Distributed manipulation effects motion on objects through a large number of points of contact. The primary benefit of distributed manipulators is that many small inexpensive mechanisms can move and transport large heavy objects. In fact, each individual component is simple, but their combined effect is quite powerful. Furthermore, distributed manipulators are fault-tolerant because if one component breaks, the other components can compensate for the failure and the whole system can still perform its task. Finally, distributed manipulators can perform a variety of tasks in parallel. Distributed manipulation can be performed by many types of mechanisms at different scales. Due to the recent advances of MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) technology, it has become feasible to quickly manufacture distributed micro-manipulators at low cost. One such system is an actuator array where hundreds of micro-scaled actuators transport and manipulate small objects that rest on them. Macroscopic versions of the actuator array have also been developed and analyzed. Another form of distributed manipulation is derived from a vibrating plate, and teams of mobile robots have been used to herd large objects into desired locations. There are many fundamental issues involved in distributed manipulation. Since a distributed manipulator has many actuators, distributed control strategies must be considered to effectively manipulate objects. A basic understanding of contact analysis between the actuators and object must also be considered. When each actuator in the array has a sensor, distributed sensing presents some basic research challenges. Distributed computation and communication are key issues to enable the successful deployment of distributed manipulators into use. Finally, the trade-off in centralized and de-centralized approaches in all of these algorithms must be investigated.

The structural optimization procedure presented in this book makes it possible to achieve seismic protection through integrated structural/control system design. In particular, it is explained how slender structural systems with a high seismic performance can be achieved through inclusion of viscous and viscoelastic dampers as an integral part of the system. Readers are provided with essential introductory information on passive structural control and passive energy dissipation systems. Dynamic analyses of both single and multiple degree of freedom systems are performed in order to verify the achievement of pre-assigned performance targets, and it is explained how the optimal integrated design methodology, also relevant to retrofitting of existing buildings, should be applied. The book illustrates how structural control research is opening up new possibilities in structural forms and configurations without compromising structural performance.

This book presents a foundation for a broad class of mobile robot mapping and navigation methodologies for indoor, outdoor, and exploratory missions. It addresses the challenging problem of autonomous navigation in dynamic environments, presenting new ideas and approaches in this emerging technical domain. Coverage discusses in detail various related challenging technical aspects and addresses upcoming technologies in this field.

The objective of this dissertation is to advance the state-of-the-art in the kinematic modeling, identification, and control of robotic manipulators with rigid links in an effort to improve robot kinematic performance. The positioning accuracy of commercially-available industrial robotic manipulators depends upon a kinematic model which describes the robot geometry in a parametric form. Manufacturing error in the machining and assembly of manipulators lead to discrepancies between the design parameters and the physical structure. Improving the kinematic perfor mance thus requires the identification of the actual kinematic parameters of each individual robot. The identified kinematic parameters are referred to as the arm signature. Existing robot kinematic models, such as the Denavit-Hartenberg model, are not directly applicable to kinematic parameter identification. In this dissertation we introduce a new kinematic model, called the 5-Model, which is applicable to kinematic parameter identification, and use it as the foundation for our development of a general technique for identifying the kinematic parameters of any robot with rigid links."

Predictive control is a powerful tool in dealing with those processes with large time delays. Generalized Predictive Control (GPC) is the most popular approach to the subject, and this text discusses the application of GPC starting with the concept of long-range predictive control and its need in medicine (particularly automated drug deliveries). The concept of adaptation is also emphasized with respect to patient-to-patient parameter variations. Subsequent chapters discuss interactions, comparisons and various aspects of GPC. The book concludes by putting into perpective the generic nature of the architecture built around GPC and which provides model-based fault diagnosis with control.

This book provides robust analysis and synthesis tools for Markovian jump systems in the finite-time domain with specified performances. It explores how these tools can make the systems more applicable to fields such as economic systems, ecological systems and solar thermal central receivers, by limiting system trajectories in the desired bound in a given time interval. Robust Control for Discrete-Time Markovian Jump Systems in the Finite-Time Domain focuses on multiple aspects of finite-time stability and control, including: finite-time H-infinity control; finite-time sliding mode control; finite-time multi-frequency control; finite-time model predictive control; and high-order moment finite-time control for multi-mode systems and also provides many methods and algorithms to solve problems related to Markovian jump systems with simulation examples that illustrate the design procedure and confirm the results of the methods proposed. The thorough discussion of these topics makes the book a useful guide for researchers, industrial engineers and graduate students alike, enabling them systematically to establish the modeling, analysis and synthesis for Markovian jump systems in the finite-time domain.

