ME 449 Robotic Manipulation
Spring Quarter 2014
- Instructor: Prof. Kevin Lynch
- Office hours: TBD
- Meeting: 11-11:50 MWF, Tech LG68
- course website: http://hades.mech.northwestern.edu/index.php/ME_449_Robotic_Manipulation
Course Summary
Mechanics of robotic manipulation, computer representations and algorithms for manipulation planning, and applications to industrial automation, parts feeding, grasping, fixturing, and assembly.
Grading
Grading for the course will be based on student lectures, problem sets and a final project. There will be no exams. The final project, due during finals week, will take the form of a conference paper analyzing a manipulation problem, building on another research paper, or implementing a simulation.
Course Text
"Introduction to Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control," F. C. Park and K. M. Lynch. These course notes will be undergoing revision throughout the quarter; check the timestamp in the table of contents.
Assignments
- Assignment 1, due Monday 4/14 at the beginning of class
Final Project
Approximate Syllabus
Configuration Space
reading: Chapter 2
- degrees of freedom, Grubler's formula, parameterizations, holonomic and nonholonomic constraints (classes 1-2)
Rigid-Body Motions (classes 3-6), through Fri April 11
reading: Chapter 3, but you may skim/skip 3.2.2, 3.2.4
- rotation matrices, Euler angles, exponential coordinates, unit quaternions
- angular velocities
- rigid-body motions
- spatial velocities
Forward Kinematics, through Wed April 16
reading: Chapter 4, but you may skim/skip 4.1 and 4.2.3
- product of exponentials formula (class 7; Afrifah and Patrick)
Velocity Kinematics and Statics, through Fri April 25
reading: Chapter 5
- coordinate, space, and body Jacobians (classes 8-9)
- statics of open chains, singularities, manipulability (classes 10-11; Siegler and Welter)
Inverse Kinematics, through Wed April 30
reading: Chapter 6, but you may skip 6.1
- 2R example, numerical methods, and redundant open chains (classes 12-13)
Dynamics of Open Chains, through Fri May 9
reading: Chapter 8.1 and 8.5 on Lagrangian formulation, rest of the chapter on Newton-Euler and task space coords
- Lagrangian formulation, dynamics of a single rigid body (classes 14-15; Briggs and Hyde)
- Newton-Euler inverse and forward dynamics of open chains, dynamics in task space (classes 16-17; Prabhakar and Richardson)
Trajectory Generation, through Wed May 14
reading: Chapter 9, but you may skip 9.2 and 9.3
- definitions and time-optimal time scaling (classes 18-19; W. Chen and Zhang)
Motion Planning, through Fri May 23
reading: Chapter 10 through 10.5.1
- overview, foundations, and complete path planners (classes 20-21; Jain)
- grid methods and the RRT sampling method (classes 22-23)
Robot Control
optional: Chapter 11
Grasping and Manipulation, through Fri June 6
reading: Chapter 12
- contact kinematics, planar graphical methods, and form closure (classes 24-25)
- contact forces, planar graphical methods, and force closure (classes 26-27;; X. Chen and Xiong)
- other manipulation (classes 28-29; Shepherd and Woodruff)
