From humanoid robots more nimble than many of us to autonomous cars promising to disrupt mobility, the field of robotics has the ability to captivate one’s imagination.

Thankfully, there’s a wealth of free online courses available to learn about robotics.

Robotics and the related field of artificial intelligence occupy a special place in online education, as they were among the subjects covered in some of the early MOOCs that contributed to the rise of modern online education.

Since then, the field has evolved significantly, and the selection of robotics courses has grown considerably.

Below, we’ve compiled a wide range of free online courses dedicated to various branches of robotics, including introductory robotics, autonomous systems, robots used in industry, and the impact of robotics on society.

Subjects

For your convenience, we’ve broken the list down by topic. Click on a subject to jump to the corresponding section:

• Introduction to Robotics
• Autonomous Systems
• Sensing & Moving
• Reasoning & Learning
• Industry & Society

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Introduction to Robotics Online Courses

Building a Future with Robots
The University of Sheffield via FutureLearn
Explore the role of robots and autonomous systems in the factories, homes, hospitals, schools and cars of our near future.
★★★★★ (68 ratings)

Introduction to Robotics
Stanford University via YouTube
Introduction to Robotics (CS223A) covers topics such as Spatial Descriptions, Forward Kinematics, Inverse Kinematics, Jacobians, Dynamics, Motion Planning and Trajectory Generation, Position and Force Control, and Manipulator Design.
★★★★★ (6 ratings)

Modern Robotics
Northwestern University via YouTube
★★★★★ (1 rating)

Begin Robotics
University of Reading via FutureLearn
Explore the history, anatomy and intelligence of robots with this free online course. Test drive robots using exciting simulations
★★★★☆ (8 ratings)

Robotics Foundations I – Robot Modeling
University of Naples Federico II via edX
This course explores the robotics foundations for modelling of robot manipulators.
★★★★☆ (7 ratings)

Robotics Foundation II – Robot Control
University of Naples Federico II via edX
This course explores the robotics foundations for planning and control of robot manipulators and mobile robots
★★★★★ (5 ratings)

Explore Robotics
Boston Dynamics via YouTube
★★★★★ (2 ratings)

Robotics
Columbia University via edX
Learn the core techniques for representing robots that perform physical tasks in the real world.
★★★☆☆ (2 ratings)

Robótica
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México via Coursera
¿Te gustaría construir un robot y controlarlo a través de tu celular? ¡Estás en el curso indicado! Aquí podrás armar y animar un robot además de controlarlo con tu teléfono móvil, aún cuando te encuentres lejos de éste.

Introduction to Robotics
NPTEL via YouTube
This course is a bridge course for students from various disciplines to get the basic understanding of robotics. The mechanical, electrical, and computer science aspects of robotics is covered in this introductory course.

Future Robots
University of Naples Federico II via edX
Learn Robots as a new science for the understanding of human beings and the affects of robotics in the real world.

Robotics 101
SparkFun Electronics via YouTube

Introduction to Tools for Robotics
Luleå University of Technology via FutureLearn
Explore the different tools and software to design, test, and prototype custom robot parts and robust robot behaviour.

Robotics
NPTEL via YouTube
This course deals with topics in robotics: technologies in robotics, its parallel and grippers manipulators, sensors, trajectory planning, velocity analysis, image processing, forward position control, and dynamic analysis of robotics.

Introduction to Robotics
NPTEL via YouTube
The course would cover the fundamental concepts and mathematics required to understand, analyze, design and control robotic manipulators for industrial applications or research.

Robotics
NPTEL via YouTube
The course will start with a brief introduction to robots and robotics. The motivation behind keeping robots in modern industries will be discussed. After providing a brief history of robotics, different components of a robotic system will be identified.

Introduction to Robotics and Robots for Beginners Tutorial
via YouTube

micro:bit for Robotics
Kevin McAleer via YouTube

Getting Started with Robotics an Introduction and overview
Kevin McAleer via YouTube

Why YOU should use Jupyter Labs for Robotics
Kevin McAleer via YouTube

Fall 2019 Robotics Seminar: Bradley Hayes (University of Colorado Boulder)
Paul G. Allen School via YouTube

Fall 2018 Robotics Seminar, Brittany Duncan
Paul G. Allen School via YouTube

Fall 2019 Robotics Seminar: Michael Beetz (University Bremen, IAI)
Paul G. Allen School via YouTube

