Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control Specialization

The most important concepts in modern robotics. A study of the kinematics, dynamics, motion planning, and control of mobile robots and robot arms.

About This Specialization

This Specialization provides a rigorous treatment of spatial motion and the dynamics of rigid bodies, employing representations from modern screw theory and the product of exponentials formula. Students with a freshman-level engineering background will quickly learn to apply these tools to analysis, planning, and control of robot motion. Students' understanding of the mathematics of robotics will be solidified by writing robotics software. Students will test their software on a free state-of-the-art cross-platform robot simulator, allowing each student to have an authentic robot programming experience with industrial robot manipulators and mobile robots without purchasing expensive robot hardware. It is highly recommended that Courses 1-6 of the Specialization are taken in order, since the material builds on itself.

Created by:

6 courses

Follow the suggested order or choose your own.

Projects

Designed to help you practice and apply the skills you learn.

Certificates

Highlight your new skills on your resume or LinkedIn.

Projects Overview

In the projects, students build on provided free software, written in multiple languages, allowing each student to choose their favorite language. Projects include writing a simulator for a robot arm, writing a robot motion planner, and writing software for trajectory planning and feedback control of a mobile manipulator consisting of a wheeled mobile robot and a robot arm. All software is tested on the robot simulator.

Courses

Intermediate Specialization.: Some related experience required.

COURSE 1
Modern Robotics, Course 1: Foundations of Robot Motion
Current session: Apr 16
Commitment
This course requires 4 weeks of study of approximately 3-5 hours/week.
Subtitles
English
About the Course
Do you want to know how robots work? Are you interested in robotics as a career? Are you willing to invest the effort to learn fundamental mathematical modeling techniques that are used in all subfields of robotics? If so, then the "Modern Ro
You can choose to take this course only. Learn more.
COURSE 2
Modern Robotics, Course 2: Robot Kinematics
Current session: Apr 16
Commitment
This course requires 4 weeks of study of approximately 3-5 hours/week.
Subtitles
English
About the Course
Do you want to know how robots work? Are you interested in robotics as a career? Are you willing to invest the effort to learn fundamental mathematical modeling techniques that are used in all subfields of robotics? If so, then the "Modern Ro
You can choose to take this course only. Learn more.
COURSE 3
Modern Robotics, Course 3: Robot Dynamics
Current session: Apr 16
Commitment
This course requires 4 weeks of study of approximately 3-5 hours/week.
Subtitles
English
About the Course
Do you want to know how robots work? Are you interested in robotics as a career? Are you willing to invest the effort to learn fundamental mathematical modeling techniques that are used in all subfields of robotics? If so, then the "Modern Ro
You can choose to take this course only. Learn more.

Creators

Kevin Lynch is Chair of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University. He is the author of three books on robotics, Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics, and Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. He is a member of the Neuroscience and Robotics Lab (NxR), a collaboration between the medical school, the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, and the McCormick School of Engineering.
Northwestern University is a private research and teaching university with campuses in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, and Doha, Qatar. Northwestern combines innovative teaching and pioneering research in a highly collaborative environment that transcends traditional academic boundaries.

Kevin Lynch
Professor

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