Robotic Manipulation and Interaction

This course is an introduction to the field of robotics, focusing on dynamics and grasping and manipulation. It covers the fundamentals of kinematics, dynamics, and control of robot manipulators, robotic vision, and sensing. 

Course Content

The course is a sequel to EE 106A/Bioengineering C125 and EE206A which covers kinematics, dynamics and control of a single robot. This course will cover dynamics and control of groups of robotic manipulators coordinating with each other and interacting with the environment including people. Concepts will include an introduction to grasp modeling with friction, grasp planning, and Dex-Net a data driven approach to robust robot grasping and manipulation based on a data set of 3D object models that currently includes over 10,000 3D object models and 2.5 million parallel-jaw grasps.. The course will also cover constrained manipulation, perception guided manipulation, including concepts of holonomy and non-holonomy. Throughout, we will emphasize design and human-robot interactions and applications in manufacturing, service robotics, and locomotion.

Logistics

This course will be taught in a seminar style, with homework, three small projects/labs, and a final project.  All submissions will go through GradeScope, which you all should have been added to.  A piazza page has been created for students to discuss homeworks and projects.  Note that there will be no exams in this course.

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 active perception and recent advances in grasping and robotics complete with guest lectures, and may require additional reading.  

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.

Course Information

Lectures

Day	Time	Instructors	Location
TuTh	9:30am-11:00pm	Ruzena Bajcsy  Shankar Sastry Ken Goldberg	521 Cory

 

Discussions

Day	Time	Instructors	Location
Tu	3:30-4:30pm	Katie Driggs-Campbell / Jeff Mahler	299 Cory
Th	3:30-4:30pm	Katie Driggs-Campbell / Jeff Mahler	299 Cory

 

Instructors

Role	Name	email	Office Hours
Professor	Ruzena Bajcsy	bajcsy@eecs.berkeley	TuTh 1:00-3:00pm  719 SDH
Professor	Shankar Sastry	sastry@coe.berkeley	By Appointment
Professor	Ken Goldberg	goldberg@berkeley	Wed 2:00-3:00pm  425 SDH
GSI	Katie Driggs-Campbell	katie.the.headta@gmail	Mon 9:30-11:00am  212 Cory
GSI	Jeff Mahler	jeff.b.mahler@gmail	Wed 3:30-5:00pm  283E Soda

Note that appointments can be made with any of the instructors or GSIs, if needed.

Labs

The lab in 119 Cory is open for use for the mini-labs/projects and the final project. The robots/hardware will be shared.  Reserve time on the calendars below.

Time-share calendars:

Robot	Calendar
Baxter	link
UR5	link
Hand	link

 

Grading Break Down

Homework	20%
Lab 1	15%
Lab 2	15%
Lab 3	15%
Final Project	35%

 

Lecture Schedule

Lecturer Key:

• RB = Prof. Ruzena Bajcsy
• SS = Prof. Shankar Sastry
• KG = Prof. Ken Goldberg
• FP = Dr. Florian Pokorny
• RM = Rob Matthews
• AB = Aaron Bestick

Most resources such as slides and related papers can be found in the "Files-Lectures" section.

Lecture	Date	Topic	Lecturer	Notes and Additional Resources
1	01/19/16	Introduction	RB
2	01/21/16	Review of Rigid Body Motion	SS	MLS Chapter 2
3	01/26/16	Review of Manipulator Kinematics	SS	MLS Chapter 3
4	01/28/16	Robot Dynamics	SS	MLS Chapter 4, Sections 2 & 3
5	02/02/16	PD Control	RB
6	02/04/16	Trajectory Tracking	RB	MLS Chapter 4, Section 5
7	02/09/16	Constrained Manipulation I	SS	MLS Chapter 4, Section 6
8	02/11/16	Intro to Grasping	FP	MLS Chapter 5, Section 1
9	02/16/16	Constrained Manipulation II	SS
10	02/18/16	Grasp Quality Metrics	FP	MLS Chapter 5, Sections 2 & 3 Carlo Ferrari & John Canny, "Planning Optimal Grasps" Suarez et al., "Grasp Quality Measures" Nguyen, "Constructing Force Closure Grasps" Scribed Lecture Notes
11	02/23/16	Grasp Planning	KG	MLS Chapter 5, Section 4 Springer Handbook of Robotics Chapter 28: Grasping Antonio Bicchi, "On the Closure Properties of Robotic Grasping" Prof. Goldberg's Handwritten Lecture Notes Scribed Lecture Notes
12	02/25/16	Robust Grasping	KG, FP	Orienting Polygonal Parts without Sensors, Algorithmica 1993
13	03/01/16	Cooperative Grasping I	SS
14	03/03/16	Cooperative Grasping II	RB
15	03/08/16	Cooperative Grasping III	RB
16	03/10/16	Tactile Perception & Hand Dynamics I	RB
17	03/15/16	Tactile Perception & Hand Dynamics II	RB
18	03/17/16	Coordinated Lifting of Rigid Objects I	RB
19	03/29/16	Human-Robot Collaboration	AB
20	03/31/16	Non-holonomic Constraints I	SS
21	04/05/16	Non-holonomic Constraints II	SS
22	04/07/16	Active and Exploratory Perception I	RB
23	04/12/16	Active and Exploratory Perception II	RB
24	04/14/16	Selected Topics: Caging & Cloud Robotics I	KG, FP
25	04/19/16	Selected Topics: Caging & Cloud Robotics II	KG, FP
26	04/21/16	Selected Topics: Caging & Cloud Robotics III	KG, FP
27	04/26/16	Selected Topics: Assistive Robotics I	RM
28	04/28/16	Selected Topics: Assistive Robotics II	RM