DT 4049 — Sensors and Sensing

Course Syllabus
Todor Stoyanov
October 30, 2015

1 Course Objectives
The course objectives, as stated in the course plan are:

1.1 Knowledge and Understanding

After completed studies, the student shall have:

• knowledge of the the different types of sensors commonly used on mobile robotic plat-
forms

• understanding of the basic principles of operation of different types of sensors

1.2 Competence and Skills

• After completed studies, the student shall be able to:

• configure, calibrate and use modern sensors in the context of mobile robots

1.3 Judgment and Approach

After completed studies, the student shall be able to:

• reason about limitations and advantages of different sensors in different application

contexts

• discuss common practices and algorithms for processing raw sensor information

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2 Evaluation Criteria and Grading
The course grade consists of two parts: written exam and written laboratory exercises. The
exam will be graded as Pass (G) or Fail (U). To achieve a passing grade at the exam, a
student needs to achieve at least 50% of the points. The laboratory exercises will be graded
as Pass (G), Pass with distinction (VG) or Fail (U). In order to obtain VG on the labs, a
student needs to obtain at least 75% of the points. In order to obtain a G, at least 50% of
the points. In order to pass the course, the student needs to achieve at least G for both the
lab and the written exam. The final passing grade of the course module G or VG is then
taken as the grade of the lab exercises. In all cases, a G grade is awarded to a student who
has mastered all of the theoretical course material and can reason about sensors and systems
in clear, concise and well formulated scientific writing. In addition, in order to obtain a G
grade, a basic level of practical skills in configuring, calibrating and using practical sensor
systems needs to be demonstrated through the lab reports. A VG grade is awarded for
exceptionally good understanding of the subject matter, as well as for proven abilities to
solve practical problems involving sensors and sensor processing by individual study of the
available scientific literature.

2.1 Lab Reports

Labs will be assigned in groups of 2. Groups will be randomly assigned and will change for
each lab. Only one report per group should be submitted. Lab reports should be written
in English and should conform to the standards for scientific writing. Documents should be
handed in PDF format by e-mail to the course instructor by the due date. Late lab reports
will not be accepted and will automatically receive zero points.

3 Tentative Schedule
The course consists of 8 Lectures and 3 Laboratory sessions. Each lecture will consist of both
a theoretical (T) and practical (P) lesson. All sessions take place in room T103. Tentative
schedule is shown in Table 1.

4 Academic Integrity
Finally, this course will strictly adhere to the Academic Integrity policies of Örebro Univer-
sity. Any cases suspected of copying of others materials or use of non-referenced material
will be reported and the corresponding assignment will be graded with zero points.

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 Table 1: Course Sessions and Tentative Material Covered

Session Contents
L1, Nov 02 T: Basics of Sensor Systems; Sensor I/O; Actuators; Architectures
P: Basics of ROS and C
L2, Nov 05 T: Motors; Encoders; Simple Motor Control; Micro Controllers;
P: Arduino programming basics
Note: Hand out of Lab1 sets
L3, Nov 09 T: Kinematic Models; Sonars; LRFs; Occupancy Mapping;
P: LRFs and Occupancy mapping
Lab1, Nov 10 Arduino Motor Control and ROS
L4, Nov 12 T: Cameras and camera calibration; Stereo and structured light cameras
P: Camera calibration, Openni and ROS
Note: Hand out of Lab2 sets
L5, Nov 23 T: Noise models and filtering
P: Filters
Note: Lab1 due;
Lab2, Nov 24 ASUS Xtion Pro: Calibration, noise characterization and filtering
L6, Nov 26 T: 3D Range sensing; TOF cameras; Registration; Range Data filtering
P: Registration and filtering, pcl
Note: Hand out of Lab3 sets
L7, Nov 30 T: Navigation sensors; GPS; Motion capture systems; Extrinsic calibration
P: Extrinsic calibration
Note: Lab2 due;
L8, Dec 03 T: Force and torque sensors; Tactile and Pressure; Gas sensors
P: Exam preparation
Lab3, Dec 08 Case studies, Lab3 reports due Dec 22.
Presentation schedule TBD (tentative Dec 15).

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5 Contact Details
Course instructor
Todor Stoyanov
office: T1225
e-mail: todor.stoyanov@oru.se