MECHANICAL

ENGINEERING

ME 652
Mobile Robotics
Handout #1:
Course Introduction

Spring, 2020
Jinwhan Kim
KAIST
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Course Information
• Course instructor
– Jinwhan Kim (jinwhan@kaist.ac.kr)
– Office: C323, KI Building (E4)
– Office hours: Appointment-basis via email
• Teaching assistants
– Dasol Jeong (oieiaa@kaist.ac.kr)
– Junwoo Jang (garesum1@kaist.ac.kr)
• Prerequisite
– Familiarity with the basic (undergraduate-level) linear
algebra and probability theory
– Prior exposure to MATLAB is a plus but not a must

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Grading Policy
• Attendance (10%)
• Homework (30%)
– 5 programming assignments
– Note: Late submission will be penalized 20% per
day after the due date.
• Quiz (30%)
– Open-book, in-class
• Term project (30%)

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Term Project
• The term project can be done in groups of 2-4
persons.
– More work is expected from larger groups.
• Project evaluation
– Three in-class presentations by students
• Proposal, milestone & Final
– Final written report
• The report should not exceed 10 pages.

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Topics to be covered
• Topics to be covered in this course
– Basic kinematics & dynamics of robotic vehicles
– Control theory and vehicle guidance laws
– Tree/Graph search algorithms
– Single and cooperative motion planning
– Bayesian estimation, Kalman filter, particle filter
– Vehicle navigation, mapping algorithms and SLAM
– Machine learning, reinforcement learning

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Course Schedule
• Schedule

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Course References
• Siegwart, Nourbakhsh and Scaramuzza, Introduction to
Autonomous Mobile Robots, 2nd Ed., MIT Press, 2011.
• Thrun, Burgard and Fox, Probabilistic Robotics, MIT Press, 2005.
• Choset et al., Principles of Robot Motion, MIT Press, 2005.
• Fossen, Guidance and Control of Ocean Vehicles, John Wiley &
Sons, 1994.
• Nelson, Flight Stability and Control, 2nd Ed., McGraw-Hill, 1997
• Russel and Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach,
3rd Ed., Prentice Hall, 2009
• Sutton and Barto, Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction, 2nd
Ed., Bradford Book, 2018

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What is robot?
• A machine capable of carrying out a complex
series of actions automatically, especially one
programmable by a computer (Oxford dictionary).
cf.: The word “robot” derives from the Czeck word for "worker”

iRobot? iRobot!

[Videos from YouTube]

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Aerial Drones & Self-Driving Cars

[Images from Google]

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Indoor Navigation with a UAV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMSozUpFFkU

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Wall Climbing Robot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOk5pMwY5Co

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Robot Collaboration in Warehouse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBl4Y55V2Z4

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Navigation & Mapping on Campus

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3D Reconstruction

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Surface & Underwater Mapping

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Vision-Based Navigation

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In-Water Visual Hull Inspection

Depth: 1m Depth: 4m Depth:5m Depth:7.5m

Drillship
West Draco
built by SHI

AUV model with the camera

footprint (red) and vehicle
trajectory (blue)

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In-Water Visual Hull Inspection

Start

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Robot Classifications
• Classification by applications
– Industrial robots, military robots, service robots, medical
robots, entertainment robots, etc.
• Classification by locomotion
– Stationary robots
– Mobile robots
(or robotic vehicles)
• Wheeled robots
• Legged robots
• Swimming robots
• Flying robots
• Others
[Images from Google]
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Vehicles
• Vehicle:
“A device that is designed or used
to transport people or cargo.” (wiki)
– Space vehicles
• Spacecraft, Satellites
– Aerial vehicles
• Airplanes, rotorcraft, missiles
– Ground vehicles
• Wheeled cars, legged robots
– Ocean vehicles
• Surface ships, underwater vehicles

[Images from Google]

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Unmanned Robotic Vehicles

• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
• Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs)
• Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs)
• Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs)

[Images from Google]

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Robotic Vehicles
• Robotic vehicles are machines that move “autonomously” on
the ground, in the air, undersea, or in space.
• Robotic vehicles are “unmanned”, in the sense that no
humans are on board, and they move by themselves, under
their own power, with sensors and computational resources
onboard to guide their motion.
• However, such “unmanned” robotic vehicles usually integrate
some form of human oversight or supervision of the motion
and task execution, and such oversight may take different
forms depending on the environment and application.

WTEC Panel Report on INTERNATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN ROBOTICS, 2006.

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Vehicle Autonomy

Autonomy Levels for Unmanned Systems Framework, Volume I: Terminology, Version 1.1, Huang, H. Ed., NIST Special Publication
1011, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, September 2004.

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Vehicle Autonomy
• Autonomy levels for unmanned systems

Autonomy Levels for Unmanned Systems Framework, Volume I: Terminology, Version 1.1, Huang, H. Ed., NIST Special Publication
1011, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, September 2004.

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Degrees of Autonomy
• Remote control
– The human operator, without sensory feedback, directly controls the
actuators of the system. In this mode, the system takes no initiative
and relies on continuous input from the user.
• Tele-operation
– The human operator, using video feedback and/or other sensor
feedback, either directly controls the actuators or assigns incremental
goals. In this mode, the system may take limited initiative in reaching
the assigned incremental goals.
• Semi-autonomous
– An unmanned system and the human operator conduct a mission and
requires various levels of human-robot interactions.
• Fully autonomous
– An unmanned system is expected to accomplish its mission, within a
defined scope, without human intervention.

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Remote Control

[Images from Google]

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Tele-Operation

[Images from Google]

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Semi-Autonomous

[Images from Google]

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Fully Autonomous
• Rule #1: Gain information about the
environment
• Rule #2: Work for an extended period
without human intervention
• Rule #3: Move either all or part of
itself throughout its operating
environment without human
assistance
• Rule #4: Avoid situations that are
harmful to people, property, or itself
unless those are part of its design
specifications
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_robot
[Images from Google]
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Robot Intelligence
• Intelligence is required for robots to be able to
achieve a given task autonomously.
• Robots are manufactured as hardware. Artificial
intelligence is a theory based on which the software
for the robots is realized.
• The control of the robot is a software agent that
reads data from the sensors (or perceive
environment), decides what to do next and then
directs the effectors of the robots to act in the
physical world.

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Robot Operation
Learning Knowledge
Database
?!
Perception:
- Sensing world environment
Agent

행동 인식 Planning:
- Computing a sequence of actions

Action:
Environment - Performing pre-computed actions

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Control Block Diagram

Feedforward Path Process Noise

+
u Vehicle x
Guidance + Controller + w/ Actuator
-

^x z
Feedback Path
Estimator Sensor

Measurement Noise

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