Course syllabus

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The lectures and exercises will be in the rooms shown in Time Edit, except for Q and A sessions which will be held via Zoom (see below).

All assignments and labs will be done in pairs. Find a partner and join the same pair group under the People section. 

Introduction

Welcome to the course in intelligent automation! The purpose of this course is to provide a deeper insight and understanding of the practical and theoretical challenges when developing the control of intelligent automation. An automation system that is intelligent will control machines and robots such that they effectively achieve various goals. This can be done by planning, optimizing and adapting the actions of the resources. This requires not only smart algorithms and sensors but also distributed control, communication, and PLC programming.

The course is based on “learning by doing” and consists of hand-in and programming assignments, laboratories and implementation projects. Through these practical activities, the understanding of intelligent automation will be deepened. The course also has a number of lectures and exercise sessions, where both theoretical and practical aspects of intelligent automation will be discussed.

Contact details

Martin Fabian
fabian@chalmers.se
https://www.chalmers.se/en/staff/Pages/martin-fabian.aspx

My room is in the EDIT-building, Electrical Engineering, E2, floor 5, room 5418

Teaching assistants:

Endre Erös, https://www.chalmers.se/en/Staff/Pages/endree.aspx

Wenhao Lu, https://www.chalmers.se/en/staff/Pages/wenhaol.aspx

Ahmet Ercan Tekden, tekden@chalmers.se

Schedule

Preliminary schedule of the lectures:

  1. Intro
  2. PLC
  3. Sequences
  4. State and action
  5. Graphs
  6. The robot operating system and searching
  7. Optimization and operations
  8. Planning and control
  9. Robots and coordinate systems
  10. Communication (or getting out of sync)
  11. Specification
  12. Conclusions

TimeEdit

Q and A sessions (Övning)

The help out sessions, that happen most of the weeks, will be an ONLINE help out session using Zoom, where you can log in and ask questions about your assignment work. You will have a breakout room per group where you can work together with your partner. You can then ask questions in a discussion queue that will be opened 10 minutes before the session. There you will post your group number and we will come to your breakout room to help.

 

Zoom: https://chalmers.zoom.us/j/66843755830

Passcode: 150

 

The sessions are planned for (as shown in TimeEdit with Questions and Answers or Övning):

passed...

31.10. and 04.11.

09.11. and  11.11.

16.11. and 18.11.

Office open doors

Wenhao: Mondays 16:00-17:00 

Ahmet and Endre: Tuesdays 16:00-17:00

We are all in the EDIT-building, Electrical Engineering, E2, floor 5.

About the course

Learning outcomes (after completion of the course the student should be able to)

  • Understand the differences and similarities between intelligent and traditional automation and describe the challenges engineers face when developing automation
  • Based on a specification, be able to implement the PLC control of a simple system
  • Create models and specifications for an intelligent automation system using variables, states, transitions, and logical conditions.
  • Be able to implement the data structure graph and algorithms to search in it.
  • Understand the control concepts: combinatorial and sequential control
  • Implement optimization algorithms for simple graph-based optimization,
  • Implement planning algorithms for simple planning,
  • Understand and make trade-offs in the design of intelligent and collaborative automation from a safety and sustainability perspective,
  • Understand how a distributed intelligent automation system is structured and be able to implement simpler communication and integration
  • Describe and take into account the challenges of distributed and asynchronous intelligent automation
  • Explain the challenges and opportunities when people and machines work together
  • Implement the control of a robot
  • Understand the opportunities and challenges of developing intelligent automation using virtual simulation models and understand what a digital twin is.
  • Explain some basic concepts for how a system can learn new things
  • Together in a group, describe and analyze in writing and in a presentation, opportunities, threats and ethical aspects with intelligent automation.
  • Together in a group, plan and implement an intelligent automation system that includes smart sensors, robots, machines and humans.

Organisation

The course is based on “learning by doing” and consists of hand-in and programming assignments, laboratories and implementation projects, as well as a small group assignment on opportunities, threats and ethical aspects with intelligent automation. Through these practical activities, the understanding of intelligent automation will be deepened. The course also has a number of lectures and exercise sessions, where both theoretical and practical aspects of intelligent automation will be discussed.

Literature

All literature will be distributed via the course homepage.

Examination including compulsory elements

Approved mandatory elements are required for a final grade.

Course summary:

Date Details Due