MECH ENG 4124 - Robotics M

North Terrace Campus - Semester 1 - 2015

Two main categories: robotic manipulator and advanced robotic topics. Robotic manipulator includes: classification of robotic systems; transformation of coordinates; kinematics and inverse kinematics; Jacobians and robot dynamics; trajectory generation; modelling; control. Topics of Advanced robotics includes wheeled mobile robot; machine vision basics; introduction to air, space and underwater robots; robot plume tracing, mobile robot trajectory generation; robotics in mining; other new robotic developments.

  • General Course Information
    Course Details
    Course Code MECH ENG 4124
    Course Robotics M
    Coordinating Unit School of Mechanical Engineering
    Term Semester 1
    Level Undergraduate
    Location/s North Terrace Campus
    Units 3
    Contact Up to 4 hours per week
    Available for Study Abroad and Exchange Y
    Incompatible MECH ENG 4027
    Assumed Knowledge MATHS 1012, MECH ENG 2019 & MECH ENG 3028
    Course Description Two main categories: robotic manipulator and advanced robotic topics. Robotic manipulator includes: classification of robotic systems; transformation of coordinates; kinematics and inverse kinematics; Jacobians and robot dynamics; trajectory generation; modelling; control. Topics of Advanced robotics includes wheeled mobile robot; machine vision basics; introduction to air, space and underwater robots; robot plume tracing, mobile robot trajectory generation; robotics in mining; other new robotic developments.
    Course Staff

    Course Coordinator: Dr Tien-Fu Lu

    Course Timetable

    The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.

  • Learning Outcomes
    Course Learning Outcomes
    1 Have a good understanding of the basics of robotic systems.
    2 Be able to define the needs, acquire necessary information and select appropriate robots for various industrial applications.
    3 Have a good understanding of robot design and development processes, and their vast applications.
    4 Be able to apply the knowledge learned for the design and development of simple robots.
    5 Have a good understanding and be able to explain the principles of robot kinematics, dynamics, motion planning, trajectory generation and control.
    6 Understand the basics of machine vision for robotic applications.
    7 Have a good understanding of mobile, aero and underwater robotics.
    8 Have a good understanding of the pros and cons of applying robotics.
    9 Have a deep understanding of the responsibility of engineers for the safety issues and the importance associated with the use of robots for various applications.
    10 Team based small project activity to enhance interpersonal communication and skills.
    11 Through introducing the history and new robotic technologies to understand the need to undertake lifelong learning.
    University Graduate Attributes

    This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attribute(s) specified below:

    University Graduate Attribute Course Learning Outcome(s)
    Knowledge and understanding of the content and techniques of a chosen discipline at advanced levels that are internationally recognised. 1-7
    The ability to locate, analyse, evaluate and synthesise information from a wide variety of sources in a planned and timely manner. 10
    Skills of a high order in interpersonal understanding, teamwork and communication. 10
    A commitment to continuous learning and the capacity to maintain intellectual curiosity throughout life. 11
    An awareness of ethical, social and cultural issues within a global context and their importance in the exercise of professional skills and responsibilities. 8,9
  • Learning Resources
    Required Resources
    • Text book: Craig, J. J., Introduction to Robotics, Mechanics and Control, 3rd Edition, Addison Wesley, 2005 (available from Unibooks)
    • Lecture notes available as printed copy from the Image & Copy Centre at the beginning of the semester and electronic copy available via MyUni;
    Recommended Resources

    Recommended Reading:

    • LOW, K.H., “Robotics, principles and systems modeling,” 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 2004
    • Schilling, R. J., Fundamentals of Robotics - Analysis & Control, Prentice Hall, 1991;
    • Lewis, F. L., Abdallah, C. T., Dawson, D. M., Control of robot manipulators, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993;
    • Web sites, such as: www-sop.inria.fr/saga/personnel/merlet/merlet_eng.html.
    • Other materials including journal and conference papers provided through out the semester.
    Online Learning

    Course related materials including announcements, lecture notes, tutorial materials, project information and so on will be made available in MyUni. Students are asked to access MyUni regularly (preferred at least once a week) for the course related information and materials throught out the semester. For more information, please visit MyUni Support.

  • Learning & Teaching Activities
    Learning & Teaching Modes
    • Lectures to cover the contents described in Section 1.1 course description and enhanced by videos and real life examples.
    • Tutorials to support the covered contents adopting problem-solving principles.
    • Assignments for students to exercise the knowledge learned.
    • Small project to integrate not only the contents covered in the lectures but also to extend further beyond. Basic research skills will be briefed to students and it will require students to choose areas of interests to carry out one team based small scale project each group and write reports.
    Workload

    The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

    In addition to fours hours a week for lectures, tutorial and project activities in classes, averaged three hours per week are estimated to be necessary to review the contents learned and work on assignments, tutorial questions and one team based project to achieve good learning results.

