This course will present and critically examine contemporary algorithms for robot perception (using a variety of modalities), state estimation, mapping, and path planning. Programming exercises and a project will give students the opportunity to try algorithms themselves and to propose improvements. Successful students will finish the course with a first-hand knowledge of the essential algorithms, their advantages and disadvantages, and an understanding of practical implementation issues.
Collaboration is encouraged, but all collaboration must be reported. Students may collaborate on homeworks in groups of up to three, including submitting solutions that were jointly developed. Any joint collaboration must be done with the students physically working over the same computer or notebook at the same time in a "pair programming" style: dividing up problems and delegating the work is not acceptable. All group members are fully responsible for every part of their homework. Groups are free to talk with other groups, but may not share any non-trivial solutions or code.
Projects may be done individually or in small groups, though the scope of the project must reflect the resources available.
| Date | Lecture | Homework |
|---|---|---|
| Wed Jan 7 | L01. Course Overview | PS1 Out |
| Mon Jan 12 | L02. Probability Review; Multi-Gaussian Distributions | |
| Wed Jan 14 | L03. Rigid-Body Transformations. Maximum Likelihood SLAM | |
| Wed Jan 21 | L04. Extended Kalman Filter | |
| Mon Jan 26 | L05. Extended Kalman Filter (continued) | |
| Wed Jan 28 | L06. Particle Filters | PS1 Due. PS2 Out |
| Mon Feb 2 | L07. Particle Filters (continued) | |
| Wed Feb 4 | L08. Data Association | |
| Mon Feb 9 | L09. Topological Mapping | |
| Wed Feb 11 | L10. LIDAR feature extraction | PS2 Due. PS3 Out |
| Mon Feb 16 | L11. LIDAR scan matching | |
| Wed Feb 18 | L12. Camera basics; calibration | |
| Mon Mar 2 | L13. Camera features | |
| Wed Mar 4 | L14. Kinematics, Inverse-Kinematics, Motion control laws | PS3 Due. PS4 Out |
| Mon Mar 9 | L15. Deterministic Motion Planning | |
| Wed Mar 11 | L16. Non-deterministic Planning (CANCELED) | |
| Mon Mar 16 | L17. Non-deterministic Planning | |
| Wed Mar 18 | L18. Control | Project Proposals Due. |
| Mon Mar 23 | L19. System design (real time issues, communciation) | PS4 Due |
| Wed Mar 25 | L20. Fast linear algebra | |
| Mon Mar 30 | L21. Non-Linear SLAM revisited (SqrtSAM) | |
| Wed Apr 1 | L22. Gauss-Seidel, SGD SLAM | |
| Mon Apr 6 | L23. sensors (low-cost, radar, velodyne, stereo, exotic) | Project Status Report Due |
| Wed Apr 8 | L24. Robust Place Recognition | |
| Mon Apr 13 | L25. Case study: DARPA Grand Challenges | |
| Wed Apr 15 | L26. Final Project Presentations | |
| Mon Apr 20 | L27. Final Project Presentations | |
| Tue Apr 21 | (no lecture) | Project Reports Due |
| Topic color coding |
|---|
| Miscellaneous topics |
| State Estimation and Mapping |
| Sensing |
| Path Planning |
