Teaching

CS 5310/6310 & ME EN 5220/6220: Introduction to Robotics

The mechanics of robots, comprising kinematics, dynamics, and trajectories. Planar, spherical, and spatial transformations and displacements. Representing orientation: Euler angles, angle-axis, and quaternions. Velocity and acceleration: the Jacobian and screw theory. Inverse kinematics: solvability and singularities. Trajectory planning: joint interpolation and Cartesian trajectories. Statics of serial chain mechanisms. Inertial parameters, Newton-Euler equations, D'Alembert's principle. Recursive forward and inverse dynamics.

CS 6300: Artificial Intelligence

This course introduces modern probabilistic approaches towards creating intelligent systems, where rationale decision-making is phrased in terms of maximizing expected utility. Basic concepts of search are introduced, leading to search under uncertainty, Markov decision processes, Bellman's equations, and reinforcement learning, Bayes nets are introduced to reduce dependencies among variables. Hidden Markov models and partially observable Markov decision processes are introduced to handle uncertainties in state.

CS 7320 & ME EN 7220: System Identification for Robotics

Modeling and identification of the mechanical properties of robots and their environments. Review of probability and statistics. Parametric versus nonparametric estimation. Linear least squares parameter estimation, total least squares, and Kalman filters. Nonlinear estimation and extended Kalman filters. State estimation. Specific identification methods for kinematic calibration, inertial parameter estimation, and joint friction modeling.

CS 7939 & ME EN 7960 Sec 11: Robotics Seminar

The Robotics Seminar is required for all new robotics students in the fall and spring terms of the first year. It can also be taken by students wishing to learn more about robotics at Utah. It is a chance for the Utah robotics community to get together on a weekly basis. The course features technical presentations by robotics graduate students, faculty or distinguished visitors, and discussions of recent trends and important results elsewhere.