A Hands-On Introduction to Building AI-Enabled Robots

This course offers a hands-on introduction to AI-powered robotics. Unlike most introductory robotics courses, students will learn essential robotics concepts by constructing a quadruped robot from scratch and training it to perform real-world tasks. The course covers a broad range of topics critical to robot learning, including motor control, forward and inverse kinematics, system identification, simulation, and reinforcement learning. Through weekly labs, students will construct a pair of tele-operated robot arms with haptic feedback, program a robot arm to learn self-movement, and ultimately create and program an agile robot quadruped named Pupper. In the final four weeks, students will undertake an open-ended project using Pupper as a platform, such as instructing it to walk using reinforcement learning, developing a vision system to allow Pupper to play fetch, or redesigning the hardware to enhance the robot's agility. Note: CS123 strives to achieve a balanced distribution of seniority across the undergrad student body. Within the first 100 registrations, enrollment of students will follow a lottery that balances such distribution amongst undergraduates. Please use the form below to enroll in the class. The form will be open on 9/8/2025 9:00AM Pacific Time. Please use this form to apply: https://tinyurl.com/cs123-2025fall and check out our website for more information: https://cs123-stanford.readthedocs.io/