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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Robotics: Aerial Robotics by University of Pennsylvania

4.5
stars
3,029 ratings

About the Course

How can we create agile micro aerial vehicles that are able to operate autonomously in cluttered indoor and outdoor environments? You will gain an introduction to the mechanics of flight and the design of quadrotor flying robots and will be able to develop dynamic models, derive controllers, and synthesize planners for operating in three dimensional environments. You will be exposed to the challenges of using noisy sensors for localization and maneuvering in complex, three-dimensional environments. Finally, you will gain insights through seeing real world examples of the possible applications and challenges for the rapidly-growing drone industry. Mathematical prerequisites: Students taking this course are expected to have some familiarity with linear algebra, single variable calculus, and differential equations. Programming prerequisites: Some experience programming with MATLAB or Octave is recommended (we will use MATLAB in this course.) MATLAB will require the use of a 64-bit computer....

Top reviews

IT

Oct 22, 2017

The course is very good.

The classes are well taught and show general concepts. It is necessary to do research on the internet, to solve the assignments. This is not a bad thing in my point of view

ST

Jun 8, 2018

I think this is very good course of aerial robotics research. Being a student of robotics, I feel that some of stuffs in this course needs a good background in control and mechanical engineering.

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451 - 475 of 737 Reviews for Robotics: Aerial Robotics

By Rishabh B

Feb 14, 2016

This is a more difficult online course that you will come across. I give 4 stars because of the pretty nice content. Learning about writing linear controllers for the desired trajectory in 3D is the best thing we can get out of the course. I don't think this course qualifies as a beginner specialization. Basics (and perhaps little more details) of the topics from Dynamics(Euler equations, differentiation of a vector expressed in one frame wrt to another frame), controls and bit of computation(complexity) is needed. Topics like "Calculus of variation" were simply new to me and you have to work little more harder to understand the different equations which will be presented without any derivation. Biggest downside is TA's or other support staff is not pro-active. Perhaps they will improve in the future runs.

By Dan H

Dec 15, 2020

It teaches you a lot, but remember to put more and more effort into it, provided that you are less familiar with this particular topic of Robotics like me. Having an approximately solid background in Linear Algebra and Mechanical Engineering Principles such as Dynamics will help you more than you think (I had somehow severe difficulties in this area). You can skillfully deal with the study materials, pass the quizzes, and do the assignments if you work relentlessly, stay focused, and most importantly, be consistent. The course has its flaws. You may see it more than usual in some cases but remember that great discussion forums that address your concerns and guide you with their assistance are always there. Nonetheless, you can learn from others and get access to wonderful resources others suggest.

By Robert E

Nov 27, 2019

Quite a bit of the assignments was just tuning control parameters. If this is that important a part of designing controllers, you should spend more time on how to tune them. Discuss what physically reasonable or expected gains or damping to see on real world drones in lectures, and physical implications of the control parameters (i.e. is it reasonable to have pitch error gain of 50? 1000? should damping be expected to be 5 or 500? why?). It would also be helpful to discuss more of the dynamics of quad-copters, such as coupling of controls. Are there specific modes of coupled responses analogous to, say Dutch Roll? Are there any controls inputs that can be decoupled form others? Knowing this would make the tuning exercises more educational rather than just guessing.

By Victor L

May 8, 2018

This course was not so easy( and I mean, that's good ) Some assignments were rather difficult and they forced me to spend several nights for looking the right solution. So, sometimes I felt myself a bit tired) Fortunately I've passed that, before over of session; Good side of this course, it has a lot of material for self-study, i mean, lectures, supplement materials, related some aspects of math and matlab tutorials also good references on advanced level materials ( like Trajectory Generation and Control for Quadrobots ). Although, this stuff requires a thoughtful studying, I have a great interest to get it. I was really impressed by videos of experiments with robots. In other side, some lectures and materials have mistakes.

By Jiang, S

Nov 2, 2020

The course is a great course! I never know I could write a 3D Quadroter controller and a trajectory generator!

The missing one star is about the diffculty of the course. I lack some of the knowledges of the control theory. They are not in the prerequisite of the course and I don't know where to look for them. But if you are from a EE background, I expect it won't be a issue for you. The parts that's still unclear to me is how the equations of the dynamics of the system is converted into two/three layers of nested controls.

The assignments are great in that the simulation gives you a clean way to visualize what's happening making you focus on the core staff.

Thanks a lot Vijay!

By Maurício P

Mar 12, 2016

O curso é bastante interessante, mas você deverá estar com um nível legal de conhecimento em Cálculo e Álgebra Linear se quiser realmente aproveita-lo.

