Introduction and overview

Please note that some details regarding the course may change up until the first lecture, and that additional information will be added to this Canvas site.

This course is a very wide introduction to robotics. It will cover the mechanics of mobile robots and manipulators, robot hardware and software, and algorithms and methods for kinematics, control, navigation and planning. It serves to give general understanding of robotics as a field of study, and provide a foundation for further studies of the different included topics in greater depth in other, more specialized courses.

The course consists of lectures, lab assignments, and a wide selection of reading materials. The course is examined with 4 smaller assignments and a larger project (LAB1), and a written exam (TEN1). The final grade is determined by the performance on the practical assignments, LAB1, while the exam TEN1 is pass/fail.

Preliminary schedule for lecture topics:

Aug 28 - 1. Intro, Course fundamentals, Topics, What is a Robot, History, Applications.
Aug 29 - 2  Manipulators, Kinematics

Sep 29 - 3 ROS Introduction (Scheduled as lab, will be in zoom, link TBA)

Sept 03 - 4. Differential kinematics, dynamics
Sep 05 - 5. Actuators, sensors I (force, torque, encoders, ...)
Sep 11 - 6. Grasping, Motion, Control

Sep 12 - 7. Planning (RRT, A*, ...)
Sep 18 - 8. Behavior Trees and Task Switching

Sep 20- 9. Locomotion and sensing II (distance, vision, radio, GPS, ...)
Sep 24 - 10. Localisation (where are we?)
Sept 27 - 11. Mapping (how to build the map to localise/navigate w.r.t.?)
Oct 02 - 12 - Navigation (how do I get from A to B?)

Oct 10 - Q/A - Open questions to your teachers.