DGMD E-17 Robotics, Autonomous Vehicles, Drones, and Artificial

Intelligence

Course Overview and Contact Information

Course Overview
Semester and Year: Spring 2021(Jan. 25 - May.15)
Day/Times: Monday 7:40 - 9:40 pm
Format: Online (live or on demand) Web Conference

Special Instructions: This course meets via web conference. Students may attend at the
scheduled meeting time or watch recorded sessions on demand. The recorded sessions are
available within 24 hours of the lecture. Optional sections and office hours to be arranged.

Instructor(s) Contact Information TA(s) Contact Information

Name: Jose Luis Ramirez Herran Name: Multiple, TBD
Office/ Office hours: TBD Office/Office hours: TBD
Phone: +1 617 401 8197 Phone: TBD
Email: jlr682@g.harvard.edu Email: TBD

Course Description and Learning Objectives

Course Description: Practical advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are
ushering in a new era of digital automation. In the next ten to fifteen years, drones, driverless
vehicles, and artificial intelligence will be used to transport goods, send packages, perform
agricultural tasks, and transport people in an efficient and safe way. In this course students learn
the algorithms that underlie an autonomous vehicle's understanding of itself and the world around
it. They learn how a car can use unreliable sensor data to make accurate predictions of its location
in the world. Students train neural networks and other models to perform the most challenging
autonomous navigation tasks. Students also use code that helps them simulate, visualize, test, and
debug the trajectories that comes from the search and control algorithms using the most popular
tools and libraries.
This course fulfills: Back-End Web Tech Certificate, Emerging media and technology,
All electives, Web Technologies Certificate.

Course Materials

1. Textbook
There is not a textbook for this class. All basic documentation will be provided. We will
also point you to the correct open source resources online so you can do your research.

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2. Web conference equipment
Courses that use web conferencing for class meetings and/or section meetings use Zoom.
Students should follow the Web conference minimal technical requirements and guidelines
below:
• Students are expected to join from a suitable, quiet location with a computer that permits
full participation in the class activities
• All students should review the Web Conference Technology Guidelines:
(https://www.extension.harvard.edu/academics/courses/types-courses/web-conference-
technology-guidelines), including student conduct and technical minimums before taking
a course using web conferencing technology: Summer | Extension
• Students are strictly prohibited from participating in an online live class in a moving
vehicle.
• Use a computer - We do not support participating in courses using web conferencing
technology on mobile devices.
• Internet speed minimum 4 Mbps download and upload, use a wired internet connection.
(https://speedof.me (Links to an external site.) to check)
• Be prepared to use an audio device during class. We recommend Logitech H390 USB
headset, or a similar quality USB headset. DO NOT rely on internal computer mic and
internal / external speakers.

3. Materials for the Final project

For your final project, you may take on one of the current autonomous navigation
challenges and try to solve it, and implement it either in a real life device such as a robot or in a
simulator. You will choose the equipment or the simulator and write the requirements in the
project proposal. We will start discussing about the final projects starting from the first class.

The following are the suggested equipment / simulation software:

3.1 Suggested Equipment for hardware based projects

We recommend the following AI Robotics kits:
• NVIDIA JETBOT AI ROBOT KITS
o https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/autonomous-machines/embedded-
systems/jetbot-ai-robot-kit/

3.2 Suggested software for Robot Simulation based projects

We recommend the following Simulators/projects:
• ROS and Gazebo
• CARLA Simulator
• VISTA (http://www.mit.edu/~amini/vista/ ) open source to be announced soon.

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 Grading

Description Undergraduate (%) Graduate (%)

Skills Check – ungraded assignment 0 0
Assignments 60 50
Participation (Teams, Piazza, Slack, etc.) 20 20
Undergraduate/Graduate Project 20 30

Workload: Students expected to do at least 4 -> 8 hours of work per week outside of class
time.

Additional graduate-credit requirements: For graduate students, the final project counts for a
higher percentage of the grade.

Expectations and Policies

Attendance
These online web-conference courses meet at a scheduled time, and you participate in class
live at that time or watch recorded sessions on demand, while keeping up with posted
deadlines for assignments and exams. Recorded sessions are posted to the course website within
24 hours of the class meeting. Homework is expected to be on time. Writing should be correct.
Late assignments will get penalized 10 points per day up to 3 days. No assignment can be
submitted after.

Accommodation Requests
Harvard Extension School is committed to providing an inclusive, accessible academic
community for students with disabilities and chronic health conditions. The Accessibility
Services Office (ASO) (https://www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/accessibility-
services-office-aso) offers accommodations and supports to students with documented
disabilities. If you have a need for accommodations or adjustments in your course, please
contact the Accessibility Services Office by email at accessibility@extension.harvard.edu or
by phone at 617-998-9640.

Academic Integrity
You are responsible for understanding Harvard Extension School policies on academic
integrity (https://www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/student-conduct/academic-
integrity) and how to use sources responsibly. Stated most broadly, academic integrity means
that all course work submitted, whether a draft or a final version of a paper, project, take-
home exam, online exam, computer program, oral presentation, or lab report, must be your
own words and ideas, or the sources must be clearly acknowledged. The potential outcomes
for violations of academic integrity are serious and ordinarily include all of the following:
required withdrawal (RQ), which means a failing grade in the course (with no refund), the
suspension of registration privileges, and a notation on your transcript.

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Using sources responsibly (https://www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-
policies/resources/avoiding-plagiarism) is an essential part of your Harvard education. We
provide additional information about our expectations regarding academic integrity on our
website. We invite you to review that information and to check your understanding of
academic citation rules by completing two free online 15-minute tutorials that are also
available on our site. The tutorials are anonymous open-learning tools.

Course Outline and Schedule

Week Date Description Assignments

1 25-Jan Introduction to Autonomy Homework 1
Robotic Operating Systems (ROS)
Building a Robot and Making it Move
Robotics Challenges and Final Projects
2 1-Feb Introduction to Computer Vision Homework 2
Making a Robot See its Environment and Line Following
3 8-Feb Autonomous Navigation Systems Architecture Homework 3
Signal Processing and Machine Learning
4 15-Feb President's Day – No Class
5 22-Feb Neural Networks and Applications in Autonomous Navigation Homework 4:
Object Recognition Project Proposal
6 1-Mar Kinematic Modeling of Robots and Autonomous Navigation Homework 5
Project Proposal approvals and feedback
7 8-Mar Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Homework 6
Obstacle Avoidance
8 15-Mar Spring Break – No Class
9 22-Mar Special topics on Applied Autonomous Navigation 1 Homework 7
Student Projects
10 29-Mar Special topics on Applied Autonomous Navigation 2 Project Report 1
Student Projects
11 5-Apr Special topics on Applied Autonomous Navigation 3 Project Report 2
Student Projects
12 12-Apr Special topics on Applied Autonomous Navigation 4 Project Report 3
Student Projects
13 19-Apr Special topics on Applied Autonomous Navigation 5 Project Report 4
Student Projects
14 26-Apr Special topics on Applied Autonomous Navigation 6 Project Report 5
Student Projects
15 3-May First Part of Final Project Presentations Video
Presentations
16 10-May Second Part of Final Project Presentations Video
Presentations

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