic tasks on different robotic simulators and platforms.
• Is able to explain, analyse and evaluate the challenges and progress in robotics research.
• Is able to design and implement high level robotic tasks using state of the art tools for sensor analysis, computer vision and audio recognition techniques.
• Is capable of creating, implementing and evaluating a prototype for autonomous robotics tasks such as visual understanding and autonomous actuation or driving, Human Robot Interaction, etc.

Recommended skills: fluent in C, C++, or Python

Grading (6 ECTS): Presentations and Robotics Project (60% of grade). Class discussions and attendance (+), assignments (pass/no pass), Mobile Robot Challenge (20% of the grade) and 2 workshops (0-10) (20% of grade).
It is necessary to be at every class and to complete every workshop. If you can not be there, you must contact Dr. E.M. Bakker before class!

Materials:

Lecture slides and further materials will be made available on this site.

List of recommended books:

To be added

Assignments (workshops):

1. Assignment 1: Cool robots (Grading: pass/no pass), available on Brightspace. Due 12-2 2026.
   
2. Assignment 2: Robot mechanics (Grading: pass/no pass)
   
3. Slam Workshop@Home (Grading: 10% of final grade)
   
4. RL Workshop@Home (Grading: 10% of final grade).
   
5. Mobile Robot (Grading: 20% of final grade)
   
6. Final Project Demo and Deliverables (Grading: 60% of final grade)
   

• Extra-Terrestrial robot
• Home Automation
• Snake Bot
• Doggo Bot
• Hand Tracking
• Joint Decision Bots
• Obby
• Motion Imitation