16-235 Fantastic Robots and How to Fold Them

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This course will focus on the basics of robotics through a hands-on approach. Students will build their own robots by designing a mechanical structure and embedding actuators, sensors, and controllers. They will then use these robots to solve a simple maze with obstacles. The course content will be delivered through lectures, workshops, and a course-long team project. In classical robotics, we explore the three main behaviors of robots through the work frame of "sense-plan-act". Robots are more than just these behaviors, and students will learn about how to make the physical embodiments of robots through an overview of design and manufacturing techniques for robot mechanisms. Students will be able to make their own mechanisms, improve the system through hardware or software, and learn how to analyze the kinematics and dynamics of these mechanisms to understand and control the motion.

Prerequisites: 15-104 (min C) or 15-112 (min C) or 15-110 (min C)

Offered: Spring 2027, Spring 2026

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