Robotics

(Will be updated. Last update: 11 - 5 2019: Final Project Deliverables Due May 27th 2019 )

Contents

• Period

• Time

• Place

• Organizers

• Abstract

• Requirements

• Materials

• Schedule

• Links

Period: February 15^th - May 10^th 2019

Time:   Friday 09.00 – 10.45

Place:  LIACS, Room 401 (Workshops Room 303)

Organizers:

Lecturer:

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

Room 126a and LIACS Media Lab (LML)

Teaching assistant:

Andrius Bernatavicius

NB E-mail your name and student number to erwin@liacs.nl

Description:
During the last decade we have seen an explosion of all kinds of robots designed for tasks that previously were deemed too challenging. 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 that execute their tasks in much less controlled and even natural settings. For this modern robots require sophisticated adaptive capabilities.
During this course we will have a thorough look at all important aspects of the robot-architecture 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:

• Has a thorough insight and understanding of the underlying architectures and operating systems of modern state of the art robotic platforms.
• Is capable of designing, developing and implementing low-, and mid-level robotic tasks on different robotic simulators and platforms.
• Has a good understanding of the challenges and progress in scientific robotics research.
• Has insights in the design and implementation of high level robotic tasks using state of the art tools for sensor analysis, computer vision and audio recognition techniques.
• Is capable of implementing a prototype for autonomous Human Robot Interaction.

Requirements: C, C++

Grading (6 ECTS): Presentations and Robotics Project (60% of grade). Class discussions, attendance, workshops and assignments (40% 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. Homework: Cool robots. (Due Thursday 21-2, 14.00 PM)
2. Homework DOF (Due Thursday 28-2, 14.00 PM)
   
3. Yetiborg Racing Teams and Project Titles+Abstract (Due Thursday 7-3, 14.00 PM)
4. SLAM Workshop I (Due Thursday March 28th 2019)
   
5. Reinforcement Learning Workshop II
6. Final Project Deliverables (Due May 27th 2019)
   

• To be added