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Autonomous Robots: From Biological Inspiration to Implementation

by George A. Bekey · George A. Bekey

Survey of autonomous robot design that draws on animal locomotion and behavior. Covers robot control architectures, sensing, legged, wheeled and flying locomotion, manipulation, learning and multi-robot systems, explaining how biological principles inform engineering of robots that act independently.

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Steven LaValle's 2006 Cambridge University Press textbook, free online in full. Covers discrete planning, sampling-based motion planning such as RRTs and roadmaps, decision-theoretic planning and planning under differential constraints, giving readers the algorithmic foundations of robot motion planning.

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Short lecture by Cyrill Stachniss of the University of Bonn explaining simultaneous localization and mapping. Viewers come away understanding why a robot must estimate its own pose and a map together, and how the problem is framed probabilistically.

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Underactuated Robotics (MIT 6.832)

Nonlinear dynamics and control of underactuated systems such as walkers, swimmers and flyers: motion planning, partial feedback linearization, energy shaping, optimal control and reinforcement learning. Includes 23 lecture videos, problem sets with solutions and projects, preparing learners to design controllers that exploit natural dynamics.

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