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Welcome to FIRE 298 (Section 0108), Autonomous Unmanned Systems course by Dr. Nitin J. Sanket.

What is this course about?

The goal of this course is to pitch a research idea on which the students will work on in groups for the entire semetester with the common theme of using robots to solve a problem for societal good. The projects should have the potential of eventually becoming a conference/journal publication. In-case you haven't seen my Welcome note, here is the video. Assignments and upcoming deadlines are given next.

Upcoming Deadline(s)

ASN13 TBD (Individual Submissions).

ASN12 Dec 10, 2021 at 4:59:59 PM (Individual Submissions).

ASN11 Nov 23, 2021 at 11:59:59 PM (Only one submission per group).

ASN10 Nov 22, 2021 during status update time.

ASN7 Nov 1, 2021 during status update time.

ASN6 Presentation due on Nov 1, 2021 during status update time. Report due on Nov 5, 2021 at 11:59:59 PM (Only one submission per group).

ASN8 Presentation in-class on Oct 26, 2021. Presentation file due at 11:59:59 PM on same day.

ASN3 October 14, 2021 at 11:59:59 PM. Only one submission per group.

ASN2 September 28, 2021 at 11:59:59 PM. Only one submission per group.

ASN1 on September 13, 2021.

Class Slides

Class Date	Link	Topic(s)
Sept 07 2021	Slide Link	Introduction
Sept 14 2021	Slide Link	Logistics
Sept 21 2021	Slide Link	What is a Robot? + OpenCV
Sept 28 2021	Video Link, Slide Link	Introduction To Blender by Chahat Deep Singh
Oct 05 2021	Slide Link	The World of Sensors
Oct 12 2021	Slide Link	Controlling Your Robot, Filtering and Estimation Theory
Oct 14 2021	Contract, Upload Link, Slide Link	Lab Safety Training and Contract
Oct 19 2021	Slide Link	Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
Oct 26 2021	Slide Template	Fire Summit Practice Run
Nov 02 2021	Slide Link	Deep Learning
Nov 09 2021	Slide Link	Selling Your Research
Nov 16 2021	Slide Link	Guest Lectures about Labs 1
Nov 23 2021	Slide Link	Guest Lectures about Labs 2

Piazza and ELMS

If you haven't done so already, register yourself on Piazza with your terpmail. We'll be using Piazza for all announcements and discussions. Please use Piazza to contact me (Feel free to use private posts on Piazza to contact me). Please do NOT contact me via email unless it's an emergency, and do NOT contact me on any social media platform such as Facebook or WhatsApp (please respect my privacy) regarding course content. If you want to have a chat about my research, chat with me after class.

All the assignments will be released on this website page.

All the assignments are to be submitted using ELMS. If you find any errors/typo in the course github website, please edit the required markdown '.md' file and send a 'pull request'. If you don't know how to use pull request, please check out this tutorial.

Late Submission Policy

This course moves quickly, and concepts tend to build on top of each other. Therefore it's very important to keep up with the material. To encourage this, late assignments are penalized for 25% per day after the due date. But life is unpredictable; we all need a break sometimes. So, we allow you six late days, to spend on any assignment(s) except the final assignment (ASN12 and ASN13). You may submit an assignment late (after the due date) using a late day without any penalty. Think of a late day as pushing the deadline back by a day. So, to get full credit on a 2-days-late assignment, you'd need to use two late days. Late days can only be spent as full days (i.e., you can't use only half a late day for an assignment you submit 12 hrs late). If you are using a late day, mention it in the title of your submission as "USING X LATE DAY(S)" and post a comment on ELMS about the usage of a late day. We expect you to keep track of number of late days you have remaining and notify us of usage of one or more late days. We will default for penalty if we don't see the mention of late day usage as a comment on ELMS on that particular assignment. Again, If you are using a late day, mention it in the title of your submission as "USING X LATE DAY(S)".

Collaboration Policy and Honor Code

Collaboration is encouraged, but one should know the difference between collaboration and cheating. Cheating is prohibited and will carry serious consequences. Cheating may be defined as using or attempting to use unauthorized assistance, material, or study aids in academic work or examinations. Some examples of cheating are: collaborating on an take-home exam or homework unless explicitly allowed; copying homework; handing in someone else's work as your own; and plagiarism. You are welcome to collaborate with your peers on Piazza and in person. However it's important that the work you submit is an expression of your understanding, and not merely something you copied from a peer. So, we place strict limits on collaboration: Firstly, you must clearly cite your collaborators by name at the top of your report. This includes Piazza posts reference. You may not share or copy each other's code. You can discuss how your code works, and the concepts it implements, but you can't just show someone your code. You may use free and publicly available sources, such as books, journal and conference publications, and web pages, as research material for your answers. (You will not lose points for using external sources.) You may not use any service that involves payment, and you must clearly and explicitly cite all outside sources and materials that you made use of. We consider the use of uncited external sources as portraying someone else's work as your own, and as such it is a violation of the University's policies on academic dishonesty. Instances will be dealt with harshly and typically result in a failing course grade. Unless otherwise specified, you should assume that that the UMD Code of Academic Integrity applies. Unless otherwise specified, you should assume that that the UMD Code of Academic Integrity applies.