The course is aimed at developing skills on how to design and implement the capabilities of a robotic platform. Half of the course is lecture-based and deals with the following contents: Introduction to robot design. Mechanisms and kinematic of wheeled and legged robots. State of the art sensors used for the perception capabilities of the robot (e.g. inertial sensors, RGB-D cameras, encoders). Perception applied to allow the robot to understand the context of operation (3D terrain mapping and obstacle detection). Motion planning and control of the robot in complex cluttered contexts. Optimal planning (Dynamic Programming approach).

In the practical component of the course the students implement perception and control modules and test them in actual robots.