Class Schedule for 2021 Spring Term

Here is a tentative schedule of lectures, readings, assignments, midterm, and final project. Lectures are Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 to 4:00 pm. Readings and assignments will be added as they become available.

You can find all of the lectures for this term on the course YouTube playlist.

MondayTuesday WednesdayThursday Friday
Feb 15
President's day
Feb 16
LEC 1: Robot dynamics and model-based control
Preparation: Chapter 1, pre-recorded video
Lecture: video
Feb 17
Assigned: Assignment 1
Office Hours
Feb 18
LEC 2: Nonlinear Dynamics
Preparation: Chapter 2, pre-recorded video
Lecture: no video -- tried a flipped lecture format
Feb 19
Office Hours
Feb 22
Office Hours
Feb 23
LEC 3: Dynamic Programming I
Preparation: Chapter 7, pre-recorded video
Feb 24
Office Hours
Feb 25
LEC 4: Dynamic Programming II
Preparation: Chapter 7 and section 8.1, pre-recorded video
Mini-Lecture: video
Feb 26
DUE: Assignment 1
Office Hours
Mar 1
Office Hours
Mar 2
LEC 5: Acrobots, Cart-poles, and Quadrotors I
Preparation: Chapter 3.0-3.4, Chapter 8, pre-recorded video
Mini-Lecture: video
Mar 3
Assigned: Assignment 2
Office Hours
Mar 4
LEC 6: Acrobots, Cart-poles, and Quadrotors II
Preparation: Chapter 3, pre-recorded video 1, video 2
Mini-Lecture: video
Mar 5
Office Hours
Mar 8
Student Holiday -- no classes
Office Hours
Mar 9
Monday classed to be held.
Mar 10
DUE: Assignment 2
Office Hours
Mar 11
LEC 7: Lyapunov Analysis I
Preparation: Chapter 9.1,9.2, pre-recorded video 1, video 2
Mini-Lecture: video
Mar 12
Office Hours
Mar 15
Office Hours
Mar 16
LEC 8: Lyapunov Analysis II
Preparation: Chapter 9, pre-recorded video
Mini-Lecture: video
Mar 17
Assigned: Assignment 3
Office Hours
Mar 18
LEC 9: Trajectory Optimization
Preparation: Chapter 10-10.3, pre-recorded video
Mini-Lecture: video
Mar 19
Office Hours
ADD DATE
Mar 22
Student holiday -- no classes
Office Hours
Mar 23
Student holiday -- no classes
Mar 24
Office Hours
Mar 25
LEC 10: Trajectory Stabilization
Preparation: Chapter 10, pre-recorded video
Mini-Lecture: video
Mar 26
DUE: Assignment 3
Office Hours
Mar 29
Office Hours
Mar 30
LEC 11: Policy Search
Lecture: video
Mar 31
Office Hours
Apr 1
LEC 12: Multibody Parameter Estimation
Lecture: video
Apr 2
Office Hours
Apr 5
Office Hours
Apr 6
Midterm
Apr 7
Assigned: Project Proposal
Office Hours
Apr 8
LEC 13: Simple models of walking
Preparation: 4.1-4.2, pre-recorded video
Apr 9
Office Hours
Apr 12
Office Hours
Apr 13
LEC 14: Simple models of running
Preparation: 4.3+, pre-recorded video
Mini-Lecture: video
Apr 14
DUE: Project Proposal
Assigned: Assignment 4
Office Hours
Apr 15
LEC 15: Planning + control through contact
Preparation: 16, 17, pre-recorded video 1, video 2
Apr 16
Office Hours
Apr 19
Patriot's Day
Office Hours
Apr 20
Student holiday -- no classes
Apr 21
Office Hours
Apr 22
LEC 16: Learning Linear Models
Lecture: video
Apr 23
DUE: Assignment 4
Office Hours
Apr 26
Office Hours
Apr 27
LEC 17: Humanoid Robots
Preparation: pre-recorded video
Apr 28
DUE: Project Update #1
Assigned: Assignment 5
Office Hours
Apr 29
LEC 18: Complete motion planning
Preparation: pre-recorded video
DROP DATE
Apr 30
Office Hours
May 3
Office Hours
May 4
LEC 19: Feedback motion planning Preparation: pre-recorded video
May 5
DUE: Assignment 5
Office Hours
May 6
LEC 20:Stochastic dynamics
Preparation: pre-recorded video
May 7
Office Hours Student holiday -- no classes
May 10
Office Hours
May 11
LEC 21:Stochastic / robust control
Preparation: pre-recorded video
Mini-Lecture: video
May 12
DUE: Project Update #2
Office Hours
May 13
LEC 22: From Linear Models to Deep Models
Lecture: video
May 14 Office Hours
May 17
Office Hours
May 18
LEC 23: Output feedback + course Wrap-up
Lecture: video
May 19
Office Hours
May 20
Project presentations Last Day of Classes
May 21