Robotics

( Will be updated. Last update: 2-6 2023 )

Contents

 

 

Period: February 6th - May 22nd 2023

Time:   Monday 15.15 - 17.00

Place (Rooms):
a) Gorlaeus - Lecture Hall C3
b) Sylvius - 15.31
c) Van Steenis - E0.04
d) Oortgebouw - Sitterzaal

 

Organizers:

 

Lecturer:

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

Room 126a and LIACS Media Lab (LML)

 

Teaching assistant:

Mor Puigventos
TBA (email)

 

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:

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), and 2 workshops (0-10) (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

 

 

 

 Schedule (tentative, visit regularly):
Date
 Room
  Subject
6-2
 C2
  Introduction and Overview
13-2
 a
  Locomotion and Inverse Kinematics
20-2
 b
  Robotics Sensors and Image Processing
27-2
 a
  No class
 6-3
 		c
  No class, SLAM Workshop on Brightspace
13-3
 a
  SLAM + Mobile Robot Challenge Intro
20-3
 		d
  Project Proposals I (by students)
27-3
 d
  Project Proposals II (Week 13, start 15.30)
3-4
 d
  Robotics Vision
10-4
 No Class (Eastern)
17-4
 d
  Robotics Reinforcement Learning
24-4
 d
  Project Progress Reports 
1-5
 d
  Mobile Robot Challenge I
8-5
 		a
  Mobile Robot Challenge II
15-5
 d
  Project Demos I
22-5
 		d
  Project Demos II
29-5
 Whit Monday
7-6
 Project Deliverables

Assignments (workshops):

  1. Assignment 1: Cool robots (grading pass/no pass), available on Brightspace. Due 13-2 2023.
  2. Assignment 2: Robot mechanics (pass/no pass), available on Brightspace, due 25-2 2023.
  3. Slam Workshop 1 (grading 0-10), see Brightspace, due 3-4 2023 (extended deadline).
  4. RL Workshop 2: Exploratory workshop, should take 1 - 2 hours only. Available on Brightspace (grading (0-10)). Due June 14th 2023.
  5. Mobile Robot Challenge (0-10) available on Brightspace. Deliverables due June 5th  2023
  6. Final Project Deliverables due June 7th 2023.
Project Links (Selection):