Autonomous and Mobile Robotics

Autonomous and Mobile Robotics (AMR)

Prof. Giuseppe Oriolo

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica, Automatica e Gestionale
Sapienza Università di Roma

General Information

timetable	27 Sept - 22 Dec 2022, Mon 11:00-13:00, Tue 11:00-13:00, Thu 09:00-11:00, room B2 DIAG
office hours	Thu 12:00-14:00, room A209 (DIAG, Via Ariosto 25) or by appointment
e-mail	oriolo [at] diag [dot] uniroma1 [dot] it
AMR website	http://www.diag.uniroma1.it/~oriolo/amr
AMR Google Group	AMR_GG (membership is restricted, see below)

Important news

In compliance with the most recent guidelines of our university, the 22/23 AMR lectures will only be available in presence (no streaming, no recordings). Should there be any changes to this policy, they will be announced here.
Students that are enrolled in the 2nd year of their master and are attending AMR for the first time should ask to join the AMR Google Group as soon as possible. Use your Sapienza student account (@studenti.uniroma1.it) and enter your first + last name in "Display Name" and your master program only (e.g., "MARR", "MCER", "Erasmus"...) in "Reason for joining".

Audience

This 6-credit course can be taken by students of the Master Programs in "Artificial Intelligence and Robotics" and in "Control Engineering" of Sapienza University of Rome.

Objective

The course presents the basic planning/control methods for achieving mobility and autonomy in mobile robots.

Preliminary syllabus for 2022/2023

Introduction: Applications, Problems, Architectures (slides, videos not included)
Configuration space
Wheeled Mobile Robots: Mechanics of mobile robots (slides)
Wheeled Mobile Robots: Nonholonomic constraints and kinematic models of mobile robots (blackboard)
Wheeled Mobile Robots: Path and trajectory planning (blackboard with the addition of companion slides)
Wheeled Mobile Robots: Motion control - Introduction and Trajectory tracking (slides)
Wheeled Mobile Robots: Motion control - Regulation (slides)
Perception: Sensors for mobile robots (slides)
Localization: Odometric localization (slides)
Localization: Kalman Filter (slides)
Localization: Landmark-based and SLAM (slides)
Motion Planning: Introduction and roadmap methods (slides)
Motion Planning: Probabilistic methods (slides)
Motion Planning: Artificial potential fields (slides)
Humanoid Robots: Introduction (slides)
Humanoid Robots: Dynamic modeling (slides)
Humanoid Robots: Balance (slides)
Humanoid Robots: Gait generation (slides)
Humanoid Locomotion: A demonstration (slides)
An introduction to V-REP with applications to motion planning (slides)
ROS tutorial: Posture regulation with TIAGo (slides)

Textbooks

- Siciliano, Sciavicco, Villani, Oriolo, Robotics: Modelling, Planning and Control, 3rd Edition, Springer, 2009 (also available in Italian by McGraw-Hill)
[chapters 11 and 12 cover lectures on Configuration space, Wheeled Mobile Robots 1-5, Localization 1, Motion Planning 1-3]

- Choset, Lynch, Hutchinson, Kantor, Burgard, Kavraki, Thrun, Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms and Implementations, MIT Press, 2005
[a useful reference for the whole course; chapter 8 covers lectures on Localization 2-3]

- Siciliano, Khatib, Eds., Handbook of Robotics, Springer, 2008
[a useful reference for the whole course]

All these books are available in the DIAG library.

Miscellaneous Material

- 2022/2023: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2022/2023: Midterm Class test with solution and results
- 2021/2022: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2021/2022: Midterm Class test with solution and results
- 2020/2021: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2020/2021: Midterm Class test with solution and results
- 2019/2020: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2019/2020: Midterm Class test with solution and results
- 2017/2018: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2017/2018: Midterm Class test with solution and results
- 2016/2017: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2016/2017: Midterm Class test with solution and results
- 2015/2016: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2015/2016: Midterm Class test with solution and results
- 2014/2015: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2014/2015: Final Class test with solution and results
- 2013/2014: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2013/2014: Final Class test with solution and results
- 2012/2013: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2012/2013: Final Class test with solution and results
- 2011/2012: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2011/2012: Final Class test with solution and results
- 2010/2011: Final projects proposal and assignments
- 2010/2011: Class test 1 with solution and results, Class test 2 with solution and results
- 2009/2010: Final projects
- 2009/2010: Class test 1 with solution, Class test 2 with solution

- Lectures from previous years:
    * An introduction to the NAO humanoid (slides)
    * Motion planning in practice: An introduction to Kite and V-REP (slides)
    * Case study: Vision-based localization and navigation for humanoid robots (slides)
    * Case study: Whole-body motion planning for humanoid robots (slides)
    * Case study: Real-time evasive motions for humanoid robots (slides)
    * Case study: Collision in human-robot collaboration: Avoidance, detection, and reaction (slides)
    * Case study: Visual servoing for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (slides)

- A control brush-up:
    * a review of stability theory
    * basics of stabilization via feedback (in Italian)

- How to read a research paper (written for RPI's students but good for everyone)

Software

- MATLAB/Simulink code (folders sometimes include a ReadMe file with specific instructions)

    * unicycle path planning via differential flatness (UnicyclePathPlanning_Flatness.m)
    * Cartesian/posture regulation of a unicycle (Regulation.zip)
    * odometric localization of a unicycle (OdometricLocalization.zip)
    * unicycle posture regulation using odometric localization (OdometricLocalizationWithinPostureRegulation.zip)
    * a PRM-based planner for a 2R manipulator (12_7.zip)
    * an RRT-based planner for a unicycle (12_8.zip)
    * a 2D point planner based on a numerical navigation function (12_13.zip)
   Names 12_xx are due to the fact that these are the solutions ("s") of problems 12.xx of the book "Robotics: Modelling, Planning and Control".

- An application for computing C-obstacles for a 2R manipulator (2R_C_Space). Includes a topologically correct representation of the C-space (a torus) and an RRT-planner. The application runs on Mac, Linux and PC; see the instructions in the README file. An email address for sending feedback and bug reports to the developer (Pouya Mohammadi) is contained in the "About" tab.

Grading

Students that are enrolled in the 2nd year of their master and are attending AMR for the first time can pass the exam via midterm test (50%) + final project (50%); or midterm test (50%) + final test (50%). Otherwise, one must take take a conventional exam, which may be written and/or oral.

Master Theses at the Robotics Laboratory

Master Theses on the topics studied in this course are available at the DIAG Robotics Lab. More information can be found here.

Questions/comments: oriolo [at] diag [dot] uniroma1 [dot] it