Autonomous Mobile Robots

Catalog description

In this course, students will design and construct functional autonomous robots using provided hardware and electronics to implement multiple “simultaneous” behaviors: position control, obstacle avoidance, and objective completion. Students will focus on programming multi-behavior capability on a robot. In doing so, students will become familiar with microcontroller programming, data acquisition, motors, and sensor characterization for different sensors, such as inertial measurement units, timers, distance sensors / rangefinders, cameras, and beacons. This course will cover the fundamentals of robotic architecture: low-level and high-level control. For low level control, students will implement feedback controllers for orientation and displacement. For high level control, students will program or teach decision-making capabilities for their robot. Robots may complete specific high-level tasks, such as snow removal, lawn mowing, parcel delivery, and a tank battle. Ultimately, students will learn to fuse multiple, simultaneous robot behaviors to produce a functioning, “thinking” autonomous mobile robot with natural behavior. Students may use premade robotic chasses if preferred. Graduate equivalent: ENGR 5308 .