Robotics

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The following are last minute news you should be aware of ;-)

* 05/03/2020: Need to log in Polimi Office 365 web-mail to access the video  
* 05/03/2020: Added link to the video of the lecture
* 04/03/2020: The course starts today!
* 03/03/2020: Under Update! Tomorrow we start the new course edition!


Course Aim & Organization

This course will introduce basic concepts and techniques used within the field of autonomous mobile robotics. We analyze the fundamental challenges for autonomous intelligent systems when these move on wheels or legs and present the state of the art solutions currently employed in mobile robots and autonomous vehicles with a focus on autonomous navigation, perception, localization, and mapping.

Teachers

The course is composed by a blending of lectures and exercises by the course teacher and a teaching assistant.

Course Program

Lectures will provide theoretical background and real world examples. Lectures will be complemented with practical exercises in simulation for all the proposed topics and the students will be guided in developing the algorithms to control an autonomous robot.

Among other topics, we will discuss:

  • Mobile robots kinematics,
  • Sensors and perception,
  • Robot localization and map building,
  • Simultaneour Localization and Mapping (SLAM),
  • Path planning and collision avoidance.

Detailed course schedule

A detailed schedule of the course can be found here; topics are just indicative while days and teachers are correct up to some last minute change (I will notify you by email). Please note that not all days we have lectures!!

Note: Lecture timetable interpretation

* On Wednesday, in 5.1.1, starts at 12:15, ends at 14:15
* On Thursday, in 6.0.1, starts at 14:15, ends at 16:15
Date Day Time Room Teacher Type Topic
04/03/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 Virtual room Lecture Matteo Matteucci Course Logistics and Introduction to Robotics
05/03/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 Virtual room Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Sensors and Actuators
11/03/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 5.1.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Sensors and Actuators
12/03/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 6.0.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Sensors and Actuators
25/03/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 5.1.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Kinematics
26/03/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 6.0.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Kinematics
01/04/2020 Wenesday 12:15 - 14:15 5.1.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Kinematics
02/04/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 6.0.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Localization
08/04/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 5.1.1 --- --- -- No lectures (Prove in itinere) --
09/04/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 6.0.1 --- --- -- No lectures (Prove in itinere) --
15/04/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 5.1.1 ROS Simone Mentasti Middleware for robotics and ROS Installation Party
16/04/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 6.0.1 ROS Simone Mentasti Ros workspace, Publisher/subscriber, launch file
22/04/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 5.1.1 ROS Simone Mentasti Messages, services, parameters
23/04/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 6.0.1 ROS Simone Mentasti Bags, tb, actionlib, rqt_tools.
29/04/2020 Wednesday 14:15 - 16:15 5.1.1 --- --- -- No lectures (Lauree) --
30/04/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 6.0.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Localization
06/05/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 5.1.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Localization
07/05/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 6.0.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Mapping
13/05/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 5.1.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
14/05/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 6.0.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
20/05/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 5.1.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Navigation Algorithms
21/05/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 6.0.1 Lecture Matteo Matteucci Robot Navigation Algorithms
27/05/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 5.1.1 ROS Simone Mentasti Message filters, rospy. First project presentation
28/05/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 6.0.1 ROS Simone Mentasti ROS on multiple machines, time syncronization, stage
03/06/2020 Wednesday 12:15 - 14:15 5.1.1 ROS Simone Mentasti Robot Navigation (Part I)
04/06/2020 Thursday 14:15 - 16:15 6.0.1 ROS Simone Mentasti Robot Navigation (Part II)
-- -- -- -- ROS Simone Mentasti Nodlet, openCV-CV-bridge
-- -- -- -- ROS Simone Mentasti Point Cloud Library.


Course Evaluation

Course evaluation is composed by two parts:

  • A written examination covering the whole program graded up to 27/32
  • A home project in simulation practicing the topics of the course graded up to 5/32

The final score will sum the grade of the written exam and the grade of the home project.

In some (exceptional) cases the home project could be substituted with a lab project, possibly with a slightly higher grade, but this has to be motivated and discussed with the teacher.

Course Project

In the course project you will use ROS to develop a simple autonomous mobile robot performing a simple mapping, localization and navigation task. The project requires some coding either in C++ / Python following what will be presented during the lectures. The project will be presented in two parts you have about one month to do each. Details will follow.

Teaching Material (the textbook)

Lectures will be based on material from different sources, teachers will provide their slides to students as soon they are available.

Course Slides

Slides from the lectures by Matteo Matteucci

Slides from the lectures by Simone Mentasti


Course Project

Not yet out ...

(Frequently) Asked Questions

  • In the schedule when it says ROS, are these lectures as well or are they practical work i.e. lab/excercise?
  • Out of all the scheduled activities this semester, approximately how many of these are practical lab/excercise?
  • Are there any solutions available for the past exams?
  • Is it important to buy/read the text book to be able to follow the course? I can’t find it in the library, is there any alternative book?
  • As I understand the “homework/project” is a group project. Is this correct and how are the groups formed?
  • When would you say that “Part 1” of the homework/project will start?
  • If you have any insight in the course 093217 ROBOTICS AND DESIGN, what would you say is the biggest difference?


Past Years Useful Material

Here you find material from past editions of the course that you umight find useful in preparing the exam.

Past Exams and Sample Questions

Since the 2015/2016 Academic Year the course has changed the teacher and this has changed significantly the program and the exam format as well. For this reason we do not have many past exams to share with you, they will accumulate along the years tho.

Past Course Project

Here you find past course projects in case you are interested in checking what your colleagues have been pass through before you. In some cases they may have been more lucky in some others you might be the lucky one ... that's life! ;-)

Homework 2018/2019

The 2018/2019 course project is divided in two releases. The homework philosophy should be "You have to struggle, but not too much!". Indeed the homework is made to challenge you and make you exercising and learn by doing, nevertheless if you find yourself stuck please write us and we will give you the required hints to continue and complete ... this includes extending the deadline (for all) or allowing you to use python instead of C++ (for selected students).

Advice: Start as soon as possible doing the homework!

Homework

Homework 2016/2017

The 2016/2017 course project is divided in two releases to provide you something to work on as early as possible during the course. The homework philosophy should be "You have to struggle, but not too much!". Indeed the homework is made to challenge you and make you exercising and learn by doing, nevertheless if you find yourself stuck please write us and we will give you the required hints to continue and complete.

Advice: Start as soon as possible doing the homework!

Homework

Homework 2015/2016

This year project is divided in steps; each of them is worth some points out of the 5/32 points available for the final mark. You find the project description here, it is complete, it contains parts up to 4, parts 5 is optional, but we suggest to do it anyway since it requires a limited amount of time.:

  • 2015/2016 Course Project v1.0
  • 2015/2016 Kobra STL files: in case you want to make your simulation look more real here you find the STL files of the Kobra robot in the "Safer" version. Unfortunately the STL files are scaled down with respect to the real robot, so you have to modify those if you want to use.

Additional Resources

If you are interested in a more deep treatment of the topics presented by the teachers you can refer to the following books and papers:

The following are links to online sources which might be useful to complement the material above

  • ISO 8373:2012: ISO Standard "Robots and robotic devices -- Vocabulary"
  • ROS: the Robot Operating System
  • Gazebo: the Gazebo robot simulator
  • AIRLab ROS Howto: a gentle introduction to ROS with node template and program examples