🤖 Embodied AI & Human–Robot Interaction
Fall 2025 – Senior Undergraduate Course
Welcome!
This new undergraduate course explores how embodied AI and human–robot interaction (HRI) come together to shape the robots of today and tomorrow. Through lectures, hands-on labs, user study design, and a creative capstone project, you will learn how robots sense, act, learn, and interact with people in meaningful/creative ways.
What to Expect
- Lectures (Mondays): Foundations of embodied cognition, robotics, sensing, planning, learning, and interaction design, along with ethics, creativity, and the future of embodiment.
- Labs (Wednesdays): Hands-on robotics with Raspberry Pi as the base platform. You will need to wire sensors, controll motors, integrate perception, experiment with ROS2, and build expressive systems.
- Capstone Project: In teams, you’ll design and build a novel robot embodiment. Each capstone will include both a working prototype and a small user study to test how people respond to your robot, and a final demo in a public showcase.
Tools & Platforms
Each student pair will be provided with a robotics kit and access to makerspace resources. You’ll work with:
- Sensors: camera, microphone, IMU, tactile sensors.
- Actuators: motors, servos, LEDs, displays, and speakers.
- Software: Python, ROS2, OpenCV, and ML libraries.
- Makerspace tools: 3D printing and craft materials for creative embodiments.
What You’ll Gain
By the end of the semester, you will:
- Understand how embodiment shapes intelligence in robots.
- Gain hands-on skills in robot prototyping, sensor integration, and control.
- Learn how to design, conduct, and evaluate user studies in HRI.
- Build and present a creative, functional robot that engages people in surprising ways.
Who Should Take This Course
- Students eager to combine technical rigor with creativity and design.
- Those excited to explore how robots can be useful, expressive, or even provocative, and how people respond to them.
Course Resources
| LOCATION AND TIME | Monday & Wednesday, 3:30-4:45, IRB1116 |
| INSTRUCTOR OFFICE HOURS | Wednesday, 2:00-3:00, IRB4126 or Zoom |
| TA OFFICE HOURS | By [Email]{mailto:zeyuy@umd.edu} appointment, IRB0102 |
Acknowledgment
CMSC498J is designed by Huaishu Peng, who takes great inspiration from a suite of course materials designed by the following faculties: Prof. François Guimbretière and Prof. Cheng Zhang @ Cornell, Prof. Stefanie Mueller @ MIT, Prof. Jon Froehlich @ UW, and Prof. Bilge Mutlu @ WISC. If you find an error please contact me here.