    Learning Activities Summary

    Introduction to robotic systems (1 hours lecture)

    • definitions for various robotic terms
    • industrial robots and applications
    • mobile robots and applications
    • parallel robots and applications
    • New development and trends of robotics

    Spatial descriptions (1 hour lectures, 1 hour tutorial)

    • coordinate frames
    • coordinate translation and rotation
    • homogeneous transformation
    • compound transformation
    • raw-pitch-yaw and euler angles
    • inversed rotation matrix

    Kinematics (3.5 hours lectures, 2 hours tutorial)

    • forward kinematics
    • denavit-hartenberg notation
    • joint space and cartesian space
    • inverse kinematics
    • solvability of the inverse kinematics problems
    • algebraic solution and geometric solution
    • pieper’s solution
    • kinemtaics of parallel robots

    Jacobians (3.5 hours lectures, 1hour tutorial)

    • linear and rotational velocity of rigid bodies
    • motion of the links of a robot
    • velocity propagation from link to link
    • angular and linear velocities of robot links
    • Jacobians
    • singularities
    • static forces propagate from link to link
    • Jacobians in force domain

    Dynamics (4 hours lectures, 2 hours tutorial)

    • Lagrangian formulation
    • Kinetic and potential energy
    • Euler dynamic formulation
    • the force and torque acting on a link

    Trajectory generation (2 hours lectures, 1 hour tutorial)

    • introduction
    • joint space schemes
    • cartesian schemes

    Position and force control (1.5 hours lectures, 1 hour tutorial)

    • control of manipulators
    • control law partitioning
    • trajectory following control
    • nonlinear and varying systems
    • model-based control for manipulators
    • current industrial robot control systems

    Wheeled mobile robots (1.5 hours lectures, 1 hour tutorial)

    • classification of wheels
    • mobile robot locomotion
    • kinematics of wheeled mobile robot
    • basic control of wheeled mobile robot

    Image processing and analysis (1.5 hours lectures)

    • histogram, edges, and other basics
    • applying filters and noise reduction
    • convolution mask
    • sampling and quantization
    • thresholding and connectivity
    • binary image
    • thresholding and hough transform
    • segmentation
    • binary morphology operations
    • image analysis
    • object recognition
    • stereo imaging
    • change detection

    Machine vision for change detection using mobile camera (1.5 hours lectures, 1 hour tutorial)

    • SIFT
    • Issues related to illumination changes
    • Issues related to mobile camera
    • Change detection methods

    Introduction to underwater, air and space robots (2 hours lectures, 1 hour tutorial)

    • underwater robots
    • aerial robots
    • space robots

    Robot plume tracing (1.5 hours lectures)

    • insect robot and environment simulation
    • plume and plume propagation
    • plume tracking algorithms
    • obstacle detection and avoidance

    Indoor localization (1 hours lecture)

    • problems of current indoor localization
    • Angle-of-arrival method
    • Received-signal-strength method
    • Time-of-arrival method

    Mobile robot trajectory generation (1.5 hours lectures)

    • Vector field based method
    • Time-dependent trajectory generation

    Small robotic project laboratory/simulation work (10 hours project work)

    In total, there are 38 hours lectures and tutorials. The number of hours for lectures; tutorial and project work are subject to vary slightly.

    Specific Course Requirements

    Not applicable.

  • Assessment

    The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

    1. Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
    2. Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
    3. Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
    4. Assessment must maintain academic standards.

    Assessment Summary
    • Assignments 20%: to exercise and apply the individual topic knowledge learned; objectives addressed 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9;
    • Project 10%: not only to integrate, exercise and apply the learned knowledge but also exercise basic research; objectives addressed 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11;
    • Final exam 70%: to test how well students have learned the knowledge covered and how well the knowledge could be applied to solve engineering problems; objectives addressed 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9;
    Assessment Related Requirements

    Continuous assessment is required which needs the students to pass the assignments (averaged) and project to sit for the final examination.

    Assessment Detail
    • Assignments: Assignments will be set and related to the topics described in Section 4.3 learning activity summary.
    • Project: Some small scale contemporary robotic projects will be given to students to choose from.
    • Final exam: The final exam will be set to test the robotic knowledge learned.
    Submission

    Assignments and project report (hardcopy) need to be submitted with cover sheet to the submission box, which has the correct course label, located on level 2 of Engineering South building before the deadline. Students are required to use TURNITIN and attached the report to their project reports. Electronic copy of project report as well as programs developed for the project also need to be submitted to the email address that will be specified at the beginning of the semester. Every one day late submission (both assignments and project report) will incur 10% mark deduction. Due dates may be extended with genuine reasons which needs to communicate with the lecturer face-to-face or by emails. The turn-around timeline on assessments and the provision of feedback is two weeks after the submission deadline.

    Course Grading

    Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

    M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
    Grade Mark Description
    FNS   Fail No Submission
    F 1-49 Fail
    P 50-64 Pass
    C 65-74 Credit
    D 75-84 Distinction
    HD 85-100 High Distinction
    CN   Continuing
    NFE   No Formal Examination
    RP   Result Pending

    Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

    Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

    Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.

  • Student Feedback

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    SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.

  • Student Support
  • Policies & Guidelines
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