Modern Robotics, Course 1: Foundations of Robot Motion (Coursera)

Modern Robotics, Course 1: Foundations of Robot Motion (Coursera)

Do you want to know how robots work? Are you interested in robotics as a career? Are you willing to invest the effort to learn fundamental mathematical modeling techniques that are used in all subfields of robotics? If so, then the "Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control" specialization may be for you. This specialization, consisting of six short courses, is serious preparation for serious students who hope to work in the field of robotics or to undertake advanced study. It is not a sampler.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

In Course 1 of the specialization, Foundations of Robot Motion, you will learn fundamental material regarding robot configurations, for both serial robot mechanisms and robots with closed chains. You will learn about configuration space (C-space), degrees of freedom, C-space topology, implicit and explicit representations of configurations, and holonomic and nonholonomic constraints. You will also learn how to represent spatial velocities and forces as twists and wrenches. This material is at the core of the study of anything that moves (e.g., robots).
Course 1 of 6 in the Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Introduction to Modern Robotics
Introduction to the specialization, the Modern Robotics code library, the CoppeliaSim robot simulator, and the lightboard video-generation tool.
Chapter 2: Configuration Space (Part 1 of 2)
Configuration space and degrees of freedom of rigid bodies and robots.

WEEK 2
Chapter 2: Configuration Space (Part 2 of 2)
Configuration space topology and representation; configuration and velocity constraints; task space and workspace.

WEEK 3
Chapter 3: Rigid-Body Motions (Part 1 of 2)
Rigid-body motions, rotation matrices, angular velocities, and exponential coordinates of rotation.

WEEK 4
Chapter 3: Rigid-Body Motions (Part 2 of 2)
Homogeneous transformation matrices, twists, screws, exponential coordinates of rigid-body motion, and wrenches.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Fundamentals of Fluid-Solid Interactions (Coursera) Coursera
École Polytechnique

Fundamentals of Fluid-Solid Interactions (Coursera)

What is fluid-solid interactions ? It is what happens when the motions of a fluid and of a solid are somehow coupled. This happens all the time, around you when leaves flutter in the wind, inside you when your heart beats, above you when wings of a plane vibrate, under the sea... The idea behind this MOOC is to give you the basic tools to be able to predict and eventually mitigate things called flutter, galloping, sloshing, vortex-induced vibrations, added mass, to cite a few. We are going to consider any possible domains of applications such as civil engineering, aerospace engineering, nuclear engineering , ocean engineering, biomechanics and even food processing !

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Material Behavior (Coursera) Coursera
Georgia Institute of Technology

Material Behavior (Coursera)

Have you ever wondered why ceramics are hard and brittle while metals tend to be ductile? Why some materials conduct heat or electricity while others are insulators? Why adding just a small amount of carbon to iron results in an alloy that is so much stronger than the base metal? In this course, you will learn how a material’s properties are determined by the microstructure of the material, which is in turn determined by composition and the processing that the material has undergone.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Fundamentals of waves and vibrations (Coursera) Coursera
École Polytechnique

Fundamentals of waves and vibrations (Coursera)

Waves are everywhere. On water of course, but also in the air as you hear a plane, and under your feet during an earthquake certainly. Vibrations, too, are everywhere In your bike as you go over a bump, in you guitar as you play, and of course in your smartphone. You can guess that there is something in common behind all this. This is exactly the purpose of this course !

Aug 3rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Advanced Engineering Systems in Motion: Dynamics of Three Dimensional (3D) Motion (Coursera) Coursera
Georgia Institute of Technology

Advanced Engineering Systems in Motion: Dynamics of Three Dimensional (3D) Motion (Coursera)

This course is an advanced study of bodies in motion as applied to engineering systems and structures. We will study the dynamics of rigid bodies in 3D motion. This will consist of both the kinematics and kinetics of motion. Kinematics deals with the geometrical aspects of motion describing position, velocity, and acceleration, all as a function of time. Kinetics is the study of forces acting on these bodies and how it affects their motion.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Mechanics: Motion, Forces, Energy and Gravity, from Particles to Planets (Coursera) Coursera
UNSW Sydney - University of New South Wales

Mechanics: Motion, Forces, Energy and Gravity, from Particles to Planets (Coursera)

Most of the phenomena in the world around you are, at the fundamental level, based on physics, and much of physics is based on mechanics. Mechanics begins by quantifying motion, and then explaining it in terms of forces, energy and momentum. This allows us to analyse the operation of many familiar phenomena around us, but also the mechanics of planets, stars and galaxies.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Robotics Engineering & Applications (Coursera) Coursera
L&T EduTech

Robotics Engineering & Applications (Coursera)

The "Robotics Engineering & Applications" course stands as a beacon of innovation and opportunity in the realm of collaborative robotics. Comprising three dynamic modules, participants embark on a transformative journey delving into the essentials of robotic engineering, advanced programming techniques, and the integration of vision systems in designing and building robots for real-world applications.

Aug 3rd 2026
3 Weeks
Autonomous Aerospace Systems (Coursera) Coursera
University of Naples Federico II

Autonomous Aerospace Systems (Coursera)

The course aims to provide the knowledge needed to design and develop efficient driving and navigation solutions for autonomous vehicles. Driving can be strategic or tactical while navigation is the function that provides information about the position, speed and orientation of the vehicle. It is made by integrating measurement from different sources, such as sensors and receivers.

Aug 3rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Mastering Statics (Coursera) Coursera
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - HKUST

Mastering Statics (Coursera)

Statics is the most fundamental course in Mechanics. In this course, you will learn the conditions under which an object or a structure subjected to time-invariant (static) forces is in equilibrium - i.e. the conditions under which it remains stationary or moves with a constant velocity-. You will also learn how to calculate the reaction forces as well as the internal forces experienced throughout the structure so that later you can properly design and size the foundation and the members of the structure to assure the structure’s safety and serviceability.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks