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
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
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
- Programming Assignments
- Theory Sheet 1
- Theory Sheet 2
- Theory Sheet 3
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
- Sebastian Thrun: Probabilistic Robotics, https://lhmdb.gbv.de/DB=1/XMLPRS=N/PPN?PPN=481815236
- Steven LaValle, Planning Algorithms, https://lhmdb.gbv.de/DB=1/XMLPRS=N/PPN?PPN=481815236