Course

Planning in a known environment with Stationary obstacles: Potential fields, Dynamic programming, Graph search, Depth-first, Breadth-first, and Djikstra, A*;

Unknown environment and stationary obstacle: Weighted A, Anytime A*, D* Lite;

Complex high dimensional environment: Sampling based algorithms, Visibility Road maps and randomized trees, graphs: RRT and RRT*;

Realistic robot models: Reed-Shepps Car, Dubins Car, Differential drive robot and kinematic constraints, articulated arms;

Planning in the presence of uncertainty: MDP based approaches;

Planning in the absence of system model: Machine Learning and Reinforced Learning based approaches.

Suggested Lab Sessions:

·         Introduction to ROS (2 or latest stable version) – ROS Basic Concepts: Nodes, topics, parameters, services – Simple ROS programs to publish and subscribe messages. Simulation of robot systems in ROS: Manipulators, wheeled robots in scenarios such as in a maze etc., legged robots and UAVs in various environments.

·         Implementation of motion planning algorithms in MATLAB/ROS/Equivalent.

·         Understanding Kinematic models for Mobile Robots, Maneuverability, Dynamic Path Planning, Scenario based control, path planning and sensor fusion, Workspace & Motion control, Sensors & Actuators for Mobile Robots, Sizing and Torque Calculations.

·         Develop Autonomous Robotic System as a physical working prototype.

Course Outcomes:

CO1: Understand the basic concepts of ROS.

CO2: Understand various types of mobile robots and their kinematic models.

CO3: Implement motion planning in known environments.

CO4: Apply motion planning techniques in unknown environments.

CO5: Implement machine learning and reinforced learning techniques for motion planning.

Textbooks / References:

1. R. Siegwart and Illah R. Nourbakhsh, “Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots”, MIT Press, 2004.
2. Steven M. LaValle, “Planning Algorithms”, Cambridge University Press, 2006.
3. H. Choset, K. M. Lynch, S. Hutchinson, G. Kantor, W. Burgard, L. E. Kavraki and S. Thrun, “Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementations”, MIT Press, Boston, 2005.
4. ROS Wiki.
5. Joseph, Lentin, and Jonathan Cacace, “Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming: Design, build, and simulate complex robots using the Robot Operating System”, Packt Publishing Ltd, 2018.
6. Jason M. O’Kane, “A Gentle Introduction to ROS” ISBN 978-14-92143-23-9.