- the book provides a short and accessible introduction to AI for learners - it examines seven different educational roles and settings, from AI as a peer to AI as a tutor and AI as textbook, among others - it considers both opportunities and risks: technological developments as well as ethical considerations

Actuator saturation is probably the most frequent nonlinearity encountered in control applications. Input saturation leads to controller windup, removable by structural modification during compensator realization and plant windup which calls for additional dynamics.

Peter Hippe presents solutions to the windup prevention problem for stable and unstable single-input-single-output and multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The solutions use only standard tools for the investigation of linear systems a" state equations, transfer functions, etc. The stability tests are based on well-known criteria for loops consisting of a linear part with isolated sector-type nonlinearity. Less rigorous "engineering solutions" which guarantee improved performance but without strict proof of stability are also demonstrated.

MIMO systems in which the behaviour of controlled variables is decoupled require specific input vectors and so also suffer problems of directionality when their input signals saturate. This can have extremely deleterious consequences for closed-loop behaviour. Windup in Control offers an exact solution to this directionality problem for stable and unstable systems. The methods laid out in this survey also integrate solutions for applications with rate-constrained actuators and for bumpless transfer from manual to automatic during system start-up or in override control. Developments in control methods are always supplemented by easily repeated numerical examples.

Academics doing control-related research in electronics, mechanics, or mechatronics and engineers working in the process industries will find this book an extremely useful overview of systematic windupprevention for all kinds of systems. It also has valuable insights to offer the graduate student of control.

This book reports on the latest advances in the study of Networked Control Systems (NCSs). It highlights novel research concepts on NCSs; the analysis and synthesis of NCSs with special attention to their networked character; self- and event-triggered communication schemes for conserving limited network resources; and communication and control co-design for improving the efficiency of NCSs. The book will be of interest to university researchers, control and network engineers, and graduate students in the control engineering, communication and network sciences interested in learning the core principles, methods, algorithms and applications of NCSs.

This book includes significant recent research on robotic algorithms. It has been written by leading experts in the field. The 15th Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR) was held on June 22-24, 2022, at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. Each chapter represents an exciting state-of-the-art development in robotic algorithms that was presented at this 15th incarnation of WAFR. Different chapters combine ideas from a wide variety of fields, spanning and combining planning (for tasks, paths, motion, navigation, coverage, and patrol), computational geometry and topology, control theory, machine learning, formal methods, game theory, information theory, and theoretical computer science. Many of these papers explore new and interesting problems and problem variants that include human-robot interaction, planning and reasoning under uncertainty, dynamic environments, distributed decision making, multi-agent coordination, and heterogeneity.

Contains case studies from engineering and operations research

Includes commented literature for each chapter

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During the last decades, applications of dynamical analysis in advanced, often nonlinear, engineering systems have been evolved in a revolutionary way. In this context one can think of applications in aerospace engineering like satellites, in naval engineering like ship motion, in mechanical engineering like rotating machinery, vehicle systems, robots and biomechanics, and in civil engineering like earthquake dynamics and offshore technology. One could continue with this list for a long time. The application of advanced dynamics in the above fields has been possible due to the use of sophisticated computational techniques employing powerful concepts of nonlinear dynamics. These concepts have been and are being developed in mathematics, mechanics and physics. It should be remarked that careful experimental studies are vitally needed to establish the real existence and observability of the predicted dynamical phenomena. The interaction between nonlinear dynamics and nonlinear control in advanced engineering systems is becoming of increasing importance because of several reasons. Firstly, control strategies in nonlinear systems are used to obtain desired dynamic behaviour and improved reliability during operation, Applications include power plant rotating machinery, vehicle systems, robotics, etc. Terms like motion control, optimal control and adaptive control are used in this field of interest. Since mechanical and electronic components are often necessary to realize the desired action in practice, the engineers use the term mechatronics to indicate this field. If the desired dynamic behaviour is achieved by changing design variables (mostly called system parameters), one can think of fields like control of chaos.

