MOOC - Duckietown

Join the new “Self-Driving Cars with Duckietown” MOOC

Posted on November 11, 2022 | by Ivano Marocchi

Join the self-driving cars with Duckietown MOOC user-paced edition

Over 7200 learners engaged in a robotics and AI learning adventure with “Self-Driving Cars with Duckietown”, the first massive online open course (MOOC) on robot autonomy with hardware, hosted on the edX platform.

Kicking off on November 29th, this new edition is a user-paced course with rich and engaging modules offering a grand tour of real-world robotics, from computer vision to perception, planning, modeling, control, and machine learning, released all at once!

With simulation and real-world learning activities, learners can touch with hand the emergence of autonomy in their robotic agents with approaches of increasing complexity, from Brateinberg vehicles to deep learning applications.

We are thrilled to welcome you to the start of the second edition of Self-Driving Cars with Duckietown.

This is a new learning experience in many different ways, for both you and us. While the course is self-paced, the instructors and staff, as well as your peer learners and the community of those that came before you are standing behind, ready to intervene and support your efforts at any time.

Learn autonomy hands-on by making real robots take their own decisions and accomplish broadly defined tasks. Step by step from the theory, to the implementation, to the deployment in simulation as well as on Duckiebots.

Leverage the power of the NVIDIA Jetson Nano-powered Duckiebot to see your algorithms come to life!

MOOC Factsheet

Prerequisites

What you will learn

Designed for university-level students and professionals, this course is brought to you by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), in collaboration with the University of Montreal, the Duckietown Foundation, and the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago.

Learning autonomy requires a fundamentally different approach when compared to other computer science and engineering disciplines. Autonomy is inherently multi-disciplinary, and mastering it requires expertise in domains ranging from fundamental mathematics to practical machine-learning skills.

The Duckietown robotic ecosystem was created at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in 2016 and is now used in over 175 universities worldwide.

“The Duckietown educational platform provides a hands-on, scaled-down, accessible version of real-world autonomous systems.” said Emilio Frazzoli, Professor of Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich, “Integrating NVIDIA’s Jetson Nano power in Duckietown enables unprecedented access to state-of-the-art compute solutions for learning autonomy.”

"I’m thrilled that ETH, with UMontreal, the Duckietown Foundation, and the Toyota Technological Institute in Chicago, are collaborating to bring this course in self-driving cars and robotics to the 35 million learners on edX. This emerging technology has the potential to completely change the way we live and travel, and the course provides a unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor of understanding and using the technology powering autonomous vehicles."

"The new NVIDIA Jetson Nano is the ultimate starter AI computer for educators and students to teach and learn AI at an incredibly affordable price. Duckietown and its EdX MOOC are leveraging Jetson to take hands-on experimentation and understanding of AI and autonomous machines to the next level."

"The Duckietown educational platform provides a hands-on, scaled down, accessible version of real world autonomous systems. Integrating NVIDIA’s Jetson Nano power in Duckietown enables unprecedented access to state-of-the-art compute solutions for learning autonomy."

Enroll now and don’t miss the chance to join in the first vehicle autonomy MOOC with hands-on learning!

Ubuntu laptop terminal interface with hands operating keyboard, Duckiebot and duckies out of focus in foreground

“Self-Driving Cars with Duckietown” MOOC starting soon

Posted on March 4, 2021 | by Ivano Marocchi

Join the first hardware based MOOC about autonomy on edX!

Are you curious about robotics, self-driving cars, and want an opportunity to build and program your own? Set to start on March 22nd, “Self-Driving Cars with Duckietown” is a hands-on introduction to vehicle autonomy, and the first ever self-driving cars MOOC with a hardware track!

This course will explore the theory and implementation of model- and data-driven approaches for making a model self-driving car drive autonomously in an urban environment, while detecting and avoiding pedestrians (rubber duckies)!

In this course you will learn, hands-on, introductory elements of:

computer vision
robot operations
ROS, Docker, Python, Ubuntu
autonomous behaviors
modelling and control
localization
planning
object detection and avoidance
reinforcement learning.

The Duckietown robotic ecosystem was created at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in 2016 and is now used in over 90 universities worldwide.

“The Duckietown educational platform provides a hands-on, scaled down, accessible version of real world autonomous systems.” said Emilio Frazzoli, Professor of Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich, “Integrating NVIDIA’s Jetson Nano power in Duckietown enables unprecedented access to state-of-the-art compute solutions for learning autonomy.”

This massive online open course will be have a hands-on learning approach using, for the hardware track, real robots. You will learn how autonomous vehicles make their own decisions, going from theory to implementation, deployment in simulation as well as on the new NVIDIA Jetson Nano powered Duckiebots.

“The new NVIDIA Jetson Nano 2GB is the ultimate starter AI computer for educators and students to teach and learn AI at an incredibly affordable price.” said Deepu Talla, Vice President and General Manager of Edge Computing at NVIDIA. “Duckietown and its edX MOOC are leveraging Jetson to take hands-on experimentation and understanding of AI and autonomous machines to the next level.”

The Duckiebot MOOC Founder’s edition kits are available worldwide, and thanks to OKdo, are now available with free shipping in the United States and in Asia!

“I’m thrilled that ETH, with UMontreal, the Duckietown Foundation, and the Toyota Technological Institute in Chicago, are collaborating to bring this course in self-driving cars and robotics to the 35 million learners on edX. This emerging technology has the potential to completely change the way we live and travel, and the course provides a unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor of understanding and using the technology powering autonomous vehicles,” said Anant Agarwal, edX CEO and Founder, and MIT Professor.

Enroll now and don’t miss the chance to join in the first vehicle autonomy MOOC with hands-on learning!

The “Self-Driving cars with Duckietown” hands-on Massive Open Online Course on edX

Posted on November 16, 2020 | by Jacopo Tani

"Self-Driving Cars with Duckietown" hands-on MOOC on edX

We are launching a massive open online course (MOOC): “Self-Driving Cars with Duckietown” on edX, and it is free to attend!

This course is made possible thanks to the support of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), in collaboration with the University of Montreal, the Duckietown Foundation, and the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago.

This course combines remote and hands-on learning with real-world robots. It is offered on edX, the trusted platform for learning, and it is now open for enrollment.

Learning activities will support the use of Jetson Nano equipped Duckiebots, powered by NVIDIA.

Learning autonomy

Participants will engage in software and hardware hands-on learning experiences, with focus on overcoming the challenges of deploying autonomous robots in the real world.

This course will explore the theory and implementation of model- and data-driven approaches for making a model self-driving car drive autonomously in an urban environment.

Pedestrian detection