curriculum.md

SCUTTLE was designed in parallel to a university engineering curriculum. At Texas A&M, students in the Mobile Robotics course perform weekly labs and learn one module each week with a hands-on activity. Get access to the university lessons here and perform a self-study to become a robotics engineer.

Labs

The labs for Mobile Robotics were designed mostly by David Malawey up to 2019. Future changes have been made for these labs but the core knowledge remains unchanged. The curriculum is a key part of a Mechatronics Engineering program and we have also included the set of prerequisites for the course & lab below. Reviewing these prerequisites can show the necessary background for a student to gain the full benefit of studying in this course.

• Download Labs Outline PDF
• Download Labs Instruction Set
• Download Prerequisites Summary PDF

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Lab Topics The essential topics are broken down into learning modules for each week as shown in the table.

Week	Lab Topic	Learning Topic
1	Raspberry Pi, Linux	How to program in Linux
2	Python, Onboard Sensors, NodeRed	How to collect & display sensor data
3	Motor drivers, inverse kinematics	How to calculate movement & command motors
4	Encoders & Kinematics	How to plan movement & measure wheels
5	Compass & Calibration	How to calibrate a sensor
6	PID control	How to perform closed-loop control
7	Machine vision	How to use machine vision
8	Lidar, Obstacle Detection	How to detect obstacles
9	actuator integration	How to add actuators to my system

Final Project Students perform a final project in the 4-5 final weeks of the course. Project "week 1" begins after the above learning modules.

Week	Project Action	Learning Topic
1	Project effort - planning	Plan a robot function with sensors, actuators
2	Project effort - designing	Convert plans into computations
3	Project effort - testing	Test & adjust a system for functionality
4	Project effort - demonstration	Demonstrate outcomes & barriers.