Autonomous Systems Online Courses

Introduction to Self-Driving Cars
University of Toronto via Coursera
This course will introduce you to the terminology, design considerations and safety assessment of self-driving cars.
★★★★★ (1 rating)

Autonomous Navigation for Flying Robots
Technische Universität München (Technical University of Munich) via edX
You will learn how to infer the position of the quadrotor from its sensor readings and how to navigate it along a trajectory.
★★★★★ (9 ratings)

Autonomous Mobile Robots
ETH Zurich via edX
Basic concepts and algorithms for locomotion, perception, and intelligent navigation.
★★★★★ (2 ratings)

Robotics: Aerial Robotics
University of Pennsylvania via Coursera
You will gain an introduction to the mechanics of flight and the design of quadrotor flying robots and will be able to develop dynamic models, derive controllers, and synthesize planners for operating in three dimensional environments.
★★★★☆ (10 ratings)

CS 8802, Artificial Intelligence for Robotics: Programming a Robotic Car
Stanford University via Udacity
Learn how to program all the major systems of a robotic car from the leader of Google and Stanford’s autonomous driving teams.
★★★★☆ (3 ratings)

6.S094: Deep Learning for Self-Driving Cars
Massachusetts Institute of Technology via Independent
This class is an introduction to the practice of deep learning through the applied theme of building a self-driving car.
★★★★☆ (2 ratings)

Self-Driving Cars Teach-Out
University of Michigan via Coursera
The drive toward self-driving cars continues to accelerate at an unprecedented pace and the promise of more accessible, lower-cost, and safer mobility options has electrified a broad discussion about the future of mobility and transportation around the world.

Intelligent Systems: An Introduction to Deep Learning and Autonomous Systems
University of York via FutureLearn
Discover the benefits and risks of deep learning and its uses in systems such as assistive technology and facial recognition.

Self-Driving Fundamentals: Featuring Apollo
Baidu via Udacity
Identify key parts of self-driving cars, utilize Apollo HD Map, localization, perception, prediction, planning and control, and start the learning path of building a self-driving car.

Planning for Autonomous Vehicles: A People-Centred Approach
European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) via FutureLearn
Learn how autonomous vehicles can improve urban mobility, and how good town planning can ensure they do just that.

Self-driving cars with Carla and Python
via YouTube
In this course, you will learn about Carla, an open source autonomous driving simulator. Carla creates a sort of open world with streets, other cars, pedestrians, weather, sensors, and more to help you to write logic to drive self-driving cars, coming with a Python API.

Modern Robotics, Course 4: Robot Motion Planning and Control
Northwestern University via Coursera
In this course, you will learn key concepts of robot motion generation: planning a motion for a robot in the presence of obstacles, and real-time feedback control to track the planned motion.

Introduction to Robotics & Autonomous Car Design
via Udemy
Learn the basics circuit design and build your own autonomous car

PlutoX Aerial Robotics Kit – A DIY Drone You Can Program
DroneBot Workshop via YouTube

Mapping for Field Robotics (Hanumant Singh, Northeastern University)
Paul G. Allen School via YouTube

Robotics | Self-Driving Cars | The Great Courses
Wondrium via YouTube

Building the Elegoo Smart Robot Car – Arduino based robotics project
DroneBot Workshop via YouTube

Sensing & Moving Online Courses

Mobile Robotics
via Open2Study
Discover the world of mobile robots – how they move, how they interact with the world, and how to build them!
★★★★☆ (17 ratings)

Underactuated Robotics (Spring 2009)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology via MIT OpenCourseWare
This course discusses nonlinear dynamics and control of underactuated mechanical systems, with an emphasis on machine learning methods.
★★★★★ (2 ratings)

Robotics: Perception
University of Pennsylvania via Coursera
How can robots perceive the world and their own movements so that they accomplish navigation and manipulation tasks? In this module, we will study how images and videos acquired by cameras mounted on robots are transformed into representations like features and optical flow.
★★★☆☆ (3 ratings)

Robotics: Mobility
University of Pennsylvania via Coursera
How can robots use their motors and sensors to move around in an unstructured environment? You will understand how to design robot bodies and behaviors that recruit limbs and more general appendages to apply physical forces that confer reliable mobility in a complex and dynamic world.
★★★☆☆ (2 ratings)

Robotics: Kinematics and Mathematical Foundations
University of Pennsylvania via edX
Master the foundational math concepts that drive robotics and put them into practice using MATLAB.

