Lecturer: Tullio Facchinetti  

Course name: Robotics
Course code: 503284
Degree course: Ingegneria Informatica
Disciplinary field of science: ING-INF/05
The course relates to:
University credits: CFU 6
Course website: http://robot.unipv.it/toolleeo/courses/robotica2011-12

Specific course objectives

The goal of the course is to provide the skills to design and engineering of advanced robotics systems. The course will focus on topics related with system components, connections and control. In particular, the course content will deal with intelligent sensors for robotics applications, real-time computing and robotics navigation.

Course programme

The course will start with the study of several kind of sensors used in robotics application, such as linear and angular position sensors, pressure sensors, accelerometers, force sensors, temperature sensors, image sensors (i.e., cameras), and time sensors. The most important applications of sensors and some techniques related with sensor usage will be illustrated. Real-time computing and sensor acquisition will be presented. Lastly, some robot navigation techniques and algorithms will be explained, that leverage most of illustrated sensors and computing approaches.

Course entry requirements

Knowledge of computer science and dynamic systems.

Course structure and teaching

Lectures (hours/year in lecture theatre): 40
Practical class (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0
Practicals / Workshops (hours/year in lecture theatre): 15

Suggested reading materials

The course content is mainly made by the slides available on the dedicated website. Suggested further readings are:

John Brignell, Neil White. Intelligent Sensor System. Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol and Philadelphia.

Paulo Verissimo, Luis Rodriguez. Distributed Systems for System Architects. Kluwer Academis Publishers.

Giorgio C. Buttazzo. Hard Real-time Computing System. Springer.

Howie Choset, Kevin M. Lynch, Seth Hutchinson, George Kantor, Wolfram Burgard, Lydia E. Kavraki, Sebastian Thrun. Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementations. The MIT Press.

Testing and exams

There is a written exam only. No additional or oral exams are required nor allowed. Detailed examination rules are available at the dedicated website at Prof. Facchinetti homepage.