16-762: Mobile Manipulation (Spring 2026)
Course Info
Time: Monday & Wednesday 3:30 - 4:50 PM
Location: NSH 3002
Instructor: Zackory Erickson
Office Hours: Upon request
Course Questions and Discussion: Slack – Registered students will be added
Course Description
In this course, you’ll learn about mobile manipulation through hands-on experience working with real mobile manipulators. You’ll gain experience with teleoperation, autonomy, perception, navigation, manipulation, and human-robot interaction, all within the context of mobile manipulators.
This course is structured as a hands-on introduction to mobile manipulators. Lectures will provide base concepts on topics in mobile manipulation, followed by in-class lab-style implementations on real-world mobile manipulators. The course will culminate in a final project with a small team on a topic/problem of the students’ choosing that connect many of the mobile manipulation techniques learned throughout the semester.
The primary goal of this course is to provide you with a practical understanding of mobile manipulation in real contexts. Upon successful completion of this course, you should:
- Have a practical understanding of perception, action, human-robot interaction, and robot learning for mobile manipulation.
- Have hands-on experience in the design of mobile manipulation algorithms that operate in the real world.
- Have a stronger grasp on the mobile manipulation research process, including defining goals, developing methodologies, and disseminating results.
- Have familiarity with relevant literature and the state-of-the-art.
- Have experience identifying problems and tasks that could benefit from mobile manipulation and developing robot manipulation methods that enable robots to perform these tasks.
Schedule
| Date | Topic | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 Mon, Jan 12 |
Introduction | Syllabus |
| Week 1 Wed, Jan 14 |
Getting Familiar with Controlling a Mobile Manipulator | |
| Week 2 Mon, Jan 19 |
No class; MLK Jr Day | |
| Week 2 Wed, Jan 21 |
Lab 1 | Lab Assignment 1 released |
| Week 3 Mon, Jan 26 |
Forward and Inverse Kinematics | |
| Week 3 Wed, Jan 28 |
Lab 1 continued | |
| Week 4 Mon, Feb 2 |
Motion Planning | |
| Week 4 Wed, Feb 4 |
Lab 2 | Deadline: Lab 1 Lab Assignment 2 released |
| Week 5 Mon, Feb 9 |
Visual Servoing and Grasping Mechanics | |
| Week 5 Wed, Feb 11 |
Lab 2 continued | |
| Week 6 Mon, Feb 16 |
Perception for Manipulation | |
| Week 6 Wed, Feb 18 |
Lab 3 | Deadline: Lab 2 Lab Assignment 3 released |
| Week 7 Mon, Feb 23 |
Mobile Navigation and Localization | |
| Week 7 Wed, Feb 25 |
Lab 3 continued | |
| Week 8 Mon, Mar 2 |
No class; Spring break | |
| Week 8 Wed, Mar 4 |
No class; Spring break | |
| Week 9 Mon, Mar 9 |
Whole-Body Control | |
| Week 9 Wed, Mar 11 |
Lab 4 | Deadline: Lab 3 Lab Assignment 4 released |
| Week 10 Mon, Mar 16 |
Simulation for Mobile Manipulation | |
| Week 10 Wed, Mar 18 |
Lab 4 continued | |
| Week 11 Mon, Mar 23 |
Robot Learning for Mobile Manipulation | |
| Week 11 Wed, Mar 25 |
Lab 5 | Deadline: Lab 4 Lab Assignment 5 released |
| Week 12 Mon, Mar 30 |
Manipulation in Clutter | |
| Week 12 Wed, Apr 1 |
Lab 5 continued | |
| Week 13 Mon, Apr 6 |
Compliance and Contact-Rich Manipulation | |
| Week 13 Wed, Apr 8 |
Open Lab for Final Projects | Deadline: Lab 5 |
| Week 14 Mon, Apr 13 |
Frontiers in Mobile Manipulation | |
| Week 14 Wed, Apr 15 |
Open Lab for Final Projects | Deadline (Apr 18): Google Slides for your project presentation |
| Week 15 Mon, Apr 20 |
Course Project Presentations | |
| Week 15 Wed, Apr 22 |
Course Project Presentations | Deadline: Course project paper |
Pre-Requisites
Prior experience with the Python programming language is encouraged and beneficial.
