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Robotics 501: Mathematics for Robotics

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Re: Robotics 501: Mathematics for Robotics

#3

Post by quanto »

amelius wrote: post #2

This may be a fine course, but there seems to be nothing specific to robotics here. Not even control theory.

This is my disappointment as well. Mathematics for robotics is quite challenging due to control theory and non-linear optimization, which do not seem to be the focus of this course.

Re: Robotics 501: Mathematics for Robotics

#6

Post by pfortuny »

Honest question (am a prof. of Maths for engineering at a Spanish Univ. and am wondering about this a lot):

What is the point of explaining, say the QR factorization or iterative methods like Gauss-Jordan to engineers? I think of them as the method of integration of rational functions (the complete method, not the basic cases): totally useless today...

I understand, for example, the Jordan decomposition theorem in a Linear Algebra course because it gives a clear-cut description of a linear map and the meaning of eigenvalues/eigenspaces, etc.

Anyone cares to share? Thanks in advance.

Re: Robotics 501: Mathematics for Robotics

#7

Post by ianai »

quanto wrote: post #3
amelius wrote: post #2

This may be a fine course, but there seems to be nothing specific to robotics here. Not even control theory.

This is my disappointment as well. Mathematics for robotics is quite challenging due to control theory and non-linear optimization, which do not seem to be the focus of this course.

“ local vs global convergence in nonlinear optimization”?

Re: Robotics 501: Mathematics for Robotics

#8

Post by funnym0nk3y »

pfortuny wrote: post #6

Honest question (am a prof. of Maths for engineering at a Spanish Univ. and am wondering about this a lot): What is the point of explaining, say the QR factorization or iterative methods like Gauss-Jordan to engineers ? I think of them as the method of integration of rational functions (the complete method, not the basic cases): totally useless today ... I understand, for example, the Jordan decomposition theorem in…

Well, I'm currently in my masters in electrical engineering in Germany and we are taught the same stuff. We even have a mandatory course about basic numerical algorithms.

What exactly I can do with that I don't know

Re: Robotics 501: Mathematics for Robotics

#9

Post by pfortuny »

funnym0nk3y wrote: post #8
pfortuny wrote: post #6

Honest question (am a prof. of Maths for engineering at a Spanish Univ. and am wondering about this a lot): What is the point of explaining, say the QR factorization or iterative methods like Gauss-Jordan to engineers ? I think of them as the method of integration of rational functions (the complete method, not the basic cases): totally useless today ... I understand, for example, the Jordan decomposition theorem in…

Well, I'm currently in my masters in electrical engineering in Germany and we are taught the same stuff. We even have a mandatory course about basic numerical algorithms. What exactly I can do with that I don't know

Yes, that is exactly my issue.

It is unlikely you are going to use the Gauss-Jordan method (if you find a linear problem of huge size, you are just going to plug it into Matlab or whatever) and it does really not give you any information on the problem.

On the other hand, eigenvectors (and the principal components theorem) do give you an idea.

I reckon (as of now) that Theory is much more important than methods: these are going to become obsolete very fast, whereas the geometric/qualitative/quantitative insights of theoretical results are what give you understanding.

Thanks for the feedback.

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