Fun with Beginner LEGO MindStorms EV3 Robotics.
via Udemy
Learning by Doing – Lego EV3 Robotics for the absolute beginner, build small robots and program them using EV3-G.
★★★★★ (1 rating)

Introduction to Robotics: How to Build a Robot Arm
Queensland University of Technology via FutureLearn
Design, build and program a simple robot and share it with other learners.
★★★★★ (1 rating)

Introduction to Robotics: Learning Kinematics to Make Robots Move
Queensland University of Technology via FutureLearn
The world needs people who understand how to get robots moving.
★★★☆☆ (1 rating)

Modern Robotics, Course 1: Foundations of Robot Motion
Northwestern University via Coursera
In this course, you will learn fundamental material regarding robot configurations, for both serial robot mechanisms and robots with closed chains.

Visual Perception for Self-Driving Cars
University of Toronto via Coursera
This course will introduce you to the main perception tasks in autonomous driving, static and dynamic object detection, and will survey common computer vision methods for robotic perception.

Sensor Fusion and Non-linear Filtering for Automotive Systems
Chalmers University of Technology via edX
Learn fundamental algorithms for sensor fusion and non-linear filtering with application to automotive perception systems.

Robotics: Dynamics and Control
University of Pennsylvania via edX
Learn how to design and engineer complex, dynamic robotic systems.

Robotics: Locomotion Engineering
University of Pennsylvania via edX
Learn how to design, build, and program dynamical, legged robots that can operate in the real world.

Modern Robotics, Course 3: Robot Dynamics
Northwestern University via Coursera
In this course, you will learn efficient numerical algorithms for forward dynamics (calculating the robot’s acceleration given its configuration, velocity, and joint forces and torques) and inverse dynamics (calculating the required joint forces and torques given the robot’s configuration, velocity, and acceleration).

Modern Robotics, Course 2: Robot Kinematics
Northwestern University via Coursera
In this course, you will learn to solve the forward kinematics (calculating the configuration of the “hand” of the robot based on the joint values) using the product-of-exponentials formula.

Modern Robotics, Course 5: Robot Manipulation and Wheeled Mobile Robots
Northwestern University via Coursera
In this course, we delve into advanced topics in robotics.

The Ultimate Guide to using Motors in Robotics (including ROS, Raspberry Pi)
Articulated Robotics via YouTube

MIT 6.832 Underactuated Robotics, Spring 2009
Massachusetts Institute of Technology via YouTube
This course discusses nonlinear dynamics and control of underactuated mechanical systems, with an emphasis on machine learning methods.

MECHANISMS AND MOTION – ROBOTICS FOCUS
via Udemy

Raspberry Pi Pico for Robotics
Kevin McAleer via YouTube

NSDI ’19 – 3D Backscatter Localization for Fine-Grained Robotics
USENIX via YouTube

Robotics and Automation – Sensors and Motor Systems
via Udemy
Foundation for Robotics and Automation Systems

Reasoning & Learning Online Courses

Artificial Intelligence for Robotics
Stanford University via Udacity
Learn how to program all the major systems of a robotic car. Topics include planning, search, localization, tracking, and control.
★★★★★ (24 ratings)

Robotics: Computational Motion Planning
University of Pennsylvania via Coursera
In this course we will consider the problem of how a robot decides what to do to achieve its goals. This problem is often referred to as Motion Planning and it has been formulated in various ways to model different situations.
★★★★☆ (4 ratings)

MIT 16.412J Cognitive Robotics, Spring 2016
Massachusetts Institute of Technology via YouTube
This is an advanced lecture series from MIT 16.412 Cognitive Robotics of Spring 2016, led by MIT students.
★★★★★ (1 rating)

Artificial intelligence and Robotics
5 Minutes Engineering via YouTube
In this course, you are going to gain some insights into Algorithms and then proceed to understand Robotics and AI concepts such as Natural Language Processing, and Neural Networks with small videos in Hindi.
★★★★★ (1 rating)

Robotics: Estimation and Learning
University of Pennsylvania via Coursera
How can robots determine their state and properties of the surrounding environment from noisy sensor measurements in time? In this module you will learn how to get robots to incorporate uncertainty into estimating and learning from a dynamic and changing world.

Robot Development
University of Naples Federico II via edX
This course offers in-depth learning of developmental cognitive robotics, taking direct inspiration from child psychology used to develop sensorimotor and cognitive skills in robots.

Decision-Making for Autonomous Systems
Chalmers University of Technology via edX
Learn effectivetactics for making keydecisionswhen working with autonomous, self-driving vehicles.

