Do you want to know the fundamentals behind robotics? Are you willing to invest effort to learn tools and techniques that are used in nowadays robots? If so, then "Robotics in a Nutshell" is the right course for you. Since the early eighties robotics has been a science whose main scope is to realize the intelligent connection between perception and action in physical machines. This course gives an overview of the most advanced 'tools' that are employed in nowadays robotic systems. After a journey into the history of robotics, the user is projected into the fields of sensing and estimation, which constitute the base to both build knowledge representation and enable reasoning. Graph-based simultaneous localization and mapping techniques allow the robot to map the environment and simultaneously localize in it. Wheeled robots can thus locomote exploiting low-level motion control of motorized wheels whereas more complex, bio-inspired robots such as humanoids use legs to accomplish the same task. However, robots do not only operate in free space. To realize their full potential they must possess the capabilities of safe interaction with the environment. This is essentially enabled via force control or via the elastic or soft embodiment of the robots. Finally, manipulation actions are enabled via grasping and/or cooperative manipulators.
This course is part of the "Robotics & Robots" Program. If you wish to follow this course, you need to enrol via the Program at this link.
