Course Schedule | Introduction to Robot Learning

Lecture slides will be posted here and on Piazza as they become available. All assignment due dates are at 11:59 PM ET unless otherwise announced.

Date	Lecture	Optional Readings	Logistics	Topic Group
08/25	Lecture 1: Course Introduction: What is Robot Learning?	Building Machines That Learn and Think Like People		🔴 Introduction
08/27	Lecture 2: Robot Learning: An Overview	RL Textbook, Ch. 1		🔴 Introduction
09/01	Lecture 3: ML/DL Refresher Part 1	DL Textbook, Ch. 5-10	HW1 out	🟠 ML/DL Refresher
09/03	Lecture 4: ML/DL Refresher Part 2	DL Textbook, Ch. 5-10		🟠 ML/DL Refresher
09/08	Lecture 5: MDP Basics, Imitation Learning Part 1	ICML Tutorial; An Invitation to Imitation		🟣 Imitation Learning
09/10	Lecture 6: Imitation Learning Part 2	DAgger; GAIL; Diffusion Policy; pi-zero		🟣 Imitation Learning
09/15	Lecture 7: RL Basics: Value/Policy Iteration	RL Textbook, Ch. 3-4; Key Concepts in RL		🟢 Model-Free RL
09/17	Lecture 8: Q-Learning and Variants	RL Textbook, Ch. 5-7; DQN	HW1 due; HW2 out	🟢 Model-Free RL
09/22	Lecture 9: Policy Gradient Methods	RL Textbook, Ch. 13; Introduction to Policy Gradient		🟢 Model-Free RL
09/24	Lecture 10: Actor-Critic Methods	RL Textbook, Ch. 13		🟢 Model-Free RL
09/29	Lecture 11: Advanced RL Algorithms Part 1	PPO; TRPO; DDPG; SAC		🟢 Model-Free RL
10/01	Lecture 12: Advanced RL Algorithms Part 2		HW2 due; HW3 out	🟢 Model-Free RL
10/06	Lecture 13: Model-Based Control Basics	Feedback Systems		🔵 Model-Based RL
10/08	Lecture 14: Optimal Control and Planning Part 1	Optimization-Based Control; iLQR; DDP; SCP; DIAL-MPC		🔵 Model-Based RL
10/13	Fall Break - no class		Project proposal due	⛱️ Break
10/15	Fall Break - no class			⛱️ Break
10/20	Lecture 15: Optimal Control and Planning Part 2	PETS; Neural-Control Family; MPPI; PILCO; MBPO		🔵 Model-Based RL
10/22	Lecture 16: Deep Model-Based RL	Dreamer; TD-MPC		🔵 Model-Based RL
10/27	Lecture 17: Bandit and Preference-Based Learning	RL Textbook, Ch. 2; Dueling Bandits	HW3 due; HW4 out	🟡 Bandits and Exploration
10/29	Lecture 18: Exploration	Curiosity; RND		🟡 Bandits and Exploration
11/03	Democracy Day - no class			🗳️ Break
11/05	Lecture 19: Offline RL	NeurIPS Tutorial; IQL; Diffuser		⚪ RL from Offline Data
11/10	Lecture 20: Inverse RL	Maximum Entropy IRL; LP-IRL		⚪ Learning from Demonstrations
11/12	Lecture 21: Guest Lecture (TBD)		HW4 due	🟤 Specialized Topics
11/17	Lecture 22: Robot Simulation and Sim2Real	Genesis; Domain Randomization; Champion-Level Drone Racing		🟤 Specialized Topics
11/19	Lecture 23: Multi-Task and Adaptable Robot Learning	Teacher-Student; RMA; Neural-Fly		🟤 Specialized Topics
11/24	Lecture 24: Agentic Robot Learning (Haoru Xue)			🟤 Specialized Topics
11/26	Thanksgiving - no class			🦃 Break
12/01	Lecture 25: Student Project Presentations			⚫ Project
12/03	Lecture 26: Student Project Presentations			⚫ Project