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🚀 ENME480 — Introduction to Robotics

Fall 2025 • University of Maryland • 3 credits

🎯 Course overview

ENME480 blends core theory with practical labs:

  • 🤖 Kinematics & dynamics — rigid motions, forward/inverse kinematics, planning & control
  • 🧑‍💻 ROS 2 & Python — modern robotics tooling and best practices
  • 🧪 Studios & labs — translate math into code on UR3e industrial arms
  • 👁️ Vision pipeline — perception + pick & place for the final project

🔑 Key facts

  • Instructor: Dr. Nikhil Chopra — Office Hours: Wed 10–11:30, 2149 Martin Hall (Zoom link in syllabus)
  • TAs: Alex Beyer, Kaustubh Joshi — TA Office Hours: TBD
  • Course dates: Sep 2 – Dec 12, 2025
  • Lectures: MW 2:00–2:50pm (TWS1100)
  • Studios (sections): 0101 Thu 12–2, 0102 Fri 8–10, 0103 Tue 12–2 (KEB 2111 / EAF 3119)
  • Channels: Piazza, Canvas, GitHub

📋 View Syllabus 🗓️ Schedule 🧪 Start Labs ❓ Help

🚀 Quick start (new students)

  1. 📋 Complete Safety Training (required before robot lab)
  2. 💻 Set up Ubuntu, Python, and ROS 2 — see Week 1
  3. 🐧 Practice Linux/Python basics — Week 2
  4. 🤖 Get started with ROS — Week 3

📅 Key dates

Final dates live on Canvas; midterm weeks appear on the Schedule page.

  • Course runs: Sep 2 → Dec 12, 2025
  • Midterm 1: TBD (see Schedule)
  • Midterm 2: TBD (see Schedule)
  • Final project demos: TBD (last 1–2 weeks)

🗓️ This week

(Auto-filled from data/this_week.yml by GitHub Actions on each push)

⚡ What’s new

(Short announcements from data/this_week.yml)

🧭 At a glance

  • Meetings --- Lectures: MW 2:00–2:50 (TWS1100)
    Studios: 0101 Thu 12–2 • 0102 Fri 8–10 • 0103 Tue 12–2 (KEB 2111 / EAF 3119) Schedule

  • Grading --- Homework 20% · Studios/Labs 20% · Midterm 1 20% · Midterm 2 20% · Final Project 20% · Extra credit up to 5% Policies

  • Text & tools --- Spong/Hutchinson/Vidyasagar, Robot Modeling and Control (2e, 2020).
    ROS 2 (Humble) + Python; laptop capable of running ROS 2. Resources

🏢 Locations

Activity Location Room
💻 Programming Studios Kim Engineering (KEB) KEB 2111
🤖 Robot Lab (RAL) Engineering Annex Facility (EAF) EAF 3119 (watch Piazza for any changes)
📚 Office Hours (Instructor) Martin Hall 2149 (Wed 10–11:30)

🎓 Learning path

graph LR
    A[Week 1–2: Setup] --> B[Week 3: ROS Basics]
    B --> C[Week 4–5: Gazebo & Demos]
    C --> D[Week 5–8: Kinematics]
    D --> E[Week 9–11: Dynamics & Control]
    E --> F[Final Project]