• Course on motion planning with prof. Florin Stoican

  1. The use of the flat representation in motion planning:
      – about the theory and usual systems encountered in motion planning (e.g., the Dubins car, simplified UAV dynamics, the quadcopter dynamics)
      – feedback linearization via flat representation (and the associated drawbacks)

  2. Spline parametrizations and their use for trajectory generation
      – B-spline functions and their use for parametrizing flat output representations of robotic platforms
      – B-spline-based formulations for obstacle avoidance /formation control

  3. Control strategies
      – Trajectory tracking via MPC for nonlinear dynamics (a quadcopter application)
      – A potential-based approach with a receding-horizon formulation

  4. Applications
      – simulations and experiments for a quadcopter system
      – discussions

• Course on model reduction by prof. Tudor Ionescu

  – Model reduction introduction: reduced solutions of linear systems; model reduction for dynamical systems – motivation; existing methods

  – Model reduction based on moment matching: notion of moment and moment matching; a parametrization of the family of approximant achieving moment matching; moment matching with pole-zero-derivative placement;

  – Moment matching with complex data: application to loopshaping control

  – Moment matching for Gramians.

• Course on ethics in research by prof. Bogdan Dumitrescu

1. The good. How to ethically manage your work, your data, your papers and your relations with colleagues and PhD advisor. We’ll talk about authorship, intellectual property, ethical implications of your research, data and results.

2. The bad. Everybody makes (honest) mistakes. What should you do if you make one? Everybody can use a little help from his/her friends, including AI. How much help is acceptable? Everybody is sometimes late. What would you compromise to make the deadline?

3. The ugly. We’ll also explore the dark side of research and talk about plagiarism, falsification, fabrication and other mortal sins that can end a researcher’s professional life. They are more frequent than we’d want to and we should be prepared to discover and fight them.

All above issues will be illustrated with examples from real or virtual life and case studies. The most frequent question will be: what would you do in this situation?