Robotics
The word “robot” comes from the Czech “robota”, meaning forced or hard labour.
A robot is an programmable automated machine.
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It can interpret information from the physical environment in order to adapt its behaviour.
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It has the capacity to interact with the environment and carry out different functions accordingly.
Overview of Mobile Robotics
A robot is regarded as an intelligent computer that can use sensors and act on the world.
Kinematics and Dynamics
How can we model robotic systems using approximate physical models that enable us to make predictions about how robots move in response to given commands?
Feedback Control and Planning
How can we compute the state-(in)dependent commands that can bring a robotic system from its current state to a desired state?
Mapping
How can we combine noisy measurements from sensors with the robot’s pose to build a map of the environment?
State Estimation
The state of the robot is not always directly measurable/observable. How can we determine the relative weighs of multiple sensor measurements in order to form an accurate estimate of the (hidden) state?
The Geometry of Computer Vision
How can modeling pixel projections on an RGB camera help us infer the 3D structure of the world? How can we triangulate points seen from two cameras? How can we estimate the camera’s pose (and therefore the robot’s) while it is moving in the environment?