4 ms·

Introduction to Robotics

152 points by danboarder 5y ago

danboarder 5y ago
It loads for me, the link goes directly to the beginner course (thus the title), also here is a home page link for all their courses like "Velocity kinematics in 3D" etc: The open online robotics education resource: https://robotacademy.net.au/ https://robotacademy.net.au/
georgeecollins 5y ago
This link never worked for me.
- ddlutz 5y ago
  I've been trying it every few mins for a while now. Figured it being on the front page must be good. But never loaded once. And no comments.
  - danboarder 5y ago
    Hmm, it's loading fine for me. Try again? Go to their home page "open online robotics education resource" for more advanced robotics topics as well, I think it is well structured material from what I have seen so far.
- yawz 5y ago
  All I’ve been getting is 503 for a while.
dheera 5y ago
Seems like they need an Introduction to Caching
ModernMech 5y ago
It seems like all the content is on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/roboticsqut/playlists https://www.youtube.com/user/roboticsqut/playlists
edsemail123 5y ago
This is non-technical in nature, and incredibly rudimentary. Best suited to those with little to no idea what the term robotics even means. Certainly not what I'd refer to as a 'Master Class'.
- danboarder 5y ago
  Yes, this is their intro for beginners. To find more advanced topics, go to their home page and look through the courses.
- TaylorAlexander 5y ago
  Unrelated but I taught a one week robotics class to some college students, and the local instructor I worked with did the same thing. He called it the "Robotics Master Class". It was an introduction! I've got some of the lectures here: https://reboot.love/t/new-lecture-series-posted-robotics-class-in-mauritius/207 https://reboot.love/t/new-lecture-series-posted-robotics-cla...
- numpad0 5y ago
  There's a subscription service called MasterClass[1] that offer master's degree level edutainment 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterClass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterClass
- oytis 5y ago
  Yeah, on the first glance looks like the obligatory first chapter in a textbook one normally skips :) Luckily there are more on-the-topic ones under the masterclass tabs, including kinematics, dynamics, vision etc.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
bitcoinGod88 5y ago
Almost completely useless, this is like a history class. Checkout "Modern robotics" for something that is quantitatively rigorous
- danboarder 5y ago
  That is just the intro. See the list of modules including "Rigid body dynamics", Velocity kinematics in 3D" and many more here: https://robotacademy.net.au/ https://robotacademy.net.au/
Schwolop 5y ago
In what is increasingly a HN trope, the early comments on this link have predominantly been negative. Please don't let that fool you - QUT's Robotics group has been a driving force for Australia for several years now. It is a young group but led by a very experienced academic, Dr Peter Corke, and they are kicking goals. As someone who holds a PhD from their biggest Australian competitor (Sydney Uni's Australian Centre for Field Robotics) I have nothing but respect for QUT's group. And finally, Peter Corke (who gives most of these lectures) is a brilliant example of a great teacher. He is not only highly educated in the topics, but he's also highly educated in pedagogy itself and it shows in these lectures and his other freely available teaching material. If you want a general introduction to modern robotics from scratch, this is a great way in.
- nomorewords 5y ago
  I think it is reasonable for something that is 1/5 general knowledge. Like, it's in the description __general__ knowledge, not specialized or deep-dive in any way. I used to like playing with electric constructors when I was a kid and something like this is perfect for me to get back into the hobby.
  - synctext 5y ago
    It takes clicks to escape the intro material. Then this: "We previously learnt how to derive a Jacobian which relates the velocity of a point, defined relative to one coordinate frame, to the velocity relative to a different coordinate frame. Now we extend that to the 3D case." https://robotacademy.net.au/masterclass/velocity-kinematics-in-3d/?lesson=352 https://robotacademy.net.au/masterclass/velocity-kinematics-...
    - alexgmcm 5y ago
      I was trying to escape the intro material but legitimately couldn't work out how to navigate the site. But yeah, robotics is really tough - I tried a course on Coursera once and found it too challenging despite my Physics major background. I want to learn it though as it'd be a cool hobby to share when I have kids etc.
NalNezumi 5y ago
I would love if "Introduction to Robotics" courses were a bit more specific on what part of robotics they are referring to. It's a big multi-discipline field, and courses with "Introduction to Robotics" as title is as helpful as "Introduction to Cars". Designing a robot, assembling a robot, buying already-made parts + sensor and program a robot, program a mobile robot vs robot arm is all quite different process & require different backgrounds. Is it the mechanical part? Electrical Engineering part? Mechatronics? Material Science? Design? Control Theory? Motion Planning? Perception? Localization? Autonomous planning? Software? All of em? As someone who worked in a robotics startup that designed/manufactured the robot and the software, I met a lot of Robotics experts and Engineers with a PhD in relevant area. (Haptics, Mechanics, Industrial Design, Motion planning, Embedded engineering, Computer Vision engineers, Control Engineers, Software Engineers, etc) But there was rarely any overlapping knowledge past maybe how actuators worked and joints/wheels moved. I could not understand much of the haptics engineers work, but could use his designs through help with the embedded engineers PCB and integration.
- kuu 5y ago
  Well, in this case the description is in the very first line of the page: > "We introduce the topic of robotics, the recent history, why we need robots and the future of robots." And based in the titles of the videos, it seems to be more about "history" of robotics than actual implementation - it's pretty clear.
  - danboarder 5y ago
    More in depth topics are there as you progress to the next sections beyond this introduction, or go to the home page for the entire topic list here: https://robotacademy.net.au/ https://robotacademy.net.au/
    - kuu 5y ago
      Thanks for that!
  - some_random 5y ago
acover 5y ago
Is there a good resource for how to practically start doing robotics? Specifically how to do it safely? I was putting together a 6 motor toy robotic arm and realized I didn't know enough.
- some_random 5y ago
  That's exactly what I expected this to be when I clicked on it, I'm pretty disappointed.
JacopoTani 5y ago
We are currently running the first edition of our free massive online open course "Self-Driving Cars with Duckietown" on EdX: https://www.edx.org/course/self-driving-cars-with-duckietown https://www.edx.org/course/self-driving-cars-with-duckietown It's a "grand tour" of vehicle autonomy with hands-on activities (in simulation and on real hardware) tailored to the autonomous vehicles application. It brings together from kinematics modeling and PID control to machine learning, passing through computer vision, planning and Bayesian filtering. The objective is having a model self-driving car driving safely while avoiding pedestrians.. in your living room. Might be of interest to some here. (Disclaimer: I'm one of the instructors)
giuseppeC 5y ago
I can suggest to give a look to Duckietown, it's a very well done platform for learning robotics. They released the massive obligation open course that for free!

