Autonomous and Mobile Robotics 
(Robotica Mobile e Autonoma)

Prof. Giuseppe Oriolo


Information

schedule27 Feb - 31 May 2012, Tue 12:00-13:30, Wed 8:30-11:45, A7; 48 hrs total (6 ECTS credits)
office hoursThu 14:00-16:00, room A211, DIS, Via Ariosto 25
e-mailoriolo [at] dis [dot] uniroma1 [dot] it
AMR websitehttp://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~oriolo/amr
AMR Google GroupAMR_GG (membership is restricted; instructions on how to apply are only given in class) 

Audience

Students of the Master in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (MARR), Laurea Magistrale in Ingegneria dei Sistemi (MSIR), Laurea Magistrale in Ingegneria Elettronica (MELR), all offered by the Facoltà di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Informatica e Statistica of the Università di Roma "La Sapienza".


Objective

Presents the basic methods for achieving mobility and autonomy in mobile robots.


Syllabus (preliminary; organized in 2-3 hrs lectures)

  1. Introduction: Applications, Problems, Architectures (slides, videos not included)
  2. Configuration space (blackboard with the addition of companion slides)
  3. Wheeled mobile robots 1: Mechanical structure, Nonholonomy (blackboard with the addition of companion slides)
  4. Wheeled mobile robots 2: Kinematic models, Canonical forms, Dynamic model (blackboard)
  5. Wheeled mobile robots 3: Path and trajectory planning (blackboard with the addition of companion slides)
  6. Wheeled mobile robots 4: Feedback control problems, Trajectory tracking (slides)
  7. Wheeled mobile robots 5: Posture stabilization (slides), Odometric localization (slides)
  8. Motion planning 1: Retraction, Cell decomposition (slides)
  9. Motion planning 2: Probabilistic methods (slides)
  10. Motion planning 3: Artificial potential fields (slides)
  11. Motion planning 4: Manipulation planning (slides)
  12. Biped robots 1: Introduction and passive walking (slides)
  13. Biped robots 2: Control based on forward dynamics and the zero moment point scheme (slides)
  14. Biped robots 3: An introduction to the NAO humanoid (slides)
  15. Perception: Sensors for mobile robots
  16. Localization 1: Kalman Filter and Extended Kalman Filter (slides)
  17. Localization 2: Landmark-based localization and SLAM (slides)
  18. Case study 1: Collision in human-robot collaboration: Avoidance, detection, and reaction (slides)
  19. Case study 2: Visual servoing for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (slides)
  20. Case study 3: An introduction to motion planning in Kite (slides)
  21. Visit to the Robotics Laboratory and overview/demos of on-going research projects

Textbooks

- Siciliano, Sciavicco, Villani, Oriolo, Robotics: Modelling, Planning and Control, 3rd Edition, Springer, 2009 (also available in Italian by McGraw-Hill)
[chapters 11 and 12 cover lectures 2-10]

- Siciliano, Khatib, Eds., Handbook of Robotics, Springer, 2008
[chapters 16 and 26 cover lectures 12-13 and 11, respectively]

- Choset, Lynch, Hutchinson, Kantor, Burgard, Kavraki, Thrun, Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms and Implementations, MIT Press, 2005
[a useful reference for the whole course; chapter 8 covers lectures 15-16]

See also
- Siegwart, Nourbakhsh, Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots, MIT Press, 2004
- Thrun, Burgard, Fox, Probabilistic Robotics, MIT Press, 2005

All these books are available in the DIS library.

Various Material

- 2010/2011: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2010/2011: Class test 1 with solution and results, Class test 2 with solution and results
- 2009/2010: Class test 1 with solution, Class test 2 with solution
- 2009/2010: Final projects
- Control brush-up:
    * A review of stability theory (in Italian)
    * Basics of stabilization via feedback
(in Italian)
- MATLAB code: a PRM-based planner for a 2R manipulator (12_7.zip), an RRT-based planner for a unicycle (12_8.zip), a 2D point planner based on a numerical navigation function (12_13.zip). Once unzipped, each of these will become a folder. Look for the s12_x.m (x=7,8,13) file in each folder - these are the files to be run in MATLAB. The names are due to the fact that these are the solutions ("s") of problems 12.x of the book "Robotics: Modelling, Planning and Control". Inside each folder there is also a ReadMe file with specific instructions.
- How to read a research paper

(more material coming soon)


Grading       

Two intermediate tests (50%) + final project (50%). As an alternative, which I do not recommend, one may take a conventional exam, which may be written and/or oral. Sign-up via Infostud is required in either case.


Master Theses at the Robotics Laboratory

Master Theses on the topics studied in this course are available at the Robotics Laboratory. More information can be found here.
News

Questions/comments: oriolo [at] dis [dot] uniroma1 [dot] it