Hello all,

I am offering a new course, Planning Motions of Robots and Molecules
(CS689), this coming Spring semester. The course will cover fundamental
principles, classical, and modern approaches to address two questions:

1. How can a robot automatically plan and execute a sequence of motions
   that avoids collision with obstacles and accomplishes assigned tasks?

2. How can a robot use sensor-based information to determine its
   own state and model the world?

Topics will include planning with kinematic and dynamic constraints,
sensor-based planning, manipulation and assembly planning, planning
under uncertainty, and robotics-inspired methods for planning motions of
biological molecules.

The format of the course will be powerpoint lectures based on modern
robotics textbooks and research papers.

There will be programming-based homeworks, one midterm exam, and a final
project. A modern motion planning platform will be provided, OOPSMP, which
takes away low-level programming and allows quickly reproducing algorithms
and designing new ones through essentially plug-n-play.

A flyer about the course is attached. More information can be found on the
class website, http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~ashehu/?q=CS689_Spring2012

CS583 is the only prerequisite. The class is offered at Fairfax Campus,
Fridays 4:30-7:10 pm.

-Amarda Shehu
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Assistant Professor                     Phone: 703-993-4135
Department of Computer Science          Fax:   703-993-1710
George Mason University, MSN 4A5        Email: amarda/AT/cs.gmu.edu
4400 University Drive                   Web:   www.cs.gmu.edu/~ashehu
Fairfax, VA, 22030
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