Introduction to Mobile Manipulator Robots and Robotics Software

Course Info

Instructor: Maru Cabrera (mecu@cs.washington.edu)

Quarter: Winter 2020

Class Times: Thursdays 3:30 - 4:50

Class Location: CSE2 130

Office Hours: By previous agreement through email.

Course Objectives

This course will teach you the basics of robotics and give you implementation experience with a state-of-the-art mobile manipulator. You will learn to use libraries and tools within the most popular robot programming framework ROS (Robot Operating System). We will touch on robot motion, manipulation, navigation and perception through lectures, labs and assignments, eventually integrating these components to create autonomous robotic functionalities framed on the topics relevant to autonomous service robots at home, specifically towards RoboCup@Home.

By the end of this quarter, students will:

Familiarize with ROS.
Familiarize with the Fetch robotic platform, both in simulation and the real robot.
Familiarize with RoboCup@Home rulebook
Work collaboratively on robotic software functionalities (contributing to single repositories, dealing with pulls, merges, conflicts, etc).
Identify and rank tasks from RoboCup@Home regarding functionalities needed.
Develop functionalities used on RoboCup@Home tasks.

Logistics

Some details to keep in mind during the quarter:

Generally, class structure will be as follows: Lecture (20 minutes), Discussion (if any, 20 minutes), Hands-on Work (40 to 60 minutes).
The course will have three type of assignments throughout the quarter: reading assignments, hands-on assignments and demos.
All assignments will be given during class on Thursday and they will be due before the class begins the next Thursday unless otherwise specified.
Reading assignments will be a single page report (template will be provided) of up to 500 words submitted individually.
Hands-on assignments will be group assignments. A short report (template will be provided) of up to 500 words and 2+ figures.
Demos will be presented and discussed during class as group assignments. Among discussion topics are: challenges found, solutions reached, and possible improvements.
The groups are encouraged to rotate the responsibilities and roles within the team members from one assignment to the next.
Teams will need to share one robot. To make this as smooth as possible please reserve time on robot google calendar (TBA) in blocks of at most 1h30m. It is recommended that you use the robot simulator to test and debug your work before trying things on the physical robot.
When you email the instructor, please remember to include the word "CSE492R" in your subject line.

Grading

Written responses on Reading Assignments (30%)
Hands-on Assignments (35%)
Demos (35%)

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