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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Robotics: Aerial Robotics by University of Pennsylvania

4.5
stars
3,029 ratings

About the 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 with 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....

Top reviews

IT

Oct 22, 2017

The course is very good.

The classes are well taught and show general concepts. It is necessary to do research on the internet, to solve the assignments. This is not a bad thing in my point of view

ST

Jun 8, 2018

I think this is very good course of aerial robotics research. Being a student of robotics, I feel that some of stuffs in this course needs a good background in control and mechanical engineering.

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26 - 50 of 737 Reviews for Robotics: Aerial Robotics

By Abdelrahman A

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Sep 16, 2018

It needs more programming in depth and it will be perfect.

By James T

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Jan 1, 2024

There is a lot of good content, but the program is essentially orphaned. The instructors do not engage to any significant degree, and the level of learner engagement in the forums is minimal. If you have difficulties with the assignments, you may find yourself combing through years-old posts, hoping that someone in the past dealt with the same issue that you are having and posted some useful information. The sequence of courses is nonetheless a useful resource for self-study, but expect some frustration in completing the programming assignments, especially in the later courses, since you are unlikely to receive any direct support.

By Alan M

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Mar 15, 2022

There is a lot of information in here, but I don't think that they did the best job providing good support building up skills to succeed on many of the assignments and many of the quizes felt like there were just random questions out of the lectures. One example of the assingment problem, is that they waited until the last assignment to build a trajectory planner. This last assignment is a very challenging 3d design, and it would have been much easier to start learning to build a trajectory planner on the 1D or 2D. Lots of good information, not the best execution for learning.

By Jiaming S

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Feb 9, 2016

The material this course provided is sufficient for a beginner in robotics. But I have to say that the material the coursed presented is not well prepared. The lectures are not well organized. Some necessary prerequisite should be at least provided as reading materials. Quizs ask some questions that is not clearly mentioned in the lecture and some are with a little ambiguity.

By Labid B B

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May 3, 2020

This course happens to be inconsistent between video lectures and exercise. No reference book and thus try to make things very complex. I dont understand why they have used MATLAB which is not open source. I am quite frustrated and dropping off the following course of this specialization program.

By Md A S

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Feb 19, 2016

This is a totally theoretical course. This actually does not help to build a quadcopter from the scratch. It should have been mentioned in the introduction. I am opting out. The lectures did not seem appropriate for the people without proper background. Not satisfied.

By Harshad

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Jun 30, 2018

The course was very detailed and gives some hands on experience in assignments. Thanks to Prof. Vijay Kumar and TAs for excellent explanation. The course is explained well step by step, however it doesn't spoon feed you. I wouldn't say It is very easy, however it depends on the person, but It requires little effort from the learner side to understand the concept well and apply it on the assignments and quizzes, this makes it more interesting. Some fluency in math and programming is helpful. Discussion forum is best tool if you get stuck somewhere. I had to watch the videos several times to get some topics, read slides and discussion forum. Things start becoming clear and make sense while completing assignments (It is well designed to cover important concepts and apply it). Overall, great course for those who love robotics and want to learn it. This course covers basics of an autonomous quad-copter, its kinematics, dynamics, control, planning, etc.Material provided is very helpful and is designed to clear concepts and connect all the nodes.

By Colin Y

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Sep 8, 2021

I have a degree in theoretical physics, yet I found this course much more challenging than what I expected.

The course covers quite a wide range of topics in a four-week curriculum, from a good review of rotational mechanics and its application to quadrotor dynamics, to control methods and trajectory planning methods, which are all quite heavy in mathematics. Then finally you need to put all these together in the programming assignments. The assignment from Week 4 is extremely challenging. After figuring out how to work out the equations and translate them into MATLAB codes, you can actually get the quadrotor to dance in the simulation environment, which could give you the sort of feeling that you can do this for real.

The course instructor also introduces the work of their research team. Very cool stuff. After taking the course, you will have the understanding to appreciate how awesome these guys are.

By Nada A A

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Oct 9, 2019

This course is extremely useful and it helped me to get a bunch of valuable knowledge about the topic. It is also very challenging, and it requires a lot of searching and dedication. My advice to the future students on this course is to never give up even when they feel frustrated by the amount and difficulty of new concepts. It is not a course for beginners in the field; however, anyone with desire and determination to complete the course will do it. Do your best and your hard work will pay off.

Also, I would like to express my appreciation to the instructor, TAs and colleagues helping us in discussion forum. This learning environment makes the course more fantastic, and encourages students to continue the course.

By Kenan

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Jun 22, 2018

This course helped me to understand the basics of control theory. I watched all videos including the supplementary material at least twice (and sometimes by adjusting the speed of the videos). In that way I was able to repeat the material and remember the details. The quizes were mostly easy and the answers were hidden in the corresponding material, but at times some questions required additional information. The first two programming exercises were straightforward. The second part of the last assignment (i.e. trajectory planning) was very tricky. Prior to the last assignment, a practical homework can added to prepare students to the 2nd part of the last assignment.

By Dhaval S

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Sep 8, 2020

This course has been nothing short of challenges, but looking back in the time, I get the understanding of how far this course has taken me in terms of my knowledge from a noob, to a verified certificate holder. Understanding and practicing on Matlab and taking online video lectures gave me the opportunity to program everything in real time. I absolutely appreciate everyone who assisted me in the online forums, discussed and the guides which were really helpful. All the teachers and the platform itself that saw me through the course is definitely making me feel accomplished. Thank you everyone for your combined efforts and dedication. Truly appreciate everyone.

