Begin Robotics Free Online Course with University of Reading – Exploring Robot Anatomy, Control and Behaviour Through Simulated Tasks

Robots today are roving Mars, hoovering our floors, building cars and entertaining us in films. You may even share Stephen Hawking’s world view that super-intelligent ones may one day bring about the end of the human race.

If you’d like to find out more, but don’t have Hawking’s brain or an advanced qualification in cybernetics, this course is for you. You won’t require a soldering iron, but you’ll explore the basics of robot design, control and behaviour through a series of simulations that will have you test driving an ERIC – our very own University of Reading mobile robot.

Begin Robotics is a free open on line course which is running again on the FutureLearn platform at the start of July. It introduces robotics from a cybernetic viewpoint. It has been popular with pupils at schools or colleges, school teachers, and others perhaps wanting to study robotics, or out of general interest. It may well be of interest to IEEE members, or perhaps their children.

As well as the normal videos and articles, it includes a number of interactive web pages used to illustrate concepts, as well as hosting exercises to do include such as specifying the velocities of a robot’s wheels so it exhibits specific behaviour.

This online course is courtesy of the University of Reading.  For further information, contact Richard Mitchell, Professor of Cybernetics and School Director of Technology Enhanced Learning.