About this course: How can we create agile micro aerial vehicles that are able to operate autonomously in cluttered indoor and outdoor environments? You will gain an introduction to the mechanics of flight and the design of quadrotor flying robots and will be able to develop dynamic models, derive controllers, and synthesize planners for operating in three dimensional environments. You will be exposed to the challenges of using noisy sensors for localization and maneuvering in complex, three-dimensional environments. Finally, you will gain insights through seeing real world examples of the possible applications and challenges for the rapidly-growing drone industry. Mathematical prerequisites: Students taking this course are expected to have some familiarity linear algebra, single variable calculus, and differential equations Programming prerequisites: Some experience programming with MATLAB or Octave is recommended (we will use MATLAB in this course.) MATLAB will require the use of a 64-bit computer.
Taught by: Vijay Kumar, Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
School of Engineering and Applied Science
| Basic Info |
Course 1 of 6 in the
Robotics Specialization.
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| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
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I really liked this course, as it presents a researcher's insight into simple, but effective quadcopter motion planning and control strategies. I think this course does require some background engineering knowledge. The last assignment was particularly challenging and really enjoyed. However, I have the following recommendations: 1) the time required for the assignments should be increased to realistic values. Although I found the provided PDFs (in addition to the lectures) useful, it still took time to derive the matrix equation for the snap-trajectory coefficients based on the boundary conditions. Unless the equations are provided in some form, I would suggest a minimum of 9 hours for that assignment. 2) all assignments entail some tuning of coefficients for PD controllers. It can be very confusing to obtain those values, especially if you are not sure what you have done is right and what sort of values to look at. For this reason, I recommend to add an extra step per assignment where the controller is run for a fixed point. That way it is clear from the marker if the equations are correct. Then, a document should be provided on sound strategies for obtaining the coefficients, without a need to look at the blogs all the time.
The course is fine as an introduction to aerial robots. But I think sometimes necessary details are left unexplained and learners may get confused. I suggest more supplementary material is added to course. Personally, I'd like some more info on how IMU, laser scanner work and a concept summary for the whole course.
Students will gain an introduction to the mechanics of flight and the design of quadrotor flying robots and will be able to develop dynamic models, derive controllers and synthesize planners for operating in three dimensional environments. Students will be exposed to the challenges of using noisy sensors for localization and maneuvering in complex, three-dimensional environments. Finally, students will gain insights through seeing real world examples of the possible applications and challenges for the rapidly-growing drone industry.
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Thank you Coursera. The course is really very nice for learning to control Aerial Vehicles.