Não gostei muito de algumas das avaliações, pois existe a chance de a gente passar apenas chutando, ou seja, se errar, só tentar novamente em seguida ou em algumas horas. Como é o meu primeiro curso aqui no Coursera, não sei se todas as avaliações são assim, mas é algo que deveria mudar, de alguma forma.

Mas o que mais gostei do curso foi ele ter despertado a vontade para estudar para valer "sistemas de controle". É o que farei a seguir, antes de partir para os outros cursos dessa especialização em robótica.

By Eelco K

Feb 15, 2016

Very interesting course, with some toothing problems and unrealistic timescales for many.

For me, it would have been impossible to complete the course without the support of some extremely bright and helpful classmates, active in discussion fora (almost a given in a MOOC, but nevertheless, a course should be designed such that one could complete it without the fora).

More guidance on the programming assignments would be the first thing I would focus on for the next edition, as well as setting some realistic timescales (there is probably no way for the majority of participants to complete the last assignment within the 3 hours advised for it...).

By Deleted A

Feb 17, 2016

This course covered a lot of material, provided a well-rounded intro to the physics of 3D motion in the quad rotor context, included excellent supplemental videos to explain some of the tough mathematical concepts, and included well-designed practical assignments.

The bridge between lecture and assignment, particularly the trajectory planning question in the last assignment, could be refined as the course iterates, although the material I found myself struggling through that very tough problem may be that which I retain most from this class.

Over all an excellent class, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

By Prayag S

Apr 9, 2020

Overall course is very good to get an in-depth knowledge of control systems and motion planning for UAVs.Having worked in the field of UAVs for the past one year as a researcher the only problem that I found was that there could have been another video stating its implementation on widely available drone platforms such as on ROS and Pixhawk interface or on any other computer-flight controller interfaces so that one could try to implement this in real life on actual quadcopters. Also if any mentor or fellow learner has already done an implementation I would like to know. Overall great course and the team of mentors.

By Giovana C T

Feb 20, 2016

I loved the course, it was way beyond my expectations. Everything well explained. I only have on critic. I think the assignment of 5 waypoints trajectory was not in accordance with the rest of the course. Imagine the tests following a level line and abruptly changes to something too hard. I think the purpose here is to learn and not find out people with special skills. Many of our colleagues that were following the course simple gave up due to this assignment. And also took 25 hours average for many of us, that not dispose of this time, since the proposed time to complete the tasks are of three hours.

By TKor78

Sep 14, 2016

This course is quite tough, and I often thought to myself: "If this is an intermediate level, what does a professional level look like?" Especially the later assignments are quite difficult and time consuming to solve (it says, you need approximately three hours to solve the last one. Well, it took me about 30 hours to come up with a half-decent attempt).

However: if you really want to learn something new about cool flying robots (and who doesn't?) and are willing to spend quite an amount of effort and time, this is the course for you!

By Aswan K

Feb 7, 2017

The course was very useful, but the study material had several printing mistakes in formulae/ derivations that caused problems for some learners. Luckily there were more experienced people around to help, but the course organisers should be more careful in their material. Also, it would help if free software like octave is used rather than matlab.....it was a nightmare to download and install on my ubuntu computer and i still get annoying telephone calls from matlab people asking me if i'm interested in buying the full version.

By Daniel C

Dec 24, 2016

It is a great course for me. At the end of the course, I learned how to generate a trajectory having several set waypoints and have my drone follow the trajectory autonomously in simulation.

As opposed to the stated prerequisite, I believe the course requires engineering/math/physics background.

On the down side, there is no TA presence in the discussion forum. You will need to rely on your classmates if you are stuck. Also the second assignment requires hours of tuning, which serves almost no educational purpose.

By Viktoras T

Aug 29, 2017

Great amount of material for a novice. For me who has never done anything like this, but who has a ton of programming experience, the hardest part was to understand the concepts behind all the formulas. Slides and instructor's explanations were good, but required a good deal of studying to really understand it. Overall, I learned a ton and really got to know the math behind the flight control. Programming assignments got significantly more challenging as the course progressed, but also more informative.

By Shubham

Aug 9, 2016

The only thing I think that put this course on the back foot is the absence of mentors and TAs. They should be pretty active enough to clear the doubts that pops up while clearing quizzes or programming assignments. Its just the people on the forum that comes handy but even when they are not sure about the concept then the going becomes tough. Apart from that, the course is one of the best of its kind and trust me you will never regret doing this certification !!! Good job team UPenn !!!