152 points by danboarder 5y ago

It loads for me, the link goes directly to the beginner course (thus the title), also here is a home page link for all their courses like "Velocity kinematics in 3D" etc: The open online robotics education resource: https://robotacademy.net.au/ https://robotacademy.net.au/

georgeecollins 5y ago

This link never worked for me.

ddlutz 5y ago
I've been trying it every few mins for a while now. Figured it being on the front page must be good. But never loaded once. And no comments.
- danboarder 5y ago
  Hmm, it's loading fine for me. Try again? Go to their home page "open online robotics education resource" for more advanced robotics topics as well, I think it is well structured material from what I have seen so far.
yawz 5y ago
All I’ve been getting is 503 for a while.

dheera 5y ago

Seems like they need an Introduction to Caching

ModernMech 5y ago

It seems like all the content is on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/roboticsqut/playlists https://www.youtube.com/user/roboticsqut/playlists

edsemail123 5y ago

This is non-technical in nature, and incredibly rudimentary. Best suited to those with little to no idea what the term robotics even means. Certainly not what I'd refer to as a 'Master Class'.

danboarder 5y ago
Yes, this is their intro for beginners. To find more advanced topics, go to their home page and look through the courses.
TaylorAlexander 5y ago
Unrelated but I taught a one week robotics class to some college students, and the local instructor I worked with did the same thing. He called it the "Robotics Master Class". It was an introduction! I've got some of the lectures here: https://reboot.love/t/new-lecture-series-posted-robotics-class-in-mauritius/207 https://reboot.love/t/new-lecture-series-posted-robotics-cla...
numpad0 5y ago
There's a subscription service called MasterClass[1] that offer master's degree level edutainment 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterClass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterClass
oytis 5y ago
Yeah, on the first glance looks like the obligatory first chapter in a textbook one normally skips :) Luckily there are more on-the-topic ones under the masterclass tabs, including kinematics, dynamics, vision etc.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

bitcoinGod88 5y ago

Almost completely useless, this is like a history class. Checkout "Modern robotics" for something that is quantitatively rigorous

danboarder 5y ago
That is just the intro. See the list of modules including "Rigid body dynamics", Velocity kinematics in 3D" and many more here: https://robotacademy.net.au/ https://robotacademy.net.au/

