Mechanical Engineering 448, Flexible Automation and Robotics

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Catalog description

Introduction to state-of-the-art research in robotics. Robot geometries and kinematics; robot programming languages; dynamics and control; motion planning; machine vision; parts-feeders and jigs; assembly planning; sensors and actuators; scheduling; mobile robots.

Prerequisite: None.

Who takes it

Grad students in robotics or related fields, with an interest in computational aspects of robotics. Advanced undergraduates are welcome too; talk to instructor.

What it's about

Robotics is an interdisciplinary field, combining aspects of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics, biology, psychology, and others. This course offers a broad perspective of robotics by studying important research papers on a variety of topics. The purpose is to engage the class in an active, scholarly discussion about issues in robotics.

We are particularly interested in the following questions:

  • What is robotics? What are the key problems?
  • What makes a good research paper? Critical thinking is required in this course.
  • What is left to be done?
  • What problems are most interesting to you?

A tentative selection of topics includes:

  • Kinematics
  • Motion Planning
  • Nonholonomic Motion Planning
  • Dynamics and Control
  • Force Control Manipulation Planning
  • Industrial Parts Feeding and Assembly
  • Sensors
  • Computer Vision
  • Artificial Intelligence and Robot Learning
  • Behavior-Based Robots

Class Activity - Reading/Discussion:

Reading, understanding, and actively discussing the papers is the most important facet of this course. Each paper will be assigned to a student who will initiate the discussion with a 10 minute presentation of the paper. The presentation may use overhead projector or blackboard. The presentation should highlight the main points of the paper, offer a critique, and raise some questions for class discussion. The presenter is free to call on anybody for his/her topic for discussion.

Assessment/Evaluation:

In general, the grading would be given upon assessment of student discussion participation, and homework, there would be no exams. However, Assessment and Evaluation systems do vary with instructors.

Contact:

Professor: Kevin Lynch
e-mail: kmlynch@northwestern.edu

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