This is the webpage for the 2025 IFT6757 Autonomous Vehicles class at l’Université de Montréal which is informally known as “Duckietown”.

Quicklinks

• The history of Duckietown

• The Duckiebook Documentation

• The official class description for IFT6757

• The tentative class schedule

For students interested in taking the class

I wish I could take everyone, but due to space and other considerations there limited spots available for the class this year. If you would like to be one of them, please fill out the application form by the end of day Thursday Sept. 4, 2025. I get asked A LOT how we make the decisions about class acceptance. The answer is that there is no fixed formula. This class is a collaborative learning experience and we are looking for a good mix of student backgrounds. It will be helpful but certainly not required to have a background in: using the Linux command line, programming in Python, a basic understanding of probabilities and random variables, a basic understanding of calculus and linear algebra. As a result, please include anything that you think might be interesting or help you stand out in your application.

I invite everyone to come to the first class which will be held in Z-315 Pavilon Claire-McNicoll on Wed Sept. 3 @ 1:30pm

Decisions about admissions will be made following the first class and the successful applicatants will hopefully be notified by the end of day Friday Sept. 5 by email (there will be no class on Friday Sept. 5).

Once you have been admitted you should contact the department, they will have the list of admitted students. If you are worried that you may not be admitted please register for a backup course.

If you are not sure whether or not you would like to take the class I would encourage you to:

• Have a look at the project website
• Read below about what makes this a special class.

What makes this a special class?

This class is unique in many ways.

Class philosophy

The best engineers and scientists are the ones who have solid theoretical foundations, as well as practical experience in the domain of interest.

In autonomous robotics, it is important to get the “feeling” of what actually makes a robot work, how the success or failure depends on subtle interaction between many hardware and software components.

To this end, it is necessary to study a complete system like Duckietown. The materials might be cheap, the appearance might be playful, but the complexity of behaviors and representations is comparable to those of deployed robotic systems.

This class is a collaborative learning experience about robotics. The fundamental theme of the class is that embodied systems are a special brand of AI system that have special real-world constraints. The only way to really feel those constraints is to experiment with the physical system.

A Personalized Experience

Each student gets their own personal Duckiebot to build and love.

Your code can live on

This class is a living thing, it will never be the same twice. The best projects from each year will be added to or replace existing code in the duckietown codebase. If you do a good job, your project will be what next year’s students use and try and improve upon.