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.
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.
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-...
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.
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/
AKA Waste your time and money for a semester talking about the history and background of a topic a student should be able to pick up while actually learning it, and "motivating" a topic students are already motivated to learn.
I'm happy they're releasing this for free, because free is the right price for it.
He mentions in the first video that it will mostly be about industrial robot arms. But there's a whole lot of easy-first-lecture motivational material first.
Yes maybe I should've been clear that I meant in general. I did check the link and from the lesson titles it's clear that its very generic, and the additional links to resources available point me toward "Control + Perception".
Still, those with say, a more mechanical engineering background that are interested in the mechanic/design aspect robotics would still be more confused by a "Introduction to Robotics" title like this.
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.
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:
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!
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/
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!
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.
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.