EEL 5669 Introduction to Autonomous Systems & Controls

Florida International University

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Spring Semester (Tentative)

 

Classroom

:

EC1116 or Online (Pending)

Class Time

:

Monday and Wednesday 10:00AM - 11:50AM

Faculty                    

:

Dr. Ou Bai

Office Hours           

:

Either scheduled appointment or after class. Please send an email to: obai@fiu.edu to make an appointment. Please include: your name, preferred time (give three if possible), how long needed, what to discuss and other necessary information.

Office

:

10555 W. Flagler Street, Room 3954

Phone                    

:

(305) 348-3704

Email

:

obai@fiu.edu

Prerequisite

:

C/C++ and/or Java

Textbook

:

Siegwart, Nourbaksh and Scaramuzza, Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots, 2nd Edition. MIT Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780262015356

Nikolaus Correll, Introduction to Autonomous Robots,  Magellan Scienti
c. ISBN-13: 978-0692700877. Free Online version can be obtained:
https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/introduction-to-autonomous-robots

Jitendra R. Raol, Mobile Intelligent Autonomous Systems. CRC Press. ISBN:9781439863015 (Reference Only)

 

Course Description

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental components of autonomous systems. In particular, the course will exposure the students to the concept of autonomous systems from the perspective of autonomous mobile robotic systems. Topics include sensors and actuators, embedded computing and control, vision, introduction to intelligent control and reasoning, and finally, ethics.

 

Course Objectives

The objective of this course is to introduce the students to the concept of autonomous systems. Autonomous systems are capable of perceive, reason about and act autonomously in a variety of situations and environments. The topics in the course will exposure the students to the fundamental building blocks of autonomous systems, ranging from hardware, software, system integration, low-level system control to high-level intelligent control. Throughout the course, the students will have the opportunity to apply the concepts learnt in class to build and program an autonomous mobile robotic system.

 

Topics Covered

1.       Autonomous system fundamentals

2.       C/C++ programming

3.       MATLAB scripts

4.       Sensors and actuators

5.       Vision and Feature Extraction

6.       Embedded systems and control for robotic

7.       Localization

8.       Introduction to navigation, planning and decision making

9.       Ethics  

 

Grading Scheme

 

Homework/Problem Sets

20%

Projects and Reports

40%

Two Quiz/Exam (20% each)

40%

Total

100%

 

Tentative Grading Scale

 

 A  

100-95  

 B+  

 86-89  

 C+  

 76-79  

 D  

 60-69  

 F  

 0-59  

 A- 

 90-94  

 B  

 83-85  

 C  

 70-75  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 B- 

 80-82  

 

 

 

 

 

Tentative Exam Dates:

·       The 7th week

·       The 15th Week

 

University’s Code of Academic Integrity

Florida International University is a community dedicated to generating and imparting knowledge through excellent teaching and research, the rigorous and respectful exchange of ideas, and community service. All students should respect the right of others to have an equitable opportunity to learn and honestly to demonstrate the quality of their learning. Therefore, all students are expected to adhere to a standard of academic conduct, which demonstrates respect for themselves, their fellow students, and the educational Mission of the University. All students are deemed by the University to understand that if they are found responsible for academic misconduct, they will be subject to the Academic Misconduct procedures and sanctions, as outlined in the Student Handbook.

More information can be found at http://academic.fiu.edu/academic_misconduct.html

 

 

Department Regulations Concerning Incomplete Grades

 

To qualify for an Incomplete, a student:

1.     Must contact (e.g., phone, email, etc.) the instructor or secretary before or during missed portion of class.

2.     Must be passing the course prior to that part of the course that is not completed

3.     Must make up the incomplete work through the instructor of the course

4.     Must see the Instructor.  All missed work must be finished before last two weeks of the following term.

 

University policies on sexual harassment, and religious holidays, and information on services for students with disabilities

 

Please visit the following websites: http://academic.fiu.edu/, and http://drc.fiu.edu

 

Course Policies:

·       Academic Misconduct: For work submitted, it is expected that each student will submit their own original work. Any evidence of duplication, cheating or plagiarism will result at least a failing grade for the course.  

·       Unexcused Absences: Two unexcused absences are permitted during the term. More than two will result in the loss of points from your final grade.  (1 point per absence above two, 3 points per absence above 5).

·       Excused Absences: Only emergency medical situations or extenuating circumstances are excused with proper documentation.  After reviewing documentations, you are required to email a description of the excuse and absence dates as a written record to kaleemf@fiu.edu.

