Session 2 includes 110 papers selected from 2011 3rd International Asia Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (CAR 2011), held on December 24-25, 2011, Shenzhen, China. As we all know, the ever growing technology in robotics and automation will help build a better human society. This session will provide a unique opportunity for the academic and industrial communities to address new challenges, share solutions, and discuss research directions for the future. Robotics research emphasizes intelligence and adaptability to cope with unstructured environments. Automation research emphasizes efficiency, productivity, quality, and reliability, focusing on systems that operate autonomously. The main focus of this session is on the autonomous acquisition of semantic information in intelligent robots and systems, as well as the use of semantic knowledge to guide further acquisition of information.

This volume in the newly established series Advances in Delays and Dynamics (ADD@S) provides a collection of recent results on the design and analysis of Low Complexity Controllers for Time Delay Systems. A widely used indirect method to obtain low order controllers for time delay systems is to design a controller for the reduced order model of the plant. In the dual indirect approach, an infinite dimensional controller is designed first for the original plant model; then, the controller is approximated by keeping track of the degradation in performance and stability robustness measures. The present volume includes new techniques used at different stages of the indirect approach. It also includes new direct design methods for fixed structure and low order controllers. On the other hand, what is meant by low complexity controller is not necessarily low order controller. For example, Smith predictor or similar type of controllers include a copy of the plant internally in the controller, so they are technically infinite dimensional. However, they have very nice numerical properties from the point of reliable implementation. Therefore, such predictor-based controllers are considered as low complexity. This book includes new predictor-based design techniques, with several application examples.

Analysis and Control of Boolean Networks presents a systematic new approach to the investigation of Boolean control networks. The fundamental tool in this approach is a novel matrix product called the semi-tensor product (STP). Using the STP, a logical function can be expressed as a conventional discrete-time linear system. In the light of this linear expression, certain major issues concerning Boolean network topology - fixed points, cycles, transient times and basins of attractors - can be easily revealed by a set of formulae. This framework renders the state-space approach to dynamic control systems applicable to Boolean control networks. The bilinear-systemic representation of a Boolean control network makes it possible to investigate basic control problems including controllability, observability, stabilization, disturbance decoupling etc.

A guide on the use of SVMs in pattern classification, including a rigorous performance comparison of classifiers and regressors. The book presents architectures for multiclass classification and function approximation problems, as well as evaluation criteria for classifiers and regressors. Features: Clarifies the characteristics of two-class SVMs; Discusses kernel methods for improving the generalization ability of neural networks and fuzzy systems; Contains ample illustrations and examples; Includes performance evaluation using publicly available data sets; Examines Mahalanobis kernels, empirical feature space, and the effect of model selection by cross-validation; Covers sparse SVMs, learning using privileged information, semi-supervised learning, multiple classifier systems, and multiple kernel learning; Explores incremental training based batch training and active-set training methods, and decomposition techniques for linear programming SVMs; Discusses variable selection for support vector regressors.

The book introduces possibly the most compact, simple and physically understandable tool that can describe, explain, predict and design the widest set of phenomena in time-variant and nonlinear oscillations. The phenomena described include parametric resonances, combined resonances, instability of forced oscillations, synchronization, distributed parameter oscillation and flatter, parametric oscillation control, robustness of oscillations and many others. Although the realm of nonlinear oscillations is enormous, the book relies on the concept of minimum knowledge for maximum understanding. This unique tool is the method of stationarization, or one frequency approximation of parametric resonance problem analysis in linear time-variant dynamic systems. The book shows how this can explain periodic motion stability in stationary nonlinear dynamic systems, and reveals the link between the harmonic stationarization coefficients and describing functions. As such, the book speaks the language of control: transfer functions, frequency response, Nyquist plot, stability margins, etc. An understanding of the physics of stability loss is the basis for the design of new oscillation control methods for, several of which are presented in the book. These and all the other findings are illustrated by numerical examples, which can be easily reproduced by readers equipped with a basic simulation package like MATLAB with Simulink. The book offers a simple tool for all those travelling through the world of oscillations, helping them discover its hidden beauty. Researchers can use the method to uncover unknown aspects, and as a reference to compare it with other, for example, abstract mathematical means. Further, it provides engineers with a minimalistic but powerful instrument based on physically measurable variables to analyze and design oscillatory systems.

This volume presents a collection of papers presented at the 15th International Symposium of Robotic Research (ISRR). ISRR is the biennial meeting of the International Foundation of Robotic Research (IFRR) and its 15th edition took place in Flagstaff, Arizona on December 9 to December 12, 2011. As for the previous symposia, ISRR 2011 followed up on the successful concept of a mixture of invited contributions and open submissions. Therefore approximately half of the 37 contributions were invited contributions from outstanding researchers selected by the IFRR officers and the program committee, and the other half were chosen among the open submissions after peer review. This selection process resulted in a truly excellent technical program which featured some of the very best of robotic research. The program was organized around oral presentation in a single-track format and included for the first time a small number of interactive presentations. The symposium contributions contained in this volume report on a variety of new robotics research results covering a broad spectrum including perception, manipulation, grasping, vehicles and design, navigation, control and integration, estimation and SLAM.

