Syllabus

Last updated: Sep 19 2024

Course: AA598 Decision-making and Control for Safe Interactive Autonomy
Offering: Autumn 2024
Instructor: Karen Leung
Lectures: GUG 305 Mon/Wed 10AM - 11:20AM
Office hours: Monday 12:00PM - 1:00PM, GUG 311B

Course description. As we move towards a future where autonomy plays an integral role in our everyday lives, such as autonomous mobility and service robots, we must recognize that the success and impact of autonomy on society are intimately connected with the humans’ experience of interacting with the system. In particular, we must ensure the interactions between autonomous systems and humans are safe.

In this course, we will explore, investigate, and present a suite of methods and techniques for decision-making and control that contribute to safe autonomous operations, including developing models for human behaviors, reasoning about uncertainty, safe control, and safety analysis.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

  • Formalize a human-robot dynamical system
  • Develop models predicting human behaviors
  • Formulate a robot planning problem that accounts for the presence of human agents
  • Devise control techniques that account for uncertainty in human behavior
  • Propose new approaches to decision-making and control for safe interactive autonomy
  • Critique research papers and prepare scientific presentations and papers.

Prerequisites. Familiarity with linear algebra, differential equations, probability, feedback control, machine learning, deep learning, and programming (Python). AA/EE/ME 548 recommended.

For those registered, please fill out the following background knowledge survey to help us understand your familiarity with key topics essential for this course. While this course will cover some basic fundamentals, some level of familiarity in these topics is expected. Your responses will assist in calibrating the course content to better suit your needs.

Grading. Tentatively, the grading is as follows:

Late day policy. No late days allowed for the following items.

  • Long paper discussion presentations. You must present during the assigned class time.
  • Short paper summaries. Due before the start of class on long paper discussion days
  • Project proposal due week 5.
  • Project presentation due week 10.
  • Project report due finals week.

Soft deadlines. There are recommended deadlines for homework and talk summaries. You are encouraged to submit the material by the recommended due dates. Otherwise, you must submit everything by December 13th (Friday finals week) 11:59PM. No exceptions. Any submissions after will not be accepted.

Course expectations. This is a special topics course covering state-of-the-art techniques on safe interactive autonomy. A core component of the course is reading and discussing papers, and therefore it is important for everyone to attend lectures regularly, do the assigned pre-reading, and actively engage during in-class discussions. Your engagement, questions, and discussion is crucial for a positive learning experience.

As such, the expectations for this course are:

  • Be an active participant in the course by attending lectures, doing assigned pre-reading, asking questions, and engaging in discussions.
  • Proactive communication with the teaching team. It is important to communicate with the teaching team as early as possible so they have the time and capacity to help you as much as possible. Do not leave things to the last minute.
  • Engage with your peers and work together in learning the course material. Meet other students, and interact with each other.

Communication and interaction. Below is a summary the communication channels for the course.

  • In-person after lectures and office hours
  • Email aa598-safe-autonomy-staff@uw.edu (for extensions, read the late day policy.)
  • Announcements on course website news section
  • Ed Discussion board (with other students)

For questions about the technical material covered in lectures, handouts, or homework, please use the Ed Discussion board to engage with other students outside of lectures. This way other students can chime in (and you will probably receive a faster response), and your questions and responses can also aid other students who have the same or similar questions.

Feedback to instructors is welcome at any time and there will be specific times during the quarter when you can submit your feedback in a structured manner. Feedback to the department advising team on any topic can be provided via the A&A confidential feedback system.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. The William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, the College of Engineering, and the UW are committed to protecting the rights and dignity of each individual in the University community. We value and honor diverse experiences and perspectives and believe that everyone deserves a welcoming and respectful learning environment that promotes access and opportunity. For information regarding the University of Washington William E Boeing Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. If you encounter or suspect incidents of bias, we encourage you to fill out a report or contact an engineering advocate. Please refer to the resources available at https://www.engr.washington.edu/bias.

Mental Health Resources. If you are facing any personal hardships, please know that there are UW Mental Health and Counseling services you can reach out.

Access and Accommodations. Your experience in this class is important to me. It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please activate your accommodations via myDRS so we can discuss how they will be implemented in this course. If you have not yet established services through DRS, but you have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), contact DRS directly to set up an Access Plan. DRS facilitates the interactive process that establishes reasonable accommodations. Contact DRS.

Illnesses and other intermittent situations. Virtual instruction—In the event that the university must shift to virtual instruction, students will be notified via Canvas and lectures will be provided via Zoom. These lectures will be recorded.

Instructor illness–In the event of instructor illness and the instructor is still able to lecture, all lectures will immediately move to virtual format on zoom. These lectures will be recorded. Students will be notified if this situation occurs.

Student illness–If a student becomes ill, has caregiver responsibilities, or has other intermittent situations that will impact their ability to attend lectures regularly, please reach out to aa598-safe-autonomy-staff@uw.edu as soon as possible.

Religious Accommodation Policy. Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for the accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request.

Academic Integrity and Cheating. Academic dishonesty is taken extremely seriously and will not be tolerated. Cooperation is allowed in doing the homework. You are encouraged to discuss approaches to solving homework problems with your classmates. However, you must always write up the solutions on your own. Copying solutions, in whole or in part, from other students or any other source will be considered a case of academic dishonesty.

More information on the UW code of conduct regarding academic integrity:

Use of Plagiarism Detection Software. The University has a license agreement with SimCheck, an educational tool that helps prevent or identify plagiarism from Internet resources. Your instructor may use the service in this class by requiring that assignments are submitted electronically to be checked by SimCheck. The SimCheck Report will indicate the amount of original text in your work and whether all material that you quoted, paraphrased, summarized, or used from another source is appropriately referenced.

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