Cognitive Robotics Schedule
Spring 2026
Office hours (Vani): Thursdays 11:00 to 12:00
Date Lecture Office Hours Project/Assignment Hand-in
Week 1 Mon 1/12 Course overview and introduction to VEX AIM.
Videos: Chiara piano, Chiara chess
Reading: Ten Big Ideas in Robotics
Wed 1/14 Robot software architecture and Python control structure. Watch Python Asynchronous Programming - AsyncIO & Async/Await
Fri 1/16 Lab 1: Meet VEX AIM Install vex-aim-tools.
Browse the IEEE Automaton blog for photos and videos of cool robots.
Week 2 Mon 1/19 No class. Martin Luther King holiday.
Wed 1/21 Finite state machines.
Fri 1/23 Lab 2: Odometry Finish Lab 2 for homework. Lab 1 due
Week 3 Mon 1/26 *** Class will be on Zoom today. ***
Lecture: More state machines, and intro to particle filters.
Try out particle_filter_demo, particle_tutorial.py, and pfdemo.py.
Wed 1/28 Particle filters. If you would like to learn more, see these excellent lectures on probabilistic robotics.
Thu 1/29 Vani 11am - 12pm
Fri 1/30 Lab 3: Particle filters. Finish lab 3 for homework. Lab 2 due
Week 4 Mon 2/2 Lecture: Kinematics.
Videos: Denavit-Hartenberg conventions, Towers of Hanoi, 3-dof arm IK, high-dof tentacle IK, tentacle manipulation
Resource: numpy quick start.
Read: Introduction to homogeneous transformations and robot kinematics, by Jennifer Kay.
Watch: Denavit-Hartenberg Conventions
Wed 2/4 The world map. Visualizing quaternions video series.
Play with quaternions.online (click the bars to change rotation).
Thu 2/5 Vani 11am - 12pm
Fri 2/6 Lab 4: Kinematics. Finish Lab 4 for homework. Lab 3 due.
Week 5 Mon 2/9 More kinematics, world maps, and SLAM
Videos:
Robot Navigation Using SLAM by Ibrahim Musba.
SLAM A 00 by Claus Brenner.
Watch: Lidar vs. Vslam for robot vacuums.
Wed 2/11 Path planning algorithms.
RRT Animation Gallery.
Videos: A* Search, Tekkotsu hand/eye planner
Thu 2/12 Vani 11am - 12pm
Fri 2/13 Lab 5: Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. Finish Lab 5 for homework. Lab 4 due.
Week 6 Mon 2/16 Intro to OpenCV. Demos: CircleWatcher.py, ColorSeg.py.
OpenCV part 2. Shape matching. Watershed algorithm (more info).
Files: water_coins.jpg, watershed.py.

Matplotlib slides. Examples: PlotDrive.fsm, PlotDrive.py; and Histogram.fsm Histogram.py

Browse OpenCV Python Tutorials, specifically on contours.
Matplotlib usage. Matplotlib tutorial info.
Wed 2/18 Speech generation and recognition. Demo: Speech1.fsm.
Google Speech API demo
Winograd's SHRDLU system, and a modern version.
Read about SHRDLU.
Review regular expressions in Python.
Thu 2/19 Vani 11am - 12pm
Fri 2/20 Lab 6: Path Planning and OpenCV. Finish Lab 6 for homework. Lab 5 due
Week 7 Mon 2/23 Backpropagation learning.
Demos: linfit.py, encoder .py, approxfn .py, approxfn2 .py, approxfn3 .py, mnist1 .py
Wed 2/25 Autonomous driving with ALVINN.
Watch the ALVINN video
Read the ALVINN demo source code.
Thu 2/26 Vani 11am - 12pm
Fri 2/27 Midterm Exam in WeH 5320 at 3:30 pm.
Week 8 Mon 3/2 Spring break: no class.
Wed 3/4 Spring break: no class.
Fri 3/6 Spring break: no lab.
Week 9 Mon 3/9 Convolutional networks.
Demos: mnist1.py, mnist2.py, mnist3.py
Wed 3/11 ImageNet and transfer learning.
Try these MobileNet demos.
Thu 3/12 Vani 11am - 12pm
Fri 3/13 Lab 7: Convolutional Neural Networks. Lab 6 due
Week 10 Mon 3/16 YOLO architecture, video: How YOLO Object Detection Works; FaceDemo.
Machine learning in Python: scikit-learn.
Extra slides on EM algorithm.
Demo: emdemo.py
Another good YOLO video: YOLO Explained
Wed 3/18 Transformer networks and large language models.. Word Embedding Demo
BERT-insight Demo
Thu 3/19 Vani 11am - 12pm
Fri 3/20 Lab 8: Embeddings and Large Language Models. Lab 7 due
Week 11 Mon 3/23 Calypso for Cozmo. Watch Calypso videos: intro, and keep-away tutorial. Have a look at the Calypso Curriculum. Then read Computational thinking and mental models: from Kodu to Calypso.
Wed 3/25 Prompt engineering.
Video: Agility Roboics Use of LLMS.
Video Jailbreaking LLM-Controlled Robots
Discussion of final project ideas.
Final projects from last year
Thu 3/26 Vani 11am - 12pm
Fri 3/27 Lab 9: Calypso for Cozmo Lab 8 due
Week 12 Mon 3/30 Final project ideas.
Work on final projects.
Wed 4/1 Work on final projects.
Thu 4/2 Vani 11am - 12pm
Fri 4/3 Work on final projects. Lab 9 due
Week 13 Mon 4/6 Work on final projects.
Wed 4/8 Work on final projects.
Share-outs of progress so far.
Project share-outs
Fri 4/10 No lab. Spring Carnival
Week 14 Mon 4/13 Work on final projects.
Wed 4/15 Work on final projects.
Fri 4/17 Work on final projects
Week 15 Mon 4/20 Work on final projects.
Wed 4/22 Work on final projects.
Fri 4/24 Demos of your final projects. Final project hand-in due by Sunday May 3.
Week 16 Tue 4/28 Final exam: 5:30 PM, GHC 4307.