Courses

Underactuated Robots

I have taught a module (8h) on

1. floating-base formulation of rigid body dynamics
2. centroidal dynamics and simplified models of locomotion
3. intro to optimal control, direct and indirect methods
4. global methods: Dynamic Programming, the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR)
5. local trajectory optimization: Differential Dynamic Programming (DDP/iLQR), Single/Multiple Shooting, Direct Collocation

Material

Simulation examples and useful code can be found at underactuated-examples.

1. Wieber: Holonomy and Nonholonomy in the Dynamics of Articulated Motion, 2005 (pdf)
2. Orin, Goswami, Lee: Centroidal dynamics of a humanoid robot, Auton Robot, 2013 (pdf)
   Wensing, Posa, Hu, Escande, Mandard, Del Prete: Optimization-Based Control for Dynamic Legged Robots, 2022 (pdf)
3. Slides
4. Tedrake: Underactuated Robotics, course notes (ch 7: dynamic programming)
   Liberzon: Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control Theory, Princeton University Press, 2012 (ch 6: LQR)
5. Lectures from Prof. Moritz Diehl, Numerical Optimal Control
   Tassa, Erez, Todorov: Synthesis and Stabilization of Complex Behaviors through Online Trajectory Optimization, IROS, 2012
   Gros, Zanon, Quirynen, Bemporad, Diehl: From linear to nonlinear MPC: bridging the gap via the real-time iteration, Int. Journal of Control, 2016

Applicazioni dell’Automatica - Introduzione alla Robotica Mobile

You can find my slides on Automated Lane Keeping and an introduction to Model Predictive Control on the course website.

Office hours

If you have questions related to the final projects or the course material please send me an email to arrange a meeting.