Revised syllabus: CSCI 4964/6963 Advance Robotics, Spring 1999

I will try to keep this page updated with what we actually cover in class and with details missing from the original syllabus as I fill them in. Right now, this document is still under construction but should be accurate for the classes that have already occurred. See the course syllabus handout for more complete information on the remainder of the semester.
See the online handouts section on the course home page for a link to Mason's text.
Mon. Jan. 11
  • Topics: Introduction; survey; What is a robot?; Videos: McGeer passive dynamic walker, SONY SMART cell & APOS system
  • Handouts: syllabus, survey, Mason Preface and Chapter 1
  • Assignments:
    • Read Mason, Preface for Wednesday
    • Assignment 1: Read Mason, Chapter 1; do Exercise 1.1 and for 4964 students, pick one other exercise, for 6963 students, pick two other exercises.
Wed. Jan. 13
  • Topics: Introduction to manipulation; Planar kinematics (from Mason, sections 2.1 and 2.2, pages 11-17)
  • Handouts: Bohringer, Bhatt, and Goldberg, "Sensorless Manipulation Using Transverse Vibrations of a Plate," ICRA 95. (Plus a few pages from reference 9 from this paper.)
  • Assignments:
    • Reading report on this paper due Wed. Jan. 20.
Fri. Jan. 15
  • Topics: Instantaneous CORs (Mason, Corollary 2.6), Constraints (Mason, Section 2.5, pp. 23-26), Reuleax's method (Mason, Section 2.5.2), Basic physics (Mason, Section 5.1, pp. 85-87), Friction & bar clamp example (Mason, Sections 6.1 and 6.2)
Mon. Jan. 18 MLK holiday 
Wed. Jan. 20
  • Topics: Pipe clamp design (Mason,Section 6.2, pp111-112); Grasping (Force closure example - Mason, Section 5.4, pp94-95; Form closure - see Reuleax's method 1/15)
  • Handouts: Sakaguchi, Masutani, and Miyazaki, "A Study on Juggling Task", IROS91; and Buhler and Koditscheck, "From stable to chaotic juggling: theory, simulation, and experiments", ICRA90
  • Assignments:
    • Reading report on this paper due Wed. Jan. 27.
Fri. Jan. 22 Paper discussion: : Bohringer, Bhatt, and Goldberg, "Sensorless Manipulation Using Transverse Vibrations of a Plate", ICRA 95. (Plus a few pages from reference 9 from this paper.)
Mon. Jan. 25
  • Topics: Configuration space (Mason, Section 4.1 and 4.2); Graph search (See any introductory  AI textbook such as Winston "Artificial Intelligence")
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
    • Assignment 2 due on Mon. Feb. 8
Wed. Jan. 27
  • Topics: Path planning: Graph search, Potential field approach, Completeness
  • Handouts: C-Space examples (Mason figure 4.2 - 4.5); Lozano-Perez, et al.  "Handey: A Robot System that Recognizes, Plans, and Manipulates", ICRA87
  • Assignments:
    • Reading report on this paper due Wed. Feb. 3
Fri. Jan. 29 Paper discussion: Sakaguchi, Masutani, and Miyazaki, "A Study on Juggling Task", IROS91; and Buhler and Koditscheck, "From stable to chaotic juggling: theory, simulation, and experiments", ICRA90
Mon. Feb. 1
  • Topics: Pushing
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
Wed.  Feb. 3
  • Topics: Tapping
  • Handouts: Lozano-Perez, et al.  "Automatic Synthesis of Fine-Motion Strategies for Robots", IJRR94
  • Assignments:
    • Reading report on this paper due Wed. Feb. 10
Fri. Feb. 5 Paper discussion: Lozano-Perez, et al.  "Handey: A Robot System that Recognizes, Plans, and Manipulates", ICRA87
Mon. Feb. 8
  • Topics: A Control Primer: transient response of second order damped systems
  • Handouts: Sections from Lozano-Perez, "Robot Manipulation" Chapter 6
  • Assignments:
    • Assignment 2 extension until Thursday February 11, 5:00pmue
Wed.  Feb. 10
  • Topics: A Control Primer: steady state response of second order damped systems and PID control
  • Handouts: Sections from Lozano-Perez, "Robot Manipulation" Chapter 6
  • Assignments:
Fri. Feb. 12 Paper discussion: Lozano-Perez, et al.  "Automatic Synthesis of Fine-Motion Strategies for Robots", IJRR94
Mon. Feb. 15
  • Mid-semester break
Wed.  Feb. 17
  • Topics: Introduction to Mobile robotics; Overview and design of mobile robots; Synchro Drive
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
Fri. Feb. 19
  • Topics: Motor
  • Handouts: 
  • Assignments:
Mon. Feb. 22
