Robotics Minor (Ro)

The robotics minor is intended to supplement one of Caltech’s undergraduate degrees and is designed for students who wish to broaden their knowledge beyond their normal major, including those who wish to pursue a career or graduate education in robotics. Students completing the robotics minor requirements will have the phrase “minor in robotics” added to their transcripts. The minor is a collaboration between the CMS, MCE, and EE departments in EAS.

Robotics, most generally, is an interdisciplinary field with the goal of creating capable and intelligent machines. It naturally integrates aspects of mechanical and electrical engineering with computer science while connecting with many other disciplines. Following the “sense-think-act” paradigm, robots have to (i) use a variety of sensors to continually observe and make sense of the real world in real time, (ii) use appropriate algorithms to consider decisions, make plans, and reason about how to influence the world, considering their own abilities, and (iii) leverage their physical embodiment to move in and take action on the world.

The robotics minor embraces multiple disciplines to draw strong connections between theory, computation and the physical world, both in the course requirements as well as the course materials. The core robotics classes teach fundamental concepts and challenge students to develop strong intuition via hardware projects. The minor provides students not just the ability to pursue robotics directly but also a perspective on how their major impacts other fields and how to work across disciplines throughout their careers.

1. Computer Science Fundamentals. CS2.
2. Mathematics Fundamentals. Ma 2; (Ma 3 or Ma/ACM/IDS 140a or ME 40 or EE 55).
3. Engineering Fundamentals. ME/CS/EE 129; (ME 13 or EE/ME 7).
4. Robotics Core. ME/CS/EE 133ab; (ME/CS/EE 134 or ME/CS/EE 169).
5. Advanced Robotics and Controls. Two courses from among the following: ME/CDS/EE 234ab; ME/CDS 235ab; CDS 110; CDS 131; CDS 212; CDS 232; CDS 233.
6. Intelligence. One course from among the following: CS/CNS/EE/IDS 155; EE/CMS/CNS/CS/IDS 181; EE/CNS/CS/IDS 182; CS/CDS/IDS 185; CNS/Bi/EE/CS/NB 186.

With the approval of the option representative, up to 9 research units may be applied to satisfy requirements 5 or 6, e.g., via CS 80, CS 81, EE 80, EE 99, ME 90, or ME 100, culminating in a required report reviewed by the research adviser.

Courses used to fulfill requirements 1, 2, and 3 (fundamentals) may be used to fulfill another major or minor or the Institute’s humanities and social sciences requirements.

Courses used to fulfill requirements in 4, 5 & 6 can not be used to fulfill (i) a requirement for another major or minor or (ii) the Institute's humanities and social sciences requirements. Any replacement of these courses must be discussed with the option administrator.

Pass/fail grading cannot be elected for courses taken to satisfy minor requirements. Courses taken as part of the minor are counted toward the total 486 units needed for Institute graduation requirements.