Robot trucks drive students to solve real problems in modern robotics

students work on trucks as professor leans in for a closer view — A new class, Intelligent Robotic Systems (ECE 346), leads students through the problems and triumphs of programming modern robotics.

Modern robotics must grapple with the complexity of intelligent systems deployed in open environments, where robot-human behaviors are dynamically linked, where risks are enormously complicated, and where failures can be catastrophic.

In spring 2022, Jaime Fernández Fisac, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, offered a new hands-on course on the fundamentals of modern robotics (ECE 346). The students’ journey was not easy, but the rewards were plenty. And in the end they walked away with the essential tools for a career working in and around intelligent robotic systems.

The video below tells their story.