·       On Time: As in the workplace, on time arrival and preparation are required.  Two “lates” are equivalent to one absence.  (Leaving class early is counted the same as tardy.)

·       Deadlines: Assignments are due at the beginning of the class period on the date specified. Assignments submitted late (within 1 week) will receive half credit.

·       To get assistance try to see me by an appointment.

·       Students are encouraged to ask questions and to discuss course topics with the instructor and with each other.

·       Any work submitted should display Panther ID number and should be signed, as the students’ own work, and that no unauthorized help was obtained.

·       Cell phones, communicators, MP3 players, head sets are not allowed to be used in the class.

·       DO NOT send assignments by email.

·       Instructor reserves right to change course materials or dates as necessary.

 

Exam policy

1.     Make sure to complete the assigned homework in order to do well in the exam.

2.     All exams are closed book and closed notes.

3.     Use of any electronic device with keyboard is prohibited. This also applies to cellphones with messaging system.

4.     No discussion is permitted during the exams.

5.     Instructor is not compelled to give credit for something he cannot read or follow logically.

6.     Cheating is considered as a serious offense. Students who are caught will receive the appropriate consequences.

 

Class Schedule

            Refer to Course Schedule.

Special Dates to Remember:

·       The last day to withdraw from a course is March 16, 2020

·       Last day of Spring semester classes April 25, 2020

·       Final Exam, April 27, 2020


 

 

Week

Topics and Tasks

1

01/05-01/11

  • Course Syllabus and Schedule
  • Introduction and Motivation

2

01/12-01/18

  • Locomotion Concepts

ü  Introduction to Legged Robotics

ü  Basics of Rigid Body Kinematics

ü  Application of Rigid Body Kinematics (optional for EEL3664, self-study for EEL5669)

ü  Worked Exercise 1 & 2 (optional for EEL3664, self-study for EEL5669)

ü  Example of Wheeled, legged and Flying Robots

3

01/19-01/25

  • Martin Luther King Day (University closed)
  • Lab Exercise I: Introduction to V-Rep simulator

4

01/26-02/01

  • Mobile Robots Kinematics

ü  Introduction to Wheeled Locomotion

ü  Differential Kinematics

ü  Wheeled Kinematics

ü  Worked Exercise

Ø  Homework (1) (both EEL3664 and EEL5669)

5

02/02-02/08

  • Perception I

ü  Sensors

ü  IMU

ü  GPS

ü  Motion Capture systems

ü  Laser range finder

ü  RGBD/time-of-flight/sonar

6

02/09-02/15

  • Perception II

ü  Camera Image Formation, Perspective Projection

ü  Introduction to Computer Vision

ü  Omnidirectional Projection, Camera Calibration, Unified Model

ü  Stereo Vision

ü  Worked Example: Structure from Motion

7

02/16-02/22

  • Lab Exercise II: Kinematics and Control of a differential drive vehicle
  • Perception III: Image Saliency (optional for EEL3664, self-study for EEL5669)

ü  Correlation and Convolution

ü  Edges and Points

ü  Worked Example on Image Filtering

  • Perception IV: Place Recognition & Line Fitting (optional for EEL3664, self-study for EEL5669)

ü  Place Recognition

ü  The Error Propagation Law

ü  Line Extraction

8

02/23-02/29

·       Spring Break

9

03/01-03/07

  • Project I: Introduction of Sparki and Line following implementation
  • Quiz I

10

03/08-03/14

  • Localization I

ü  Introduction to Map-Based Localization

ü  Refresher on Probability Theory

  • Localization II (optional for EEL3664, self-study for EEL5669)

ü  The Markov Approach

ü  The Kalman Filter Approach

11

03/15-03/21

  • SLAM I
  • The SLAM problem
  • SLAM II (optional for EEL3664, self-study for EEL5669)

ü  Monocular SLAM and beyond

ü  Worked Example on SLAM

  • Homework (2) (optional for EEL3664, required for EEL5669)

12

03/22-03/28

  • Planning I

ü  Introduction

ü  Collision Avoidance

ü  Potential Field Methods

ü  Worked Example on Harmonic Potential Fields

  • Homework (3) (both EEL3664 and EEL5669)

13

03/29-04/04

·       Planning II

ü  Graph Construction

ü  Graph Search

ü  Worked Example

14

04/05-04/11

·       Project II: Room Navigation on Sparki

·       Quiz II

15

04/12-04/18

  • Ethic Debates

16

04/19-04/25

  • Final exams (optional)