CSCI 4302 / 5302: Advanced Robotics
Instructor Spring 2019: Christopher Heckman
Office hours: Monday and Wednesday, 10-11am in Chris's office (ECES 130), and by appointment.
Website:
Textbook
, ed. Siciliano & Khatib; e-book available through library.
Learning Goal
Design and implement algorithms and hardware that enable autonomy in uncertain, dynamic environments.
Description
This class is the follow-up class to CSCI3302 "Introduction to Robotics." Robots perceive their environment with signal processing and computer vision techniques, reason about them using machine learning, artificial intelligence and discrete algorithms, and execute their actions based on constraints imposed by sensor uncertainty, their mechanism, and their dynamics. "Advanced Robotics" will teach the key concepts used by autonomous mobile platforms and provide hands-on experience with state-of-the-art software and systems.
Lecture materials are supported by exercises around the "Robot Operating System" ROS and will lead to the completion of a group project. After the at SparkFun, and the F 1/10th Autonomous Racing Competition at CPS Week in Pittsburgh, this class will focus on robust autonomous driving. Exercises will be conducted in a virtual environment and will later be transferred to an autonomous vehicle platform
Prerequisites or Co-requisites
CSCI 3302 Introduction to Robotics or instructor consent required.
Topics
Computer vision including sparse visual odometry, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), sensor fusion and ltering; the Robot Operating System (ROS); planning algorithms, nonholonomic constraints in dynamics and controls; intrinsic and extrinsic sensor calibration; embedded systems; and experimental robotics.
Grading
- Attendance and participation: 10%.
- Seminar speaker sel es/reports: 10%.
- Midterm: 15%.
- Semester project: 30%.
- Assignments: 35%.
Attendance and Participation: Your attendance and participation in class is mandatory. Every course meeting will result in a participation grade:
- 2 points if you are present and contributing satisfactorily.
- 1 point if you are present but tardy, or not contributing.
- 0 points if you are absent.
With 43 class meetings and 2 points possible per class meeting, there are 90 participation points available. The attendance grade however will be out of 74 to permit the occasional absence for any or reason or lack thereof.
Seminar Speaker Reports: During the course of this semester, we will have at least three seminar speakers in the Ìýeld of robotics visit 91¸£ÀûÉç's College of Engineering and Applied Science to give presentations on their research. The dates of these speakers are currently to be determined. You have two choices: attend the seminar and upload a selfie with the speaker (need not be right next to her/him), or read the speaker's research website along with one of her/his publications and write a 1-page report, to be submitted on Moodle by the due date announced.
Exams and Competition: Practical experience with programming and team-based code development is a standard skill required for work in robotics. The course Ìýnal will consist of a competition tackled by small teams; more details on this will be released in the Ìýrst half of the semester.Ìý
Student teams will participate in a midterm competition to demonstrate adequate progress toward the final exam competition by the end of class on March 22.
Student teams will participate in a competition during the final exam period for the course, 1:30-4pm on May 8 (University link). All team members must be present for this final examination, or notify the instructor by four weeks before this date to arrange accommodation. There may be an alternate date arranged mid-semester in the event some team(s) wish to compete in advance.
Assignments: There will periodically be assignments offered during the course of the semester which are designed to give practical experience geared toward a successful semester project. Assignments must be completed individually unless otherwise noted on the prompt.
Disability Accommodations
If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit to your instructor a letter from Disability Services in a timely manner so that your needs can be addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations based on documented disabilities. Contact Disability Services at 303-492-8671 or by e-mail at dsinfo@colorado.edu. If you have a temporary medical condition or injury, see the