Advanced technologies such as robotics, 5G mobile communications, IoT, cloud computing and wireless sensor networks have had a huge impact and influence on manufacturing, with an increased collaboration between humans and smart systems. As the manufacturing process becomes more automated using real-time data, communication systems, Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and robotics feed data back into the manufacturing process. This enables the design of products that are more customized and personal, and leads to a more competitive, efficient and value-added production process by reacting more quickly to technical or human errors to avoid product and system damage while increasing workplace safety, and reducing waste, pollution, and associated costs. This edited book covers challenges, concepts, systems, architectures, technologies, and design characteristics of human-machine cooperation and interaction systems in smart manufacturing environments using state of the art technologies including AI, 5G, IoTs, Blockchains, CPS, sensing, automation and robotics. The book is aimed at researchers and engineers working on the applications of robotics and automation, HMI, HCI, CPS, sensing, information and communications technology, data science, ML/DL/AI, AR/VR, cybersecurity and electronics. It is also a useful reference for advanced students and lecturers in these fields, and will appeal to manufacturers and automation system developers.

This second edition of Precision Motion Control focuses on enabling technologies for precision engineering. It has been extensively edited and rewritten throughout with the following particular areas being expanded or added: * piezoelectric actuators * fine movement control * gantry-stage control * interpolation of quadrature encoder signals * geometrical error modeling for single-, dual- and general-XY-axis stages.

This book provides a wide scope of contributions related to optoelectronic device application in a variety of robotic systems for diverse purposes. The contributions are focused on optoelectronic sensors and analyzing systems, 3D and 2D machine vision technologies, robot navigation, pose estimations, robot operation in cyclic procedures, control schemes, motion controllers, and intelligent algorithms and vision systems. Applications of these technologies are outlined for unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous and mobile robots, industrial inspection applications, cultural heritage documentation, and structural health monitoring. Also discussed are recent advanced research in measurement and others areas where 3D and 2D machine vision and machine control play an important role. Surveys and reviews about optoelectronic and vision-based applications are also included. These topics are of interest to readers from a diverse group including those working in optoelectronics, and electrical, electronic and computer engineering.

All biological systems with vision move about their environments and successfully perform many tasks. The same capabilities are needed in the world of robots. To that end, recent results in empirical fields that study insects and primates, as well as in theoretical and applied disciplines that design robots, have uncovered a number of the principles of navigation. To offer a unifying approach to the situation, this book brings together ideas from zoology, psychology, neurobiology, mathematics, geometry, computer science, and engineering. It contains theoretical developments that will be essential in future research on the topic -- especially new representations of space with less complexity than Euclidean representations possess. These representations allow biological and artificial systems to compute from images in order to successfully deal with their environments.
In this book, the barriers between different disciplines have been smoothed and the workings of vision systems of biological organisms are made clear in computational terms to computer scientists and engineers. At the same time, fundamental principles arising from computational considerations are made clear both to empirical scientists and engineers. Empiricists can generate a number of hypotheses that they could then study through various experiments. Engineers can gain insight for designing robotic systems that perceive aspects of their environment.
For the first time, readers will find:
* the insect vision system presented in a way that can be understood by computational scientists working in computer vision and engineering;
* three complete, working robotic navigation systems presented with all the issues related to their design analyzed in detail;
* the beginning of a computational theory of direct perception, as advocated by Gibson, presented in detail with applications for a variety of problems; and
* the idea that vision systems could compute space representations different from perfect metric descriptions -- and be used in robotic tasks -- advanced for both artificial and biological systems.

Much work on analysis and synthesis problems relating to the multiple model approach has already been undertaken. This has been motivated by the desire to establish the problems of control law synthesis and full state estimation in numerical terms.In recent years, a general approach based on multiple LTI models (linear or affine) around various function points has been proposed. This so-called multiple model approach is a convex polytopic representation, which can be obtained either directly from a nonlinear mathematical model, through mathematical transformation or through linearization around various function points.This book concentrates on the analysis of the stability and synthesis of control laws and observations for multiple models. The authors' approach is essentially based on Lyapunov's second method and LMI formulation. Uncertain multiple models with unknown inputs are studied and quadratic and non-quadratic Lyapunov functions are also considered.

Navigation in Space by X-ray Pulsars will consist of two parts. One is on modeling of X-ray pulsar signals. The second part explains how X-ray pulsar signals can be used to solve the relative navigation problem. This book formulates the problem, proposes a recursive solution, and analyzes different aspects of the navigation system. This book will be a comprehensive source for researchers. It provides new research results on signal processing techniques needed for X-ray pulsar based navigation in deep space.

