Introduction to Robotics

Organsiation

Lecturer: Dr.-Ing. Christoph Steup

Tutorials: Sebstian Mai,Dr.-Ing. Christoph Steup, Aleksandra Labutkina

Credits: 5 CP / 6 CP

Times and Dates

Lecture

  • Wednesdays 15:15 - 16:45
  • Room: G22A - 112
  • Date: 12.04.2023 - 12.07.2023

Link to LSF

Tutorials

Group 1
  • Time: Monday 09:15 - 10:45
  • Room: not yet known
  • Date: 08.04.2023 - 08.07.2023
Group 2
  • Time: Monday 13:15 - 14:45
  • Room: G29-336
  • Date: 08.04.2023 - 12.07.2023
Group 3
  • Time: Tuesday 15:15 - 16:45
  • Room: not yet known
  • Date: 09.04.2023 - 09.07.2023
Group 4
  • Time: Wednesday 13:15 - 14:45
  • Room: G29-336
  • Date: 10.04.2023 - 10.07.2023

Link to LSF

Language 

  • Lecture: English 
  • Tutorials: English/German as necessary

Assignment to Curriculum:

Typical Placement in Curriculum: B.Sc. INF, WIF, INGIF, CV, from 3. Semester

  • B.Sc. CV - WPF Informatik
  • B.Sc. INF WPF Informatik / WPF Technische Informatik
  • B.Sc. INGINF WPF Informatik / WPF Technische Informatik
  • B.Sc. WIF-WPF Gestalten & Anwenden

Approximated Effort

Total: 150 h

  • 2h per Week Lecture = 26h
  • 2h per Week Exercise = 26h
  • approx. 3h Recap and Self study of Lecture per Week ~ 40h
  • approx. 5h Preparation of Exercise Tasks per Week ~ 58h

Prerequisites (recommended)

  • Einführung in die Informatik
  • Intelligente Systeme

Registration

You need to register for the lecture in LSF. We will discuss the exercise slots and distribute students to exercise groups in the first lecture.

Goals

  • Understanding the Structure of Complex Robotic Systems
  • Building Complex Robots and Robotic Systems from Building
    Blocks
  • Aspects of Robotic Systems and their Impact on Performance
  • Developing Robotic System Software using ROS
  • Extending Single Robot Systems to Multi-Robot Systems
  • Developing Application-Specific Behavior using Standard
    Behaviors for Navigation and Path Planning

Content

The lecture Introduction to Robotics will teach students the fundamental concepts of robotics from a top-down perspective, focused on mobile robots.

The lecture starts with some exemplary robotic systems to show the variety of system in action today. Afterwards, multiple views on robotics systems are shown, which highlight different aspects like communication, behavior, movement, and system setup. The lecture continues with a description of multiple communication paradigms typically used in the robotic context and their relation to physical communication mechanisms. The next topic highlights some components typically found for perception and actuation like cameras, LiDARs, Distance Sensors, linear and revolute motors and piezo actuators. Afterwards, mechanisms to combine perception and actuation using low-level control mechanisms are shown. The shown mechanisms are reactive behaviors based on rule-sets and state-machines and feed-back-based control. Additionally, some kinematic models for movement of robots are highlighted like differential drive, Ackerman steering and holonomic movement. The next part of the lecture focus on localization of mobile robots using external mechanisms like Triangulation and Trilateration and internal mechanisms like SLAM and landmark tracking. The last two parts of the lecture discuss algorithms for path-and trajectory planning, and the extension to multi-robot systems. 

The exercises to the lecture will highlight the concepts of the lecture with practical examples based on robotic simulations in ROS with the Gazebo simulator.

 

Lectures

In this section, you will find the slides of the lectures with and without contained videos. The password for all the materials is shown in Moodle for registered course members only.

You can find the lecture recordings on Mediasite in the Introduction to Robotics Channel.

# Date Topics Slides (small) Slides large Update
00 10.04. Organization  Slides    
  17.04.  Robot Types and  Robot State I  Slides  Slides with Videos  
  24.04.  RobotTypes and Robot State II      
  01.05. Holiday      
  08.05.  Behaviour and Reliability  Slides  Slides with Videos  
  15.05.  Data Flow and Components  Slides  Slides with Videos  
  20.05.  Sensors and Uncertainty  Slides  Slides with Videos  
  29.05.  Sensor Types and Actuators  Slides  Slides with Videos  
  05.06.  Communication  Slides  Slides with Videos  
  12.06.  Communication      
  19.06.  Localization  Slides    
  26.06.  State Estimation and Filters  Slides    
  03.06.  SLAM  Slides  Slides with Videos  
  10.06.        

 

Tutorials

Materials

 

Dates for Group 1 and Group 2:

Date Topic
08.04. No tutorial
15.04.  Organization & Introduction Assignment 1
22.04.  Introduction Assignment 2
29.04. Theory Sheet 1
06.05. Submission Assignment 1 & Tutorial Assignment 2
13.05. Submission Assignment 2
20.05.  Holiday
27.05. Introduction Assignment 3
03.06. Theory Sheet 2
10.06. Tutorial Assignment 3
17.06. Submission Assignment 3
24.06. Introduction Assignment 4
01.07. Theory Sheet 3
08.07. Submission Assignment 4

 

Dates for Group 3:

Date Topic
09.04. No tutorial
16.04. Organization & Introduction Assignment 1
23.04. Introduction Assignment 2
30.04. Theory Sheet 1
07.05. Submission Assignment 1 & Tutorial Assignment 2
14.05. Submission Assignment 2
21.05. Introduction Assignment 3
28.05. Theory Sheet 2
04.06. Tutorial Assignment 3
11.06. Submission Assignment 3
18.06. Introduction Assignment 4
25.06. Tutorial Assignment 4 (swapped with Theory Sheet 3)
02.07. Theory Sheet 3
09.07. Submission Assignment 4

 

Dates for Group 4:

Date Topic
10.04. No tutorials
17.04.  Organization & Introduction Assignment 1
24.04.  Introduction Assignment 2
01.05. Holiday
08.05. Theory Sheet 1
15.05. Submission Assignment 1 & Tutorial Assignment 2
22.05. Submission Assignment 2
29.05. Introduction Assignment 3
05.06. Theory Sheet 2
12.06. Tutorial Assignment 3
19.06. Submission Assignment 3
26.06. Introduction Assignment 4
03.07. Theory Sheet 3
10.07. Submission Assignment 4

 

 

 

Examination

Oral Exam after the end of the lecture period

To be eligible for the exam, you need to have taken part in the exercise and solved:

  • 66% of all theoretical tasks
  • 4 of 4 practical tasks

Students requiring a "Schein" will get it automatically after fulfilling the requirements for the exam.

 

Literature

Last Modification: 03.07.2024 - Contact Person: Webmaster