Course Overview

The Introduction to Robotics Specialization introduces you to the concepts of robot and
movement, how robots perceive their environment, and how they adjust their movements to avoid
obstacles, navigate difficult terrains and accomplish complex tasks such as construction and
disaster recovery. You will be exposed to real world examples of how robots have been applied in
disaster situations, how they have made advances in human health care and what their future
capabilities will be. The courses build towards a capstone in which you will learn how to program a
robot to perform a variety of movements such as running and grasping objects.

This course follows the textbook "Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control" (Lynch and Park,
Cambridge University Press 2017). You can purchase the book or use the free preprint pdf. You will build on a
library of robotics software in the language of your choice (among Python, Mathematica, and MATLAB) and use
the free cross-platform robot simulator V-REP, which allows you to work with state-of-the-art robots in the
comfort of your own home and with zero financial investment.

Course Objectives
Learn in-demand skills from university and industry experts
Master a subject or tool with hands-on projects
Develop a deep understanding of key concepts
Earn a career certificate from REFFTO

Courses
1. Foundations of Robot Motion and introduction to modern robotics

Overview of robotics history and applications

Types of robots (industrial, mobile, humanoid, etc.)
Key components of a robot (sensors, actuators, control systems)
Basic programming concepts

Chapters:-
 1. Introduction to modern robotics
2. Configuration space:-Configuration space topology and representation; configuration and
velocity constraints; task space and workspace.
3. Rigid Body Motions:-Homogeneous transformation matrices, twists, screws, exponential
coordinates of rigid-body motion, and wrenches.

2. Electronics and Programming

Basic electronics and circuits

Microcontroller programming (e.g., Arduino, Raspberry Pi)
Introduction to programming languages (e.g., Python, C++)
Controlling motors and sensors

3. Robot Kinematics

Robot design principles

Mechanical components (joints, links, end effectors)
Kinematics (forward and inverse)
3D modeling and simulation (using software like SolidWorks, Blender)

Chapters:-

1. Forward Kinematics:-Product of exponentials formula for forward kinematics in the space

frame and the end-effector frame.
2. Velocity kinematics and Statics:-Velocity kinematics using the space Jacobian and body
Jacobian, statics of open chains, singularities, and manipulability.
3. Inverse Kinematics:- Analytical and numerical inverse kinematics.
4. Kinematics of Closed Chains:- Forward kinematics, inverse kinematics, velocity kinematics, and
statics of closed chains

In addition : Sensors and Perception

Types of sensors (IR, ultrasonic, cameras, LiDAR, etc.)

Data acquisition and sensor fusion
Computer vision basics
Sensor calibration and filtering

4. Robot Dynamics

Chapters:-

Dynamics of open chain P1-Lagrangian formulation of dynamics, centripetal and Coriolis

forces, robot mass matrix, dynamics of a rigid body, and Newton-Euler inverse dynamics for an
open-chain robot.
Dynamics of open chain P2-Forward dynamics of an open chain, task-space dynamics,
constrained dynamics, and practical effects due to gearing and friction.
Trajectory addition P1- Point-to-point "straight-line" trajectories and polynomial trajectories
passing through via points
Trajectory Addition P2- Time-optimal motions along a specified path subject to robot
dynamics and actuator limits.
5. Motion Planning and Control

Motion Planning
Part 1:- C-space obstacles, graphs and trees, and A* graph search.
Part 2:- Motion planning on a discretized C-space grid, randomized sampling-based planners,
virtual potential fields, and nonlinear optimization.
Robot Operating System (ROS)
Robot simulation (Gazebo)
Developing robot control software
Integration with sensors and actuators

6. Robot Localization and Mapping

SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping)

Localization techniques (e.g., Kalman filters)
Mapping algorithms (e.g., occupancy grids)
Navigation and path planning

7. Robot Vision

Image processing and feature detection

Object recognition and tracking
Deep learning for computer vision
Visual SLAM

8. Human-Robot Interaction

Human-robot collaboration and safety

Gesture recognition
Natural language processing for robots
Designing user interfaces.

Building Projects

Now its time to apply knowledge and skills which we have developed during our course.
Real-world application or research project.
Presentation and documentation.
Introduction to capstone project
Milestone 1: Odometry for wheeled mobile robots and its use in a kinematic simulator for the
youBot omnidirectional mobile robot with four mecanum wheels.
Milestone 2:- Generating a reference trajectory in SE(3) for the end-effector of a mobile
manipulator to achieve a pick-and-place task.
Milestone 3:- Feedforward control of the end-effector of a mobile manipulator to drive the
end-effector along a reference trajectory.
Complete your project and submit:- Feedforward-plus-feedback control of the end-effector of
a mobile manipulator to stabilize a reference trajectory for the end-effector.

2 Advanced Topics (Optional)

Swarm robotics
Bio-inspired robotics
Soft robotics
Quantum robotics