People have dreamed of machines, which would free them from unpleasant, dull, dirty and dangerous tasks and work for them as servants, for centuries if not millennia. Service robots seem to finally let these dreams come true. But where are all these robots that eventually serve us all day long, day for day? A few service robots have entered the market: domestic and professional cleaning robots, lawnmowers, milking robots, or entertainment robots. Some of these robots look more like toys or gadgets rather than real robots. But where is the rest? This is a question, which is asked not only by customers, but also by service providers, care organizations, politicians, and funding agencies. The answer is not very satisfying. Today's service robots have their problems operating in everyday environments. This is by far more challenging than operating an industrial robot behind a fence. There is a comprehensive list of technical and scientific problems, which still need to be solved. To advance the state of the art in service robotics towards robots, which are capable of operating in an everyday environment, was the major objective of the DESIRE project (Deutsche Service Robotik Initiative - Germany Service Robotics Initiative) funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under grant no. 01IME01A. This book offers a sample of the results achieved in DESIRE.

This book introduces a family of large-signal stability-based control methods for different power inverters (grid-connected inverter, standalone inverter, single-phase inverter, and three-phase inverter) in practical applications. Power inverters have stability issues, which include the inverter's own instability as well as the inverter's instability in relation to the other power electronic devices in the system (i.e., weak grid and the EMI filter). Most of the stability analyses and solutions are based on small-signal stability technology. Unfortunately, in actuality, the majority of practical instability concerns in power inverter systems are large-signal stability problems, which, when compared to small-signal stability problems, can cause substantial damage to electrical equipment. As a result, researchers must conduct a comprehensive investigation of the large-signal stability challenge and solutions for power inverters. This book can be used as a reference for researchers, power inverters manufacturers, and end-users. As a result, the book will not become obsolete in the near future, regardless of technology advancements.

Over the last few decades, both the aeronautics and space disciplines have greatly influenced advances in controls, sensors, data fusion and navigation. Many of those achievements that made the word "aerospace" synonymous with "high-tech" were enabled by innovations in guidance, navigation and control.

Europe has seen a strong trans-national consolidation process in aerospace over the last few decades. Most of the visible products, like commercial aircraft, fighters, helicopters, satellites, launchers or missiles, are not made by a single country - they are the fruits of cooperation. No European country by itself hosts a specialized guidance, navigation and controls community large enough to cover the whole spectrum of disciplines. However, on a European scale, mutual exchange of ideas, concepts and solutions is enriching for all. The 1st CEAS Specialist Conference on Guidance, Navigation and Control is an attempt to bring this community together.

This book is a selection of papers presented at the conference. All submitted papers have gone through a formal review process in compliance with good journal practices. The best papers have been recommended by the reviewers to be published in this book."

This book introduces several appearance-based place recognition pipelines based on different mapping techniques for addressing loop-closure detection in mobile platforms with limited computational resources. The motivation behind this book has been the prospect that in many contemporary applications efficient methods are needed that can provide high performance under run-time and memory constraints. Thus, three different mapping techniques for addressing the task of place recognition for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) are presented. The book at hand follows a tutorial-based structure describing each of the main parts needed for a loop-closure detection pipeline to facilitate the newcomers. It mainly goes through a historical review of the problem, focusing on how it was addressed during the years reaching the current age. This way, the reader is initially familiarized with each part while the place recognition paradigms follow.

It is my ambition in writing this book to bring tribology to the study of control of machines with friction. Tribology, from the greek for study of rubbing, is the discipline that concerns itself with friction, wear and lubrication. Tribology spans a great range of disciplines, from surface physics to lubrication chemistry and engineering, and comprises investigators in diverse specialities. The English language tribology literature now grows at a rate of some 700 articles per year. But for all of this activity, in the three years that I have been concerned with the control of machines with friction, I have but once met a fellow controls engineer who was aware that the field existed, this including many who were concerned with friction. In this vein I must confess that, before undertaking these investigations, I too was unaware that an active discipline of friction existed. The experience stands out as a mark of the specialization of our time. Within tribology, experimental and theoretical understanding of friction in lubricated machines is well developed. The controls engineer's interest is in dynamics, which is not the central interest of the tribologist. The tribologist is more often concerned with wear, with respect to which there has been enormous progress - witness the many mechanisms which we buy today that are lubricated once only, and that at the factory. Though a secondary interest, frictional dynamics are note forgotten by tribology.

This pioneering book describes the development of a robot mapping and navigation system inspired by models of the neural mechanisms underlying spatial navigation in the rodent hippocampus. Computational models of animal navigation systems have traditionally had limited performance when implemented on robots. This is the first research to test existing models of rodent spatial mapping and navigation on robots in large, challenging, real world environments.