  • Topics:Localization
  • Handouts: Borenstein, Evevett, and Feng Instroduction from "Where am I? Sensors and Methods for Mobile Robot Positioning"; Notes from Wed. Feb. 17; Joseph L. Jones and Anite M. Flynn, Section from "Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation"
  • Assignments:
    • Assignment 3 due on Mon. Mar. 15
Wed.  Feb. 24
  • Topics:Sensing: Sonars
  • Handouts: Hans P. Moravec, Alberto Elfes, "High Resolution Maps from Wide Angle Sonar", ICRA85
  • Assignments:
    • Reading Report due on Wed. Mar. 3
Fri.  Feb. 26
  • Topics:Motor Control, Power System
  • Handouts: From Jones and Flynn "Mobile Robots: Inspiration to implementation", "Power" and "How a DC Motor Works"
  • Assignments:
Mon. Mar. 1
  • Topics: Uncertainty, Estimation, and the Kalman Filter
  • Handouts: Notes for "Uncertainty, Estimation, and the Kalman Filter"
  • Assignments:
Wed.  Mar. 3
  • Topics: Uncertainty, Estimation, and the Kalman Filter
  • Handouts: Daniel Pagac, Eduardo M. Nebot, Hugh Durrant-Whyte, "An evidential approach to probabilistic map-building", ICRA96
  • Assignments:
    • Reading Report due on Wed. Mar. 17
Fri. Mar. 5 Paper discussion: Hans P. Moravec, Alberto Elfes, "High Resolution Maps from Wide Angle Sonar", ICRA85 
Mon. Mar. 15 
  • Topics:Path planning - configuration space
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
    • Assignment 3 due
Wed.  Mar. 17
  • Topics:Path planning - nonholonomic
  • Handouts: Lecture Notes for "Introduction to Nonholonomic Path Planning"; Latombe, "A Fast Path Plnner for a Car-Like Indoor Mobile Robot", AAAI91
  • Assignments:
    • Reading Report due on Wed. Mar. 24
Fri. Mar. 19 Paper discussion: Daniel Pagac, Eduardo M. Nebot, Hugh Durrant-Whyte, "An evidential approach to probabilistic map-building", ICRA96
  • Assignments:
    • Assignment 4 out, due on Mon. April 5
Mon. Mar. 22
  • Topics:Control of mobile robots
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
Wed.  Mar. 24
  • Topics:Introduction to mobile robot architectures
  • Handouts: From "Artificial Intelligence and Moble Robots" Dvaid Kortenkamp, R. Pter Bonasso, and Robin Murphy, Eds. AAI Press/MIT Press, 1998; Brooks and Connelll, "Asynchronous distributed control system for a mobile robot", SPIE 1986
  • Assignments:
    • Reading Report due on Wed. Mar. 31
Fri. Mar. 26 Paper discussion: Latombe, "A Fast Path Plnner for a Car-Like Indoor Mobile Robot", AAAI91
Mon. Mar. 29
  • Topic: Project updates
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
Wed.  Mar. 31
  • Topics:Optimal and Effient Path Planning for Partially-Known Environments
  • Handouts:Stentz, "Optimal and Effient Path Planning for Partially-Known Environments",IEEE 1994; Firby, "Task Directed Sening", SPIE 1989
  • Assignments:
Fri.  Apr. 2
  • Discussion: Brooks and Connelll, "Asynchronous distributed control system for a mobile robot", SPIE 1986
  • Assignments:
Mon. Apr. 5
  • Topics:Project updates
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
    • Assignment 4 due
Wed.  Apr. 7
  • Topics:Mobile robot architectures
  • Handouts:"A Layered Architecture for Office Delivery Robots" from Int'l Conference on Autonomas Agents 1997
  • Assignments:
    • Reading report is due on Wed. April 14
Fri. Apr. 9 Paper discussion:IEEE 1994; Firby, "Task Directed Sening", SPIE 1989  
Mon. Apr. 12
  • Topics:Project updates
  • Handouts:

    • 
  • Assignments:
Wed.  Apr. 14
  • Topics:Mobile robot architectures
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
Fri. Apr. 16 Paper discussion:"A Layered Architecture for Office Delivery Robots", from Int'l Conference on Autonomas Agents 1997nbsp;
Mon. Apr. 19
  • Topics:Collaborative mobile robotics
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
Wed.  Apr. 21
  • Topics:Collaborative mobile robotics
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
Fri. Apr. 23
  • Topics:Project presentations
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
Mon. Apr. 26
  • Topics:Project presentations
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
Wed.  Apr. 28
  • Topics:Project presentations
  • Handouts:
  • Assignments:
Last update: Mar. 5, 1999

whuang@cs.rpi.edu & tangr@cs.rpi.edu