Schedule
All assignments are due at 3:35pm.
| Date | Topic | Reading | Assignments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wed, 23 Aug | Introduction and Overview, Robot Mechanisms | Ch 1 | Proj 1 out |
| Fri, 25 Aug | The Robot Operating System | ROS intro, Ch 1–2 | |
| Topic 1 | Simulation | ||
| Mon, 28 Aug | Applications of Simulation | Ch 2.0–2.2 | HW 1 out |
| Wed, 30 Aug | Numerical Integration | Ch 2.3.0–2.3.1 | |
| Fri, 1 Sep | Numerical Differentiation | Ch 2.3.2–2.3.3 | |
| Mon, 4 Sep | No class – Labor Day | ||
| Topic 2 | Kinematics | ||
| Wed, 6 Sep | Rigid Body Abstraction | Ch 3.2 | Proj 1 due |
| Fri, 8 Sep | Rotations and Rotation Matrices | Ch 3.3.0–3.3.1 | |
| Mon, 11 Sep | Euler Angles, Axis-Angle, Quaternions | Ch 3.3.2–3.3.6 | |
| Wed, 13 Sep | Properties of Rotations | Ch 3.4 | Proj 2 out |
| Fri, 15 Sep | Rigid Bodies and Homogeneous Transforms | Ch 3.5 | HW 1 due |
| Mon, 18 Sep | Kinematic Chains | Ch 3.6 | |
| Wed, 20 Sep | Mobile Robot Kinematics | Ch 3.7 | HW 2 out |
| Fri, 22 Sep | Inverse Kinematics | Ch 3.8 | |
| Mon, 25 Sep | Linear and Angular Velocities, Moving Coordinate Frames | Ch 3.9.0–3.9.2 | |
| Wed, 27 Sep | The Jacobian | Ch 3.9.3–3.9.5 | |
| Topic 3 | Optimization | ||
| Fri, 29 Sep | Basics: Gradients, Critical Points | Ch 4.0–4.1 | |
| Mon, 2 Oct | Iterative Methods: Newton’s Method | Ch 4.2.0–4.2.1 | |
| Wed, 4 Oct | Iterative Methods: Gradient Descent | Ch 4.2.2 | HW 2 due; HW 3 out |
| Fri, 6 Oct | Iterative Methods: Stochastic Gradient Descent | Ch 4.2.3 | Proj 2 due |
| Mon, 9 Oct | No class – Fall Break | ||
| Wed, 11 Oct | In-class prelim | ||
| Fri, 13 Oct | Constrained Optimization: Lagrange Multipliers | Ch 4.3.1 | |
| Mon, 16 Oct | Constrained Optimization: Linear Programming | Ch 4.3.2 | |
| Wed, 18 Oct | Linear Programming Software | QP with CVXOPT (reference) |
HW 3 due |
| Topic 4 | Control | ||
| Fri, 20 Oct | Principles of Control Design | Ch 5.0–5.2 | |
| Mon, 23 Oct | Stability | Ch 5.3 | Proj 3 out |
| Wed, 25 Oct | Observability, Controllability, Feedback Control | Ch 5.4 | HW 4 out |
| Fri, 27 Oct | PID Control | Ch 5.5.0–5.5.1 | |
| Mon, 30 Oct | PID Control Performance and Tuning | Ch 5.5.2 | |
| Wed, 1 Nov | Path-Following Controllers | Ch 5.6 | |
| Topic 5 | Uncertainty | ||
| Fri, 3 Nov | Nondeterminism vs. Stochasticity, Probability Basics | Ch 6.0–6.2 | |
| Mon, 6 Nov | Random Variables and Distributions | Ch 6.3 | |
| Wed, 8 Nov | Statistical Moments | Ch 6.4 | HW 4 due |
| Fri, 10 Nov | Multiple Random Variables | Ch 6.5 | |
| Mon, 13 Nov | Bayes’ Rule, Frequentist vs. Bayesian | Ch 6.6 | Proj 3 due |
| Wed, 15 Nov | In-class prelim | ||
| Fri, 17 Nov | Kalman Filters | Ch 6.7–6.8 | HW 5 out; Proj 4 out |
| Mon, 20 Nov | Particle Filters | Ch 6.9 | |
| Wed, 22 Nov | No class – Thanksgiving Break | ||
| Fri, 24 Nov | No class – Thanksgiving Break | ||
| Mon, 27 Nov | Markov Assumption, Markov Chains | Ch 6.10 | |
| Wed, 29 Nov | Entropy | Ch 6.11 | |
| Fri, 1 Dec | Topic TBA | HW 5 due | |
| Tue, 5 Dec | No class | Proj 4 due | |
| TBA Dec | Final Exam (take-home) |