Prospectus

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Robotics

Course
2023-2024

Admission requirements

Not applicable.

Description

During the last decade we have seen an "explosion" of all kinds of robots designed for tasks that previously were deemed too challenging for machines. Robots have evolved from robotic arms and karts that could execute repetitive or simple tasks such as painting, welding and vacuum cleaning to autonomous cars, drones and humanoid helpers and servants that execute their tasks in much less controlled and even natural settings. For this modern robots require sophisticated adaptive capabilities.

During the course we will have a thorough look at the important aspects of robot-architectures used in modern and state of the art robots. The use of various actuators and sensors will be studied. Algorithms for low level tasks such as movement, dead reckoning, obstacle-detection, and balancing will be presented. Intermediate level tasks such as mapping, obstacle recognition and avoidance, and more advanced modes of reckoning, navigation and object manipulation will be studied. Finally, high level tasks such as human-robot-interaction and adaptive behavior in natural environments will be studied and proto-typed using state of the art sensor analysis, computer vision and audio recognition techniques.

Course objectives

After successfully finishing the Robotics course the student:

  • Has a thorough insight and understanding of the underlying architectures and operating systems of modern state of the art robotic platforms.

  • Is capable of designing, developing and implementing algorithms for low-, and mid-level robotic tasks on different robotic simulators and platforms.

  • Has a good understanding of the challenges and progress in robotics research.

  • Has insights in the design and implementation of high level robotic tasks using state of the art tools for sensor analysis, computer vision and audio recognition techniques.

  • Is capable of implementing a prototype for autonomous Human Robot Interaction.

Timetable

The most recent timetable can be found at the Computer Science (MSc) student website.

You will find the timetables for all courses and degree programmes of Leiden University in the tool MyTimetable (login). Any teaching activities that you have sucessfully registered for in MyStudyMap will automatically be displayed in MyTimeTable. Any timetables that you add manually, will be saved and automatically displayed the next time you sign in.

MyTimetable allows you to integrate your timetable with your calendar apps such as Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and other calendar apps on your smartphone. Any timetable changes will be automatically synced with your calendar. If you wish, you can also receive an email notification of the change. You can turn notifications on in ‘Settings’ (after login).

For more information, watch the video or go the the 'help-page' in MyTimetable. Please note: Joint Degree students Leiden/Delft have to merge their two different timetables into one. This video explains how to do this.

Mode of instruction

  • Lectures

  • Projects

  • Workshops

  • Student discussions

  • Presentations

  • Homework and assignments

Course load

Hours of study: 168 (= 6 EC)
Lectures: 26
Practical work: 72
Other (self-study): 70

Assessment method

The final grade is based on:

  • 2 workshops (20% of the grade)

  • YetiBorg Challenge (20% of the grade)

  • Robotics Project (60% of the grade)

The teacher will inform the students how the inspection of and follow-up discussion of the work will take place.

Reading list

Conferences and journals on Robotics.

Registration

From the academic year 2022-2023 on every student has to register for courses with the new enrollment tool MyStudyMap. There are two registration periods per year: registration for the fall semester opens in July and registration for the spring semester opens in December. Please see this page for more information.

Please note that it is compulsory to both preregister and confirm your participation for every exam and retake. Not being registered for a course means that you are not allowed to participate in the final exam of the course. Confirming your exam participation is possible until ten days before the exam.

Extensive FAQ's on MyStudymap can be found here.

Contact

Lecturer: dr Erwin M. Bakker
Assistent: To be announced.
Website: Robotics

Remarks