CSEP590B: Robotics

BASIC COURSE INFO

Quarter: Spring, 2018

Class times: Wednesday, 6:30-9:20 pm

Office hours: (TA) Wednesday, 5:30-6:20 pm @ CSE 286, (Instructor) By appointment

Location: *new location* JHN 175 (map), additional room for labs JHN 111

Webpage: http://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/csep590b/18sp/

Github: https://github.com/csep590robotics/labs

Textbooks:

Probabilistic Robotics, S. Thrun, W. Burgard, and D. Fox., MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, September 2005.
Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots, Second Edition, R. Siegwart, I.R. Nourbakhsh and D. Scaramuzza.
Introduction to Autonomous Robots, 2nd edition, N. Correll, Magellan Scientific, 2016.

TEACHING STAFF

Maya Cakmak, Instructor

e-mail: mcakmak@cs | github: @mayacakmak | office: CSE 542

Kousuke Ariga, Teaching Assistant

e-mail: koar8470@cs | github: @kouariga | office: CSE 286

Mike Chung, Guest Instructor

e-mail: mjyc@cs | office: CSE 014

Siddhartha Srinivasa, Guest Instructor

e-mail: siddh@cs | office: CSE 572

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The main goal of this course is to open up new career options in robotics for computer science and engineering students and professionals. To that end, the course covers basics of robotics and gives students hands-on implementation experience.

At the end of the quarter students are expected to:

Understand basics of robot sensing, navigation, perception, planning, interaction; have a sense of challenging problems in robotics
Know how to program a particular robot platform in Python and be comfortable operating a robot platform
Understand core challenges in robotics and know about possible solutions
Be aware of the state-of-the-art in robotics

COURSE STRUCTURE

We will meet once a week for a 3-hour session. Our class time will be split between lectures and labs. Each week we will start with a roughly 1hour 20minute lecture on a new topic. Please see the Calendar page for topics that will be covered each week. We will then take a short break and use the rest of the time on a hands-on lab related to the lecture. Please see the Labs page for a list of labs. Labs will involve implementation of algorithms covered in lectures on the Anki Cozmo robot platform. Each student will get their own Cozmo robot with a carrying case.

LOGISTICS & RULES

Please keep in mind:

Collaboration: This class is designed around individual performance to allow everyone to hone their basic robotics knowledge and implementation skills and to accommodate constraints of professional master's students. There will not be any group projects or assignments.
Lab completion: At the end of each lab students will submit a short write-up and a video. Although the labs are designed to be completed within the class time, some parts of the lab might spill-over due to different programming speeds. To accommodate for these variations and possibility of missed classes, the lab deliverable submissions are due Sunday, 11:59pm of each week.
Assignments: In addition to the labs there will be 2 reading assignments.
Canvas: All lab and assignment submissions will be done through Canvas. You will receive grades on Canvas.
Office hours: You can schedule a 1-1 meeting with the instructor from this calendar.
Robotics news of the day: At the beginning of each lecture at least one person will give a two-minute presentation of a robotics-related news or fun-fact. You can volunteer for this by sending the instructors a link to a news and a 1 or 2 sentence blurb about the link.
E-mails: When you email the instructor and/or the TA, please remember to include the word "CSEP 590 B" in your subject line.
Discussions: Please use Canvas discussion boards for questions that might be relevant for the rest of the class.
Exam: There will be one exam based on topics covered in class and assignments at the beginning of the lecture on Week 10 immediately followed by a session to discuss answers to the exam questions. If you will miss this class session, let the instructor know by the Week 8 lecture.
Missed classes: Please try to let the instructor know if you will miss a class. It would be best if you can still complete the lab by the deadline on weeks you missed a class, but you will have the option to get an extension if you are traveling or have health problems.
Late submissions: We aim to review your lab submissions on Mon-Wed before the next class. If your submission arrives before the TA starts grading you will not have any penalty. If your submission arrives after the TA has graded, that will count as an actual late submission. The TA will grade up to two late submissions (labs or assignments) from each individual at the end of the quarter.

GRADE DISTRIBUTION

Labs: 70%
Exam: 15%
Assignments: 10%
Participation: 5%

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