Robotics and autonomous systems

This course is an advanced course in computer science focusing on the broad, inter-disciplinary field of robotics where the students build and program an autonomous robot.

Aim

After the course the student should be able to

describe basic concepts and technologies in the broad and interdisciplinary field of robotics,
describe the possibilities and limitations for robot technology of today
analyze a technical problem from a holistic viewpoint
develop a strategy for solving and solve a problem using available methods and tools
make descisions based on acquired knowledge
assess quality of own work and work by others
work in a project setting
communicate knowledge - orally and in writing

Syllabus

During the course a small, mobile, autonomous robot for performing certain tasks is built. This work is carried out as a project. The participants in the course work in groups on the practical implementation of a specific behaviour of this simple robot by integration of simple mechanisms for perception and action on the robot. At the end of the course there is a contest between the robots that the participants have constructed to assess the strength and weaknesses of different approaches.

The theoretical part of the course deals with fundamental concepts in robotics, kinematics and navigation. The practical part of the course includes studies of sensors and control, the construction and programming of a small robot.

Requirements

The requirements for passing the course are

Individual

Write a 1 page statement about what you hope to learn in the course.
Keep a log of the time you spend and on what. Granularity should be hours per days at least and not hours per week or months.
Write a 1 page reflection (machine typed) with a reflection on the chapter plus some open questions to disucss. Should be handed in at the lecture at the latest.
Active participation in the 5 student led lectures (need to attend 4 out of 5 and be active!)
Prepare a lecture (one chapter in the book) together with 2 or 3 other students
Read and comment report and assess quality of the work of another group
A short (at least 1 page) reflection on your work in the course. Did you learn what you wanted? What did you spend time on?
A short (1 page) reflection on the work within the group. What worked within the group? What did not? Could you have planned something differently?

In project group of 4

Project plan. You should explicitly address the issue of level of ambition and amount of work individuals want to put down.
Solve the project task
Write a report
Present the project work

Grading

The grade on the course is given by a holistic overall assessment of the work you performed in the course. The grade will not be the same for all member in the project groups. It is fine if different group member have different leves of ambition, that will always be the case to some extent, you need to discuss this in the group openly.

The project report from each group will be graded after you have received feedback from other students (on the fraft report) and had time to address the comments.

The reflection that you prepare for the lectures is intended to guide you towards a good way of learning, to actively work with the material and think about what it is you are reading and how it relates to what you already know. Knowledge becomes much more useful when it is connected between different domains and subject. It is your way of reasoning around the material from your perspective that is important here.

Some differences from last year

For the past 3 years or so we have been using the Eyebot microcontroller. This year we will switch to an FPGA based system designedby Jorge Sanchez de Nova. The new platform will feature about 10 times the processing power and a richer set of sensors. To keep in mind though is that this is the first time the platform is used, and as with all new developments there might be things that need to be adapted. Your feedback is therefore very important during the course.

Schedule

We will try to avoid to much of he normal teacher-speaks, students-listen paradigm and instead discuss the different topics in the book together. One group of students will prepare each chapter and present it during the first 45min of a lecture. We will spend the second half of the lecture to dicuss the material.

	Time + location	Content	Downloads
Intro	28/10 10-12, D33	Introduction	course intro robot intro
Lect1	6/11 15-17, 22:an	Perception Mitra x 2, Meysam, Andre	slides
Lect2	10/11 8-10, 22:an	Locomotion Sean, Sagar, Fernando	slides
Lect3	17/11 13-15, 22:an	Kinematics Dogucan, Fotios, Mohommad	slides
Lect4	20/11 10-12, 22:an	Localization and mapping Susanne, Pedro, Li	slides
Lect5	27/11 10-12, 22:an	Planning and navigation Quentin, Juan, Görkem	slides

Fixed lab hours

The schedule below shows the date and time of when the lab assistant is scheduled to be in the lab. This is a good time to ask questions.

Important Dates

Spec	Date and time
1 page learning statement	14/11 12:00, patric@kth.se (pdf!!)
Draft Reports due	15/12 12:00, patric@kth.se (pdf!!)
Project presentations	17/12 9-12, 304
Final reports due	19/12 12:00, patric@kth.se (pdf!!)

Course material

The course book is "Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots" by Roland Siegwart and Illah R. Nourbakhsh" published by the MIT Press.

There is a page with the answer to some questions around some of the equations etc in the book to be found here.

Contact

If you have any questions regarding the course you can contact

Lecturer: Patric Jensfelt, patric@nada.kth.se , 08-790 6731 (general questions)
Lab assistant Jorge Sanchez de Nova, jssdn@kth.se (techn questions about the project)