This course explores the field of robotics, autonomous vehicles, and drones, and exposes students to the core technologies and systems through practical exercises and simulation. These are fields with tremendous growth and opportunities in the next 10-50 years; billions of dollars are being invested and the market size is expected to grow 10-15 percent annually. The impact of these technologies can fundamentally revolutionize a multitude of industries and transform our society, from self-driving cars to same-day drone delivery, to robotic assistants and laborers. This course explores the theories, tools, and processes that enable these technologies and the challenges, limitations, and capabilities of modern robotics, autonomous vehicles, and drone technologies. Students learn about sensor technologies for automation, autonomy from a systems perspective, vision-based perception and techniques, modern machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms, mathematical modeling and abstraction, and engineering design. The goal is to develop a fundamental toolkit to advance the next generation within the field.
