Robotics: Theory and Practice

This is an introductory course to expose students to the theory and practice of robotics. This course will roughly be divided into three parts. The first part is a brief introduction on the concept of artificial intelligence related to robotics, as well as the basic concepts on electronics and microcontrollers. The second part is to provide students an opportunity to work as a group (in a virtual environment) for robotic design. In the design phase, individualized tutorial session focusing on project specific algorithms and code implementation will also be arranged. In the last part of the course, the students will be provided with the materials, equipment, and API to build the robot that they design. The following is a list of possible projects for the course: Lego Mindstorm Rubik Cube Solver; Adding surveillance capabilities to drone for emergency rescue; Adding biometrics sensors and programming Arduino to enable secured human-robot interaction; Developing mobile app as a generic interface for robot control; or Using Kinect to build a self-driving vehicle. The finale of the course is for the student group to show case the robot that they built to students elsewhere; e.g., students in the community college, high school, and elementary schools.