Perception and Navigation in Mobile Robots

https://opas.peppi.utu.fi/en/course/DTEK0081/20379

This course introduces the Robot Operating System (ROS) and different types of algorithmics required for autonomous operation, including vision and lidar perception, path planning and navigation.

The course involves 4 exercises with real robots (mini drone and small ground robot) and one project in these areas:

• Introduction to computer vision for robotics: traditional vs. deep learning approaches
• Introduction to lidars for perception (detect and recognize obstacles) and navigation (mapping and path planning)
• Localization in autonomous robots: outdoors vs GNSS-denied environments, external vs. onboard methods. Examples of lidar odometry, visual odometry and ultra-wideband (UWB) for localization

Teaching period: September - December (periods 1 and 2)
Credits: 5 ECTS

HDL Based design

https://opas.peppi.utu.fi/en/course/DTEK8067/3464

This course utilizes Xilinx FPGA development boards (Zedboard, Zybo Z2, Ultra96) and introduces Xilinx Vivado and Vivado HLS. Lab exercises are done with VHDL and C++ high-level synthesis (HLS). Topics include sequential vs. parallel logic, combinatorial logic, inter-process synchronization, modelling with multiple state machines and HLS modelling.

The course covers the following blocks through lab exercises:

• Block 1: Hardware description languages. Introduction to system modelling.
• Block 2: Modular designs
• Block 3: Hardware simulation
• Block 4: Finite state machines
• Block 5: Introduction to FPGAs
• Block 6: High-level synthesis in FPGAs

Teaching period: September - October (period 1)
Credits: 5 ECTS

Hardware Accelerators for
Robotics and AI

https://opas.peppi.utu.fi/en/course/DTEK0079/20377

The course covers the following topics:

• Machine learning on different hardware: CPU, GPU and FPGAs.
• Understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of different computing platforms (ASICs, FPGAs, GPU, CPU).
• CPU and GPU optimization in Python with Numba.
• Introduction to GPU programming with CUDA.
• Training neural networks for vision-based autonomous navigation.
• Deploying neural networks on GPUs and FPGAs.
• Xilinx Vitis framerowk for deep learning on FPGAs.

Teaching period: January - February (period 3)
Credits: 5 ECTS

Robotics and Autonomous Systems Projects

https://opas.peppi.utu.fi/en/course/DTEK0080/20378

This is a project-based course involving two main group projects:
1) Autonomous drone racing
2) Cooperative navigation in multi-robot systems (ground + aerial robots)

In addition, practical topics are covered with student presentations and invited lectures:

• Introduction to reinforcement learning.
• Navigation and localization in unstructured environments.
• Advanced ROS topics.
• High-level planning in autonomous robots.
• Advanced robotics simulators (e.g., Airsim and Webots).

Teaching period: March - May (periods 4 and 5)
Credits: 5 ECTS

Jorge Peña Queralta

Project Researcher, University of Turku

jopequ@utu.fi

orcid

Tomi Westerlund

Research Group Leader

Associate Professor, University of Turku

Research Professor, Wuxi Institute of Fudan University

tovewe@utu.fi

orcid

Zhuo Zou

-

zhuo@fudan.edu.cn

Hannu Tenhunen

-

hannu@kth.se

Jukka Heikkonen

-

jukhei@utu.fi

Paavo Nevalaine

-

ptneva@utu.fi

Tuan Nguyen Gia

-

tunggi@utu.fi

orcid

Li Qingqing

-

qingqli@utu.fi

orcid

Jani Tammi

-

jasata@utu.fi

orcid

Syed Kakakel

-

srukak@utu.fi

orcid

Victor Kathan Sarker

Project Researcher, Department of Future Technologies

victor.k.sarker@utu.fi

orcid

José Granados

-

jose16@utu.fi

orcid

Anum Nawaz

-

nanum18@fudan.edu.cn

Pekka Kallio

-

pk@pekkakall.io

Behailu Negash

-

behneg@utu.fi

orcid

Cassandra McCord

-

cassandra.l.mccord@utu.fi

Lassi Salomaa

-

laolsal@utu.fi

Fu Yuhong

-

yuhong.y.fu@utu.fi

Wang Zhan

-

wang.w.zhan@utu.fi

Aly Metwaly

-

aly.a.metwaly@utu.fi

orcid

Henrique Goncalves Nogueira

-

henrique.h.nogueira@utu.fi

Yang Sun

-

yang.y.sun@utu.fi

Junmeng Huang

-

junmeng.j.huang@utu.fi

Zhuoran Chao

-

zhchao@utu.fi

Christine Mwase

-

bamchristina19@fudan.edu.cn

orcid

Carmen Martínez Almansa

-

camart@utu.fi

Shule Wang

-

shwang@utu.fi

Wenshuai Zhao

-

wezhao@utu.fi

Yu Xianjia

-

xianyu@utu.fi

orcid

Paola Cecilia Torrico Morón

-

pctomo@utu.fi