By Konstantinos P

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Nov 27, 2021

From my point of view I can tell that It was a complete course with saficient material. I was quiet pleased with video lectures and with explanations from professors that helped me understand the main topics of the course. Another reason for appreciating this course is that my diploma thesis in mechanical engineering focuses on control of quadcopter with strongly non-linear characteristics. So it provides control strategy that is essential for simulation in real time. Furthermore I would like some more programming assignments for this course in order to get enough experience in writing code for quadrotor simulation

By An N

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Feb 9, 2016

Great course. Initiate you to review much of your math and engineering control knowledge by specific problems. This is more of an application course, you see the application, the math behind and use Matlab to program certain situation. Beware, it's a one month course so they don't spend time to walk you through the basic math, some specific terms are explained during the lecture but not all, a reference for some Control book maybe needed to know what are those terms.

If you have no knowledge in these area, some supplemental material maybe provided but be ready to learn and explore more on your own.

By Yifan W

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Feb 12, 2016

I'd like to say a big thank you for Professor Kumar for putting this together. I work full time and in my spare time some of my friends are thinking about building a in-house small quadrotor with 3-D printed parts and rasberry pi & basic camara. The information of this course is very, very useful and the Matlab practices and assignments are challenging and interesting.

Not to mention this course has successfully pulled me away from my favorite video game...a remarkable achievement.

I hope that the notation in the videos and in the assignments could be more clear as that can cause confusion.

By Michael P

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Sep 18, 2017

A very informative course! I learned a ton about aerial robots and their control and applications. The programming assignments were challenging but I learned a lot through struggling with the problems. I think that supplemental section providing examples of PD/PID tuning and trajectory programming would've been very helpful and would have reduced some of the frustration I felt (and other students felt as indicated by the forum posts). Finally, I would have liked have seen better, more constructive guidance from the T/A's. I think this could be managed without providing the answer.

By Alex S

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Feb 15, 2016

One of the most useful courses, if you are planning to study robotics seriously. This course covers very important theoretical material, which you probably never find in internet in compact form.

You should prepare your mind, because this course requires careful attention, and deep comprehension. If you just a beginner, you should be ready to see a lot of math and mechanics, because this is a real robotics. But if you truly like robotics, and specially, aerial robotics, this course for you.

Personally for me - this is a course, which I was looking for a long time

By Kosuke H

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Jan 2, 2017

This course is great. The only thing I'd say is that the prerequisite for this course is really high, much higher than the course is advertised as, and I spent reviewing concepts in linear algebra (for example) almost more or as much as I did spending time on understanding how things work in aerial robotics. Challenging, and I still feel like I barely understand the material (most examples cover the most simple scenarios) so this is really just an introduction. However, still very difficult but recommended. Thanks everyone who put this course together.

By Deleted A

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Jun 6, 2017

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.

By Timothy M

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Jun 5, 2017

I learned a lot. This is a tough course, quizes are not trivial and the last HW was a huge amount of work. The videos are excellent. The professor goes slow, the visual aides are great and there are several impressive videos of drones doing impressive cool stuff. Only downside is that I would say it's harder than advertised. Also, there are some red herrings disguised as hints in the HW write ups that you have to be careful of before going down unnecessary rabbit holes.

By Gaetano B R

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Feb 8, 2016

Excellent course! Teachers of the highest level! very interesting topics. Many practical examples. I have a degree in philosophy and two master's degree in physics and statistics, but I have learned a lot - though with many night study hours - thanks to the support of prof. Vijay Kumar of the teaching team. Also, I would like to thank my classmates for the interesting discussion forums. Perhaps without their help, I would not have passed the course. Thank you all! :)

By Misbah d

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Apr 15, 2018

I appreciate the efforts of teaching faculty and the support provided by the staff on discussion forums was praise worthy. Lots of Regards for all the teachers and every hand involved in this course.

Enjoyed this course alot, But I think there should be some glue lectures of basic MATLAB and ROS programming, for students who are not into these platforms yet, Moreover a hardware lesson should also be added with this for complete implementation of the taught enigma.

By Stephen A

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Dec 12, 2016

gained a good grasp of the concepts of mathematical modelling, representation and manipulation of angular variables. the assignments were a good opportunity to practice concepts learned within the course. really good overall. While I recognise that not everything can be covered in a 4 week course, it would have been nice to have a small preview of how information from onboard cameras are processed for navigation and also one more control approach.

By Susanth M

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May 8, 2019

Structure of the course is very good and supplementary materials are provided to the right topics. Reference books and research papers, if provided at the end of a topic would greatly enhance understanding. Forums are of great help and almost provide all the solutions for one's doubts but the standard of understanding provided by research papers would be more promising. Online MATLAB is again a great resource provided by this course.

By BaoYiping

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Sep 5, 2016

it's good to understand the aerial robotics. it's quite hard for me, as English is not my native language. it's better if all the basic terms can be explained in supplyment material, such as body fixed frame, inertia frame, etc. The assignment is very good and helped me to understand the drones fly and controller. Finally it's better to have all the mathmatical proof in supplyment material if it's too long in the video.

By Dr. B S

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May 29, 2020

The course is very well organized. It is intended as a primer to get the uninitiated started. Being a professor and entrepreneur myself and somewhat of a lifelong learner, I took this course to gauge whether I should recommend it to my students and staff. And I absolutely do! The 4 weeks were a roller coaster. I wish the lectures could be longer. Otherwise both the professor and his TAs did a great job.