Advanced Robot Dynamics and Control

Description

This advanced course focuses on the dynamics and control of robotic systems, concepts crucial for understanding how robots move and interact with their physical surroundings. The content covered will go into greater depth than the more general course, CompSci 603 Robotics. Students will learn the kinematics and dynamics of robots with multiple degrees of freedom, as well as the analysis and control of these systems. Subjects covered include Lie group-based kinematics, Lagrangian dynamics, whole-body control, contact simulation, and actuation mechanisms. The course will utilize Google Colab and Python programming to develop simulation and analysis tools. Expect in-class exercises, weekly assignments/quizzes, a midterm examination, and a final project. Key topics to be explored are: actuators, homogeneous transformations, forward and inverse kinematics, 3D orientation representation, Newtonian dynamics, Lagrangian dynamics, whole-body control, and contact dynamics. While this course builds upon some themes introduced in CompSci 603, students are not required to take CompSci 603 before enrolling in this course. We will cover the foundational concepts necessary for the advanced study in this course. 3 credits.

Prerequisites: None. Preferred to know linear algebra, basic physics, and basic control

Course Staff and Office Hours (Fall 2024)

• Lecture: Mon/Wed 2:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. @ LGRC A104A

• Instructor: Donghyun Kim (donghyunkim@cs.umass.edu)

• TA: Qianhuang Li  (qianhuangli@umass.edu)

• Office Hours: 

  • Tuesday 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. @ LGRC A308 (By TA)

  • Wednesday 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. @ LGRC A325 (By instructor)

Course Schedule

You should consult the UMass academic calendar to make sure you are aware of important dates and events. The following are the weekly topics that will be covered during this course.

In-class Exercises and Homework

• In-class exercises are due by the end of the day of each lecture.

• Homework is released on Wednesday and due by the Wednesday after two weeks at 11:50 pm.

• Homework is submitted to and graded in Gradescope (access code: 4J64R7)

• Homework late policy: No late submission is allowed

Lecture Schedule

The topics of each week's lectures are listed below. Lecture slides are posted in Canvas.

Course Management

This course will use a number of web-based services. We will create accounts for you, but it is your responsibility to log in and check that everything has been set up correctly.

Piazza

Piazza is an online course management system. It will be used as the main hub for communication in this course. Lecture slides, labs and solutions are all posted in Piazza. All questions and answers should also be posted in Piazza. You are responsible for visiting Piazza frequently to see updates, or subscribe to email notifications. Please check Piazza features to get an understanding of how to use it. Please observe the following guidelines:

• You should use Piazza to ask technical questions and get advice on projects. But you may not post assignment code or solutions to Piazza, either in questions or answers to others’ questions.

• If your post must contain code or solutions, make it a private post, which is only visible to the instructor and TA.

• Your question may already have been asked by someone. Before posting, make use of the search feature to see if your questions have already been answered. You should only post after thinking through the problem and clearly articulating your question.

• You are encouraged to help other students with answering questions.

The course staff (instructors and TAs) will monitor Piazza and answer your questions in a timely manner. If a question has already been answered in a previous post we may not respond to you right away (hence it’s important to learn to use the ‘search’ feature).

Canvas

Canvas is used for announcements, course material positing, and grade tracking. 

Gradescope

Gradescope is used for managing and grading all submissions, including exam. Gradescope allows us to provide fast and accuracy feedback on your work, and allows the TA and grader to parallelize grading tasks and use a standard rubric for grading faireness. This also frees us from handing back papers in class! Regrading requests can be easily submitted and handled in Gradescope.

Laptop

Because the lectures are taught in a classroom with no desktop computers, you are recommended to bring a laptop on Thursday lectures, in order to follow Google Colab programming exercises in class. If you don't have a laptop, or your laptop stopped working, please contact the instructor immediately to arrange for a loaner laptop.

Course Assessment

Lecture attendance and lab attendance are required. There will be in-class exercises (almost every lecture) and a quiz on Wednesday. There will be several programming assignments; one midterm and one final project.

Grading weights

• In-class exercises (5%) (you can drop 2 lowest scores)

• Quiz (20%) (you can drop 4 lowest scores)

• Homework (25%) (you can drop 1)

• Midterm (20%)

• Final Project(30%)

COURSE MATERIALS

The course materials are self-contained and we do NOT require any textbook. However, we provide a list of recommended readings as listed below:

• Modern Robotics: Summary of basic knowledge in robotics.

• Introduction to Robotics: Mechanics and Control: The first book of robotics

COURSE POLICY

Accommodation Statement

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to providing an equal educational opportunity for all students.  If you have a documented physical, psychological, or learning disability on file with Disability Services (DS), you may be eligible for reasonable academic accommodations to help you succeed in this course.  If you have a documented disability that requires an accommodation, please notify me within the first two weeks of the semester so that we may make appropriate arrangements.

Academic Honesty Statement

Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has committed an act of academic dishonesty. Instructors should take reasonable steps to address academic misconduct. Any person who has reason to believe that a student has committed academic dishonesty should bring such information to the attention of the appropriate course instructor as soon as possible. Instances of academic dishonesty not related to a specific course should be brought to the attention of the appropriate department Head or Chair. Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient evidence of lack of intent.

Programming assignments present specific academic honesty issues. Programming is a creative activity, but also one where collaboration is both possible and desired. Students may work together on programming projects as long as two principles are observed: submitted programs must be the individual’s own work with respect to presentation, and all sources of help other than course staff must be declared. Students may determine the essential ideas of a solution together, but should write the actual code separately. Copying and pasting another student’s code is a violation of academic honesty, and course staff will endeavor to detect this by any means including automated similarity analysis of submitted assignments.

Title IX Statement

In accordance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 that prohibits gender-based discrimination in educational settings that receive federal funds, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to providing a safe learning environment for all students, free from all forms of discrimination, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and retaliation. This includes interactions in person or online through digital platforms and social media. Title IX also protects against discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, or related conditions, including recovery. There are resources here on campus to support you. A summary of the available Title IX resources (confidential and non-confidential) can be found at the following link: https://www.umass.edu/titleix/resources. You do not need to make a formal report to access them. If you need immediate support, you are not alone. Free and confidential support is available 24 hours a day / 7 days a week / 365 days a year at the SASA Hotline 413-545-0800.