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227-0562-00L 6 Credits MSC D-ITET

Robot Learning

Lecturers & Examiners: Dr. Fisher Yu
VVZ CR n/a

Last Updated: 2026-02-05 16:37:18

Abstract

Learning robots presents both significant research challenges and great commercial opportunities. This course explores the research frontiers of robot learning and dives into building practical systems such as autonomous driving and humanoid robots. The lectures will cover advanced topics on machine learning, perception, control, planning, prediction, mapping, and reinforcement learning.

Objective

Students will learn the advanced topics in perception and robotics to understand research frontiers and engineering practices in building learning robot systems. The lectures will cover the foundations in robot learning systems, including dynamic scene understanding, high-level reasoning, and decision making. Despite the immense scopes of those areas, we will focus on the advanced topics directly related to robot learning. The course will equip the students with knowledge and experience to start research works immediately in those areas. At the same time, students will learn how to apply those ideas and methods in practical systems and applications. So those interested in engineering careers can understand the boundaries between research explorations and practical solutions and how real-world robot systems work behind the scene. Students will have a solid grasp of the main ideas and theories for robot learning. Besides, through a series of projects, students will gain hands-on experience building and running state-of-the-art models in dynamic scene understanding and reinforcement learning. Also, students will learn how to experiment with their robot systems in simulation environments.

Content

The course assumes you have taken lectures in computer vision and machine learning, and you are familiar with conducting deep learning experiments. We aim to cover advanced CV and ML topics closely related to robot learning, and get you prepared for research study and advanced engineering solutions. We will cover the following areas and topics: 1) Dynamic 3D scene perception - 2D and 3D object detection and tracking - Multi-task learning - Geometry Processing - Visual localization - Visual mapping 2) Learning and reasoning - Meta-learning - Few-shot learning - Domain adaptation - Interactive learning - Causal reasoning - Lifelong learning 3) Decision making - Imitation learning - Model-free reinforcement learning - Model-based reinforcement learning - Inverse reinforcement learning - Hierarchical reinforcement learning - Learning to predict - Learning to plan 4) Applications - Autonomous driving - Object grasping - Object manipulation - Autonomous exploration The deadline to deregister is two weeks after the first lecture.

Resources

Literature

The course doesn't use a particular textbook, but each lecture will have a reading list.

General Information

Language
English
Levels
MSC
Frequency
Yearly recurring

Examination

Type
graded semester performance
There is no exam, but evaluation based on paper presentation, assignments, and a final research-oriented project.Grading scheme:1. 25%: Paper presentation2. 25%: Assignments3. 50%: Final project

Registration & Places

Max Places
32
Priority: Registration for the course unit is only possible for the primary target group

Course Components

Type Title Time & Place Hours
lecture Robot Learning
  • Thu 14:15-16:00 (ETZ E 7)
2 h weekly
exercise Robot Learning
  • Fri 10:15-12:00 (IFW A 32.1)
2 h weekly

Offered In