Foundations of Cognitive Robotics
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur via Swayam
The objective of this course is to introduce students, researchers to this new field of robotics with the help of illustrative models, facts and relevant theories.

Motion Planning for Self-Driving Cars
University of Toronto via Coursera
This course will introduce you to the main planning tasks in autonomous driving, including mission planning, behavior planning and local planning.

Robot Motion Planning
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur via Swayam
The course would cover the fundamental concepts and mathematics required to understand, analyze, and design algorithms required for motion planning of serial robotic arms and mobile robots.

Foundations of Cognitive Robotics
NPTEL via YouTube
The objective of this course is to introduce students, researchers to this new field of robotics with the help of illustrative models, facts and relevant theories. The course has been designed by carefully maintaining a balance between biology, engineering and control system design so that it can attract a broad group of people

Developmental Robotics
University of Naples Federico II via Federica
This module aims at development of an in-depth discussion and understanding of the field of developmental cognitive robotics.

Modeling, Simulation and Control: MATLAB and Simulink Robotics Arena
MathWorks via YouTube

Implementation: MATLAB and Simulink Robotics Arena
MathWorks via YouTube

Perception: MATLAB and Simulink Robotics Arena
MathWorks via YouTube

Getting closer to human intelligence through robotics
Brandon Rohrer via YouTube

Robotics: Vision Intelligence and Machine Learning
University of Pennsylvania via edX
Learn how to design robot vision systems that avoid collisions, safely work with humans and understand their environment.

Industry & Society Online Courses

MedTech: AI and Medical Robots
University of Leeds via FutureLearn
Using case studies, you will learn why regulations are essential for the safe use of robots and AI in healthcare, and understand the process of bringing a successful product to market. You will also explore how artificial intelligence is used in surgical procedures, to improve precision diagnostics, in exoskeleton technology, and even for patient care.
★★★★★ (10 ratings)

Diseña, fabrica y programa tu propio robot
Universitat Politècnica de València via edX
Aprenderás a diseñar, fabricar y programar tu propio robot (DYOR: Do Your Own Robot) con Arduino y te iniciarás en el mundo Maker.
★★★★★ (7 ratings)

Robotics Education: MATLAB and Simulink Robotics Arena
MathWorks via YouTube
Learn how to use MATLAB and Simulink with platforms like VEX Robotics, LEGO and other educational robotics kits. MathWorks experts share knowledge on elementary concepts in robotics for beginners.
★★★★★ (4 ratings)

Introduction to Robotics: Robotics and Society
Queensland University of Technology via FutureLearn
How do you feel about robots? Learn how robots are used today and explore how they might help solve the big issues of our time.
★★★★★ (1 rating)

The Mechatronics Revolution: Fundamentals and Core Concepts
Georgia Institute of Technology via edX
In this course, students will learn to harness the power of microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators to build useful and interesting robotic devices.

Hello (Real) World with ROS – Robot Operating System
Delft University of Technology via edX
Learn the fundamentals of ROS, Robot Operating System, to create advanced robotic systems.

Le robot Thymio comme outil de découverte des sciences du numérique
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne via edX
Ce cours permet d’aborder la compréhension des mécanismes de base d’un robot tel que Thymio, sa programmation avec différents langages, son utilisation en classe avec les éléments pédagogiques associés

AI and Robotics: A blessing or a curse?
Delft University of Technology via edX
Learn about the societal impact of artificially intelligent robots and what you can do about it.

Drones for Agriculture: Prepare and Design Your Drone (UAV) Mission
Wageningen University via edX
Take a dive and expand your knowledge about drones en drone technology. Learn how to prepare and execute a flight mission with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and how to use, process and understand the collected drone data for your own applications.

Robotics With Raspberry Pi: Build and Program Your First Robot Buggy
Raspberry Pi Foundation via FutureLearn
Build and program your first robot buggy using a Raspberry Pi, learning how to connect motors, add sensors and write algorithms.

Stanford Seminar – Considerations for Collaborative Robotics, Monroe Kennedy III
Stanford University via YouTube

Redesigning Space Tech with Soft Robotics and Mechanical Counterpressure
Hackaday via YouTube

“Socially Assistive Robotics (SAR)” with Maja Matarić
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) via YouTube

UW CSE Robotics: Henny Admoni, “Recognizing Human Intent for Assistive Robotics”
Paul G. Allen School via YouTube

The iCub Project: AI Meets Humanoid Robotics
MITCBMM via YouTube