Course Syllabus

This course is an introduction to the field of robotics. It covers the fundamentals of kinematics, dynamics, and control of robot manipulators, robotic vision, and sensing. The course deals with forward and inverse kinematics of serial chain manipulators, the manipulator Jacobian, force relations, dynamics, and control. It presents elementary principles on proximity, tactile, and force sensing, vision sensors, camera calibration, stereo construction, and motion detection. The course concludes with current applications of robotics in active perception, medical robotics, autonomous vehicles, and other areas.

Students are expected to have a background in linear algebra, calculus, and basic physics, as well as familiarity with the Python programming language. The lectures are supplemented with homeworks and experimental work in the laboratory using two Baxter robots, and multiple mobile Zumy robots. There are two midterms, but no final exam. The last month is devoted to the design and implementation of a final project, carried out either individually or in groups of 2 or 3 students.

The required text is Richard Murray, Zexiang Li and S. Shankar Sastry: "A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation" (first edition digitally available here). Additional lectures will cover the basics of computer vision, path planning, state estimation and control. 

 Course Projects for this term can be found here: https://goo.gl/cNt8au

Course Information

Lectures

Labs

Discussions

Instructors 

Time-share calendars:

Baxter reservation calendar: https://goo.gl/KXT1pC 

Zumy reservation calendar: TBD

If you need disability-related accommodations in this class, if you have emergency medical information you wish to share with us, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please inform us immediately. Please see the professor or GSIs privately after class or in the office.