By Hao-Hsiang H

May 27, 2021

Great course, I didn't have a chance to tune the PID controller or generate trajectory before this course, however, it will be better if the course move the 1-D PID to week 1, 2-D PID to week2, and add the assignment of generating minimum velocity or acceleration trajectory in week 3, before we encounter the minimum snap trajectory in final week. That will reduce the gap between 0 and min snap, which is way too hard for a person to generate the first trajectory in their life.

By Keng-Hui W

Apr 15, 2016

決定提供一個中文的心得。

這堂課程為期四週,每週會有一個作業,我認為這堂課程對於並無基本力學或線性代數概念的人會比較辛苦一點,可能一不小心就要去下一班了,因為畢竟只有四週,所以很多部分會比較快速帶過(但會提供你很多參考資料來對於這方面做加強,且也提供了一些論文和講義來讓你有更深刻的理解,當然這並不是通過本課所必須的)。

前三門作業蠻符合課程的難度,只要投影片內容都理解的不錯應該就能夠穩穩寫完,但是第四週的作業難度就比較飆升了,不過說難度飆升其實也是你完全照課程內容的方式去做(minimum snap),實際上若只是要通過的話課程提供的測試程式並沒有設定的非常嚴格,就算用比較簡易的實作方式也完全能夠應付。

給四顆星的理由在於,其實我希望這堂課程能夠開成一整個學期的長度啊,老師裡面介紹的東西感覺都非常有趣,很想要更加的深入這塊領域,老師是無人機界的大師,四週課程實在有點意猶未竟,希望能有個拉高難度至penn本身實體課程難度的版本並且拉長課堂時間,可惜這應該是不太可能的。

大致上這是個我蠻推薦的課程,但若你手邊沒有實體的無人機能玩,那就可惜了一點。

By Eric D

Feb 11, 2017

The material is very informative and generally well presented. I would have liked more video explanation about the minimum snap trajectories as this was a large part of the final assignment.

If the Matlab resource was an actual desktop application instead of online, the assignments would have been much easier and quicker to accomplish. Matlab online, in my experience, is slow and hard to work with in a single browser window.

Overall, I enjoyed this course.

By Ishan U

Oct 28, 2022

I felt that the programming assignments needed more of an explaination videos to solve these problems, but overall good learning experience! This was my first course on coursera so I can't talk much about it but to be honest, it felt a bit rushed, again, this was my first course on coursera so I won't say that for sure but a good course for learners who want to get introduction to the topic, thank you Coursera, thank you University of Pennsylvania!

By Cristian D T

Jul 28, 2018

I don't give a full score just because a little piece of the last assignment code felt a little buggy, the lecturer could improve (it feels like he is reading a textbook) and the explanations could also be better, but the assignments are very well planned, they scale from simple to nightmare at a good pace. The last assignment is probably the hardest programming exercise I've seen in coursera. Very nice for people with some engineering background.

By Ahmad F

Mar 25, 2019

After following this course for about a month, i can say that the course fit to my curiosity in aerial robotics. From this course i can dig broad and initial knowledge to the aerial robotics. However, final task was difficult and i think the course participants should read carefully the definition of notations. Some notation should be written clearly next time (or in the future revision). Overall, i am satisfied with what i got from this course.

By Daniel S

May 30, 2016

I thought the course was very laid out in going from an overview towards more specific and harder material. For the most part, I thought the assignments were very good and did a thorough job of teaching feedback control. My only problem with the assignments were that they seem to overemphasize a trial and error approach for tuning the k gains. This became very tedious especially on the third assignment where the simulator ran so slowly.

By Greg K

Jun 9, 2016

Really fascinating material and loads of good information in the lectures. The homework assignments were satisfying if you can complete them, but unfortunately involved a lot of tedious trial and error. This was especially difficult since running the program can be slow which causes slow iteration of trial and error. I would not have been able to complete the assignments without helpful information in the course discussions.

By Erick A M D

Oct 21, 2020

El curso tiene pocas explicaciones, aunque el contenido es muy bueno. Creo que debería de durar 8 semanas en lugar de 4, para poder profundizar más en cada tema.

En el proyecto final, las simulaciones de MATLAB son muy lentas (superiores a 1 hora), y parte del trabajo es a prueba y error, por lo que tienes que dedicarle mucho tiempo.

Por otro lado, la idea del proyecto final es bastante buena.

By Michael B

Jun 20, 2016

Not for the faint of heart as you are expected to be (somewhat) up-to-date on derivatives and primitives for position, velocity, and acceleration. However, even with a minimum background in mathematics and a healthy dose of determination it is possible to succeed in this course. Do not expect it to be easy but really worthwhile if one is interested in quadrotors and "what makes them fly".