An autonomous sailboat robot is a boat that only uses the wind on its sail as the propelling force, without remote control or human assistance to achieve its mission. Robotic sailing offers the potential of long range and long term autonomous wind propelled, solar or wave-powered carbon neutral devices. Robotic sailing devices could contribute to monitoring of environmental, ecological, meteorological, hydrographic and oceanographic data. These devices can also be used in traffic monitoring, border surveillance, security, assistance and rescue. The dependency on changing winds and sea conditions presents a considerable challenge for short and long term route and stability planning, collision avoidance and boat control. Building a robust and seaworthy sailing robot presents a truly complex and multi-disciplinary challenge for boat designers, naval architects, systems/electrical engineers and computer scientists. Over the last decade, several events such as Sailbot, World Robotic Sailing Championship and the International Robotic Sailing Conference (WRSC/IRSC) and Microtransat have sparked an explosion in the number of groups working on autonomous sailing robots. Many of the challenges in building truly autonomous sailing robots still remain unsolved. These proceedings present the work of researchers on current and future challenges in autonomous sailboat development, presented at the WRSC/IRSC 2014 in Galway, Ireland, 8th - 12th September 2014.

Mathematical optimization encompasses both a rich and rapidly evolving body of fundamental theory, and a variety of exciting applications in science and engineering. The present book contains a careful selection of articles on recent advances in optimization theory, numerical methods, and their applications in engineering. It features in particular new methods and applications in the fields of optimal control, PDE-constrained optimization, nonlinear optimization, and convex optimization. The authors of this volume took part in the 14th Belgian-French-German Conference on Optimization (BFG09) organized in Leuven, Belgium, on September 14-18, 2009. The volume contains a selection of reviewed articles contributed by the conference speakers as well as three survey articles by plenary speakers and two papers authored by the winners of the best talk and best poster prizes awarded at BFG09. Researchers and graduate students in applied mathematics, computer science, and many branches of engineering will find in this book an interesting and useful collection of recent ideas on the methods and applications of optimization.

Stochastic Averaging and Extremum Seeking treats methods inspired by attempts to understand the seemingly non-mathematical question of bacterial chemotaxis and their application in other environments. The text presents significant generalizations on existing stochastic averaging theory developed from scratch and necessitated by the need to avoid violation of previous theoretical assumptions by algorithms which are otherwise effective in treating these systems. Coverage is given to four main topics. Stochastic averaging theorems are developed for the analysis of continuous-time nonlinear systems with random forcing, removing prior restrictions on nonlinearity growth and on the finiteness of the time interval. The new stochastic averaging theorems are usable not only as approximation tools but also for providing stability guarantees. Stochastic extremum-seeking algorithms are introduced for optimization of systems without available models. Both gradient- and Newton-based algorithms are presented, offering the user the choice between the simplicity of implementation (gradient) and the ability to achieve a known, arbitrary convergence rate (Newton). The design of algorithms for non-cooperative/adversarial games is described. The analysis of their convergence to Nash equilibria is provided. The algorithms are illustrated on models of economic competition and on problems of the deployment of teams of robotic vehicles. Bacterial locomotion, such as chemotaxis in E. coli, is explored with the aim of identifying two simple feedback laws for climbing nutrient gradients. Stochastic extremum seeking is shown to be a biologically-plausible interpretation for chemotaxis. For the same chemotaxis-inspired stochastic feedback laws, the book also provides a detailed analysis of convergence for models of nonholonomic robotic vehicles operating in GPS-denied environments. The book contains block diagrams and several simulation examples, including examples arising from bacterial locomotion, multi-agent robotic systems, and economic market models. Stochastic Averaging and Extremum Seeking will be informative for control engineers from backgrounds in electrical, mechanical, chemical and aerospace engineering and to applied mathematicians. Economics researchers, biologists, biophysicists and roboticists will find the applications examples instructive.

This book contains research contributions from leading global scholars in nature-inspired computing. It includes comprehensive coverage of each respective topic, while also highlighting recent and future trends. The contributions provides readers with a snapshot of the state of the art in the field of nature-inspired computing and its application. This book has focus on the current researches while highlighting the empirical results along with theoretical concepts to provide a comprehensive reference for students, researchers, scholars, professionals and practitioners in the field of Advanced Artificial Intelligence, Nature-Inspired Algorithms and Soft Computing.

This book introduces recent results on output synchronization of complex dynamical networks with single and multiple weights. It discusses novel research ideas and a number of definitions in complex dynamical networks, such as H-Infinity output synchronization, adaptive coupling weights, multiple weights, the relationship between output strict passivity and output synchronization. Furthermore, it methodically edits the research results previously published in various flagship journals and presents them in a unified form. The book is of interest to university researchers and graduate students in engineering and mathematics who wish to study output synchronization of complex dynamical networks.

This book describes the advances and applications in Sliding mode control (SMC) which is widely used as a powerful method to tackle uncertain nonlinear systems. The book is organized into 21 chapters which have been organised by the editors to reflect the various themes of sliding mode control. The book provides the reader with a broad range of material from first principles up to the current state of the art in the area of SMC and observation presented in a clear, matter-of-fact style. As such it is appropriate for graduate students with a basic knowledge of classical control theory and some knowledge of state-space methods and nonlinear systems. The resulting design procedures are emphasized using Matlab/Simulink software.

This book provides a comprehensive coverage on robot fish including design, modeling and optimization, control, autonomous control and applications. It gathers contributions by the leading researchers in the area. Readers will find the book very useful for designing and building robot fish, not only in theory but also in practice. Moreover, the book discusses various important