Table of Contents

Autonomous robotics – B(E)3M33ARO1

!!! Prerequisites !!!

It is assumed that students of this course have a working knowledge of the following concepts:

  • Mathematical analysis (B0B01MA2): gradient, Jacobian, Hessian, multidimensional Taylor polynomial
  • Optimization (B0B33OPT): Gauss-Newton method, Levenberg Marquardt method, full Newton method
  • Linear algebra (B0B01LAG): pseudo-inverse, SVD decomposition, least-squares method
  • Probability theory (B0B01PST): multivariate gaussian probability, Bayes theorem
  • Statistics (B0B01PST): maximum likelihood and maximum aposteriori estimate
  • Robotics (B3B33ROB): coordinate frames, Euclidean transformation and camera model.
  • Programming (B3B33ALP + B3B36PRG): python + linux

Exam (50 points)

* Please vote for a suitable date here till the end of April (there two possible starting times 9:00 or 10:00).

Preparation

  1. Formulate a given SLAM problem as a maximum likelihood / maximum aposteriori estimate of unknown parameters (typically subproblem of SE(2), such as only rotation or only translation) and draw the underlying factor graph.
  2. Reformulate the task as a non-linear least squares problem and compute its residuals and its jacobian (distinguish linear and non-linear least squares problems, know the dimensionality of used variables, etc.).
  3. Estimate pose from known correspondences (i.e. solve absolute orientation problem and have working knowledge of its derivation in order to solve any given subproblem in SE(2) ).
  4. Estimate pose from unknown correspondences (i.e. use ICP, RANSAC on simple problems).
  5. SLAM with complete states (i.e. w/o loops). Ability to use Bayes filter, Kalman filter, Extended Kalman filter, Particle filter
  6. Know/explain/draw/describe-by-pseudocode all presented planners (all combinatorial planners, sampling-based planners, RRT, PRM and their subsequent variants including RRT*/PRM*).
  7. Learn the pros/cons of all methods, types of environments/robots where they are applicable, and their time complexities. You should be familiar with basic data structures/routines (e.g. sampling, nearest-neighbour search, collision detection).
  8. The exam will not cover topics “Early randomized planners” and using physical simulation in planning (all slides from “Local planner: system simulator” till the end of the last lecture).</note>

Good luck, KZ+VV

Bonus task: Student's lecture notes (max 5 points)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11472519/Einsteins-handwritten-maths-notes-tipped-fetch-50-000-auction-week.html We are searching for volunteers (1-2 students per lecture) willing to create the student's lecture notes. The format could be anything (pdf compiled from latex or a web page that could also include animations). Of course, we will provide all materials (animations, images, latex sources for formulas, etc …). I believe it would benefit both you and your classmates: (i) you will get eternal fame, learn the lecture properly, get feedback for your written notes, and you could possibly get rich (ii) your classmates will see the lecture from a student's point of view.

In order to compensate the effort spent on creating the notes, we offer an additional 5 points bonus. If you want to become the author of lecture notes, put your name(s) to the corresponding (not yet booked) lecture here.

The preferred format of lecture notes: Markdown file in school gitlab.

Bonus task: R.U.R. challenge (max 3 points)

Boost your creativity and come up with an original sci-fi postapocalyptic universe with:

Bonus task: Verify Localization on Robots (max 5 points)

See Homework 4 assignment

Deadline is before the start of 9th labs.

Course overview

The Autonomous robotics course will explain the principles needed to develop algorithms for mobile robots. In particular, the main focus is on the perception-action cycle:

The course consists of lectures and labs. Lectures take place in KN:E-107 every Monday at 11:00. Labs take place in KN:E-132, the time slot corresponds to the code of your course.

Points, credit requirements and final grade

Maximum number of points is 100. Points are structured as follows:

Minimum credit requirements:

The final grade will be determined by the total number of points according to the following table

No of points Exam assessment
0-49 F
50- 59 E
60-69 D
70-79 C
80-89 B
90-100 A
  1. Dellaert, Kaess, Factor Graphs for Robot Perception, 2017, [pdf]
  2. Thrun et al. Probabilistic robotics, MIT press 2017,[pdf]
  3. Steven M. LaValle. Planning Algorithms, Cambridge University Press, 2006. (free online, http://planning.cs.uiuc.edu/)

Plagiarism

We want students to work individually, therefore any plagiarism in codes, homework or reports will be mercilessly punished ;-). We strongly urge each student to read what is/isnot a plagiarism - we believe that many students will be surprised. In any case, it is not permitted to use the work of your colleagues or predecessors. Each student is responsible for ensuring that his work does not get into the hands of other colleagues. In the case of multiple submission of the same work, all involved students will be penalized, including those who gave the work available to others