Schwolop 5y ago

In what is increasingly a HN trope, the early comments on this link have predominantly been negative. Please don't let that fool you - QUT's Robotics group has been a driving force for Australia for several years now. It is a young group but led by a very experienced academic, Dr Peter Corke, and they are kicking goals. As someone who holds a PhD from their biggest Australian competitor (Sydney Uni's Australian Centre for Field Robotics) I have nothing but respect for QUT's group. And finally, Peter Corke (who gives most of these lectures) is a brilliant example of a great teacher. He is not only highly educated in the topics, but he's also highly educated in pedagogy itself and it shows in these lectures and his other freely available teaching material. If you want a general introduction to modern robotics from scratch, this is a great way in.

nomorewords 5y ago
I think it is reasonable for something that is 1/5 general knowledge. Like, it's in the description __general__ knowledge, not specialized or deep-dive in any way. I used to like playing with electric constructors when I was a kid and something like this is perfect for me to get back into the hobby.
- synctext 5y ago
  It takes clicks to escape the intro material. Then this: "We previously learnt how to derive a Jacobian which relates the velocity of a point, defined relative to one coordinate frame, to the velocity relative to a different coordinate frame. Now we extend that to the 3D case." https://robotacademy.net.au/masterclass/velocity-kinematics-in-3d/?lesson=352 https://robotacademy.net.au/masterclass/velocity-kinematics-...
  - alexgmcm 5y ago
    I was trying to escape the intro material but legitimately couldn't work out how to navigate the site. But yeah, robotics is really tough - I tried a course on Coursera once and found it too challenging despite my Physics major background. I want to learn it though as it'd be a cool hobby to share when I have kids etc.

NalNezumi 5y ago

I would love if "Introduction to Robotics" courses were a bit more specific on what part of robotics they are referring to. It's a big multi-discipline field, and courses with "Introduction to Robotics" as title is as helpful as "Introduction to Cars". Designing a robot, assembling a robot, buying already-made parts + sensor and program a robot, program a mobile robot vs robot arm is all quite different process & require different backgrounds. Is it the mechanical part? Electrical Engineering part? Mechatronics? Material Science? Design? Control Theory? Motion Planning? Perception? Localization? Autonomous planning? Software? All of em? As someone who worked in a robotics startup that designed/manufactured the robot and the software, I met a lot of Robotics experts and Engineers with a PhD in relevant area. (Haptics, Mechanics, Industrial Design, Motion planning, Embedded engineering, Computer Vision engineers, Control Engineers, Software Engineers, etc) But there was rarely any overlapping knowledge past maybe how actuators worked and joints/wheels moved. I could not understand much of the haptics engineers work, but could use his designs through help with the embedded engineers PCB and integration.

kuu 5y ago
Well, in this case the description is in the very first line of the page: > "We introduce the topic of robotics, the recent history, why we need robots and the future of robots." And based in the titles of the videos, it seems to be more about "history" of robotics than actual implementation - it's pretty clear.
- danboarder 5y ago
  More in depth topics are there as you progress to the next sections beyond this introduction, or go to the home page for the entire topic list here: https://robotacademy.net.au/ https://robotacademy.net.au/
  - kuu 5y ago
    Thanks for that!
- some_random 5y ago

acover 5y ago

Is there a good resource for how to practically start doing robotics? Specifically how to do it safely? I was putting together a 6 motor toy robotic arm and realized I didn't know enough.

some_random 5y ago
That's exactly what I expected this to be when I clicked on it, I'm pretty disappointed.

JacopoTani 5y ago

We are currently running the first edition of our free massive online open course "Self-Driving Cars with Duckietown" on EdX: https://www.edx.org/course/self-driving-cars-with-duckietown https://www.edx.org/course/self-driving-cars-with-duckietown It's a "grand tour" of vehicle autonomy with hands-on activities (in simulation and on real hardware) tailored to the autonomous vehicles application. It brings together from kinematics modeling and PID control to machine learning, passing through computer vision, planning and Bayesian filtering. The objective is having a model self-driving car driving safely while avoiding pedestrians.. in your living room. Might be of interest to some here. (Disclaimer: I'm one of the instructors)

giuseppeC 5y ago

I can suggest to give a look to Duckietown, it's a very well done platform for learning robotics. They released the massive obligation open course that for free!