Coursera

Modern Robotics, Course 5: Robot Manipulation and Wheeled Mobile Robots (Coursera)

Offered by Northwestern University,
Modern Robotics, Course 5: Robot Manipulation and Wheeled Mobile Robots (Coursera)

Do you want to know how robots work? Are you interested in robotics as a career? Are you willing to invest the effort to learn fundamental mathematical modeling techniques that are used in all subfields of robotics? If so, then the "Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control" specialization may be for you. This specialization, consisting of six short courses, is serious preparation for serious students who hope to work in the field of robotics or to undertake advanced study. It is not a sampler.

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In Course 5 of the specialization, Robot Motion Planning and Wheeled Mobile Robots, we delve into advanced topics in robotics. Chapter 12, Grasping and Manipulation, of the "Modern Robotics" textbook covers the modeling of kinematics and forces between rigid bodies in contact, and applies the modeling to analysis and planning of robot grasping and other manipulation tasks. Chapter 13, Wheeled Mobile Robots, covers modeling, motion planning, and feedback control of omnidirectional and nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots, and concludes by addressing control of mobile manipulators consisting of a wheeled mobile base and a robot arm.

Course 5 of 6 in the Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Chapter 12: Grasping and Manipulation (Part 1 of 2)
Kinematics of contact, contact types (rolling, sliding, and breaking), graphical methods for representing kinematic constraints in the plane, and form-closure grasping (complete kinematic constraint).

WEEK 2
Chapter 12: Grasping and Manipulation (Part 2 of 2)
Coulomb friction, friction cones, graphical methods for representing forces and torques in the plane, force closure grasping, and examples of manipulation other than grasping.

WEEK 3
Chapter 13: Wheeled Mobile Robots (Part 1 of 2)
Kinematic models of omnidirectional and nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots.

WEEK 4
Chapter 13: Wheeled Mobile Robots (Part 2 of 2)
Controllability, motion planning, and feedback control of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots; odometry for wheeled mobile robots; and mobile manipulation.

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