AWS Robotics announces an open source Cloud Robotics Curriculum

Introduction
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Robotics has released an introductory Cloud Robotics Curriculum designed to help students, educators, and entry level developers build robotics applications with Robot Operating System (ROS) and AWS RoboMaker. This curriculum was developed in collaboration with assistant professor of computer science and roboticist, Alberto Quattrini Li, and is released as open source under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

To get started, educators and students can access the curriculum on the AWS Robotics GitHub repository.

Overview

Robotics application development is complicated and requires a multidisciplinary skill set ranging from computer science to engineering. Understanding the different approaches to development, testing methodologies, and deployment methods can be daunting. For students and entry level developers wanting to learn how to build robot applications, it’s difficult to know where and how to start.

Solution

The Cloud Robotics Curriculum is available on the AWS Robotics GitHub and provides a platform to get started learning about robotics application development. Students and entry level developers can work through guided project-based content and educators can download courses in a format that easily integrates into their own Canvas Learning Management Platform.

Developed to be modular, the initial three courses are now available, which span prerequisite topics and basic skills necessary for robotics development using ROS, including;

• Fundamentals of Robotics: this course introduces the basics of robotics, with an overview on robot components, modeling, and main problems to solve, to achieve a fully autonomous system. Primary learning objectives include insights to understand robotics hardware and software. Getting students comfortable working with a robotics system capable of running tasks within a real environment.
• Getting Started with ROS: this course walks students through setting up a Linux and Robot Operating System (ROS) development environment. The primary learning objective is to get students comfortable with ROS, and how to write ROS programs to control robots.
• Getting Started with AWS: this course guides students through setting up the robot development environment in the cloud using AWS RoboMaker. The objectives of this course includes understanding the cloud development environment, preparing to write programs for robots in the cloud, and integration with various AWS cloud services.

Conclusion

To find out more, visit the AWS Robotics GitHub Repository. Be one the look out for subsequent courses and tutorials focusing on intermediate and advanced topics with ROS 1 and ROS 2.