Difference between revisions of "ME CDS EE 234"

Latest revision as of 23:13, 2 January 2022

This is the homepage for ME/CDS/EE 234(a,b) (Advanced Robotics) for Winter/Spring 2021/2022.

Course Staff, Hours, Location

• Lecture Schedule: TBD

Announcements For ME/CDS/EE 234(a)

• 01/04/22: An Overview of the course was discussed in class.

Course Text and References

ME/CDS/EE 234(a): The first quarter will use two main text books:

• R.M. Murray, Z. Li, and S. Sastry, A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation, CR Press, 1994.
  • The 1st edition of this book used to be available on-line, and is perfectly adequate for the course. Select chapters will be made available to
  • We will refer to this text as MLS (the initials of the authors last names). While the course topics will follow the text subjects, additional material not in the text will often be presented in class and via additional handouts (that will be posted on this website)
• E. Rimon and J.W. Burdick, "The Mechanics of Robot Grasping", Univ. of Cambridge Press, 2019
  • You DO NOT need to buy this book. By special agreement with the publishers, appropriate sections of this text will be distributed to class members for free.

Course Description

ME/CDS/EE 234(a) is devoted to an advanced treatment of robot kinematics. We will review rigid body kinematics, with an emphasis on a Lie-algebraic framework. Then the basic robot mechanisms are analyzed using these methods. The second half of the quarter will introduce the kinematics of robotic grasping and manipulation.

ME/CDS/EE 234(b) is devoted to robotic motion planning. The first half of the quarter will summarize several frameworks and algorithms for robotic motion planning, with an emphasis on incorporating uncertainty into the motion planning process. The second half of the quarter will take a deep dive into one particular motion planning problem: sensory robotic coverage planning. In sensory coverage planning, a robot must plan its motions so that its onboard sensors cover every point in a given environment, at least once.

Prerequisites: ME 133(a,b) or equivalent.

An overview of the course, including course mechanics, grading, etc. The most salient information is repeated below.

Grading

The final grade will be based on homework sets, and a final exam or final project. Covid permitting, we aim to have a few laboratory experiments, whose grades will be weighted as two homework exercises.

• Homework (70%): Homework sets will be handed out every 7-10 days, and are due at 5 pm on the due date (which will always coincide with a class meeting). Homeworks can be dropped off in class (when in-person classes resume), or delivered to room 250 of Gates-Thomas (the office of Sonya Lincoln). Some homeworks will require computation. MATLAB or Mathematica should be sufficient to solve every homework posed in this course, though students can choose their favorite programming language. Code is considered part of your solution and should be included with the problem set when appropriate.

• Final exam/project (30%): Students have the option to take a final exam (a limited time take-home format exam which is open book, open note, and computer allowed) or select a final project. The final project must incorporate some aspect of the course, and the topic and scope my be approved by the course instructor. The final exam will due at 5:00 pm the last day of finals. The final project is similarly due at 5:00 pm on the last day of finals.

• Late Homework Policy: Students may automatically take a 2-day extension on two homeworks during each quarter.

Collaboration Policy

Collaboration on homework assignments is encouraged. You may consult outside reference materials, other students, the TA, or the instructor, but you must cite any use of material from outside references. All solutions that are handed in should be written up individually and should reflect your own understanding of the subject matter. Computer code and graphical plots are considered part of your solution, and therefore should be done individually (you can share ideas, but not code). No collaboration is allowed on the examinations.

Course Schedule for ME115(b)

Course Schedule for ME115(a)