Syllabus

Class Goals

The desired learning outcome is that, given a mobile manipulation application and a hardware platform, the students that have taken the class will be able to build a software architecture that, when executed on the hardware, constitutes a working prototype for the desired application.

Prerequisites

There are no formal pre-requisites for the class. We will go rather quickly over basic concepts, and you will have to pick up the slack on your own time if you don’t have the background (references will be provided to appropriate background material for various topics). Good programming and math skills, esp. linear algebra, are essential.

Text

We will often be referring to papers rather than books. However, please see the following list of books, many of which are available online.

Lecture Delivery Format

Lectures for the class will be delivered online, synchronously (i.e., at the scheduled lecture times). These online sessions will be recorded and made available for later viewing, but see participation grade rubric below.

In-class Work

In-class polls: we want people to stay with the class, synchronously. While we understand some circumstances will cause you to miss a few classes here and there, we are conscious that the availability of recorded lectures might make you fall behind. To that end, we will have in class polls, administered through canvas, that will allow us to get real-time feedback on how well you understand the concepts taught. These will be graded for feedback purposes only. However, your participation in these will determine your participation grade.

Out-of-class Work

There are several activities designed to achieve the learning outcomes above:

Reading and understanding research papers: we will sometimes assign papers to read before class.
Foundational assignments: there will be 4 assignments on foundational material, some of which will have a substantial ROS (Robot Operating System) component.
Final project: the assignments are designed to build and get familiar with individual robot perception, planning, and manipulation skills. In a final project you will put these different skills together in a layered software architecture to build a fully integrated, operational MM system. The final design is to be demonstrated and reported in a conference style manuscript. You will work in teams.

Assessment

Final exam: At the end of the course, there will be a final exam, but this will be a “take-home” style exam, with questions that are meant to encourage reflection and synthesis of ideas that have been presented in the course, rather than an exam to explicitly test specific concepts.

Schedule

A detailed schedule, subject to change, can be found on the schedule page.

Grading

In-class polls: 10%
Projects: 50%
Final Project: 30%
Final Exam: 10%

Late policy for this course will be 12% per day late, pro-rated per hour.

Learning Accommodations

If needed, we will make classroom accommodations for students with documented disabilities. These accommodations must be arranged in advance and in accordance with the ADAPTS office.

Important Links:

Piazza. This should be your first stop for questions and announcements.
canvas.gatech.edu will be used to hand in assignments.

Contact Info and Office Hours:

If possible, please use Piazza to ask questions and seek clarifications before emailing the instructor or staff. Office hours are by appointment only, and can be done by email the instructors using their Georgia Tech email addresses (autocomplete in Outlook).

Academic Integrity

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. This includes cheating, lying about course matters, plagiarism, or helping others commit a violation of the Honor Code. Plagiarism includes reproducing the words of others without both the use of quotation marks and citation. Students are reminded of the obligations and expectations associated with the Georgia Tech Academic Honor Code and Student Code of Conduct, available online. For quizzes, no supporting materials are allowed (notes, calculators, phones, etc).

You are expected to implement the core components of each project on your own, but the extra credit opportunities often build on third party data sets or code. That’s fine. Feel free to include results built on other software, as long as you are clear in your hand-in that it is not your own work.

You should not view or edit anyone else’s code. You should not post code to Piazza, except for starter code / helper code that isn’t related to the core project.

Unless group work is explicitly part of the class work, collaboration on individual assignments is encouraged at the “white board interaction” level. That is, share ideas and technical conversation, but write your own code. Students are expected to abide by the Georgia Tech Honor Code. Honest and ethical behavior is expected at all times. All incidents of suspected dishonesty will be reported to and handled by the office of student affairs.

Acknowledgements

The materials from this class occasionally rely on materials prepared by other instructors. In these cases, slide sets and assignments contains acknowledgements. Feel free to use class materials for academic or research purposes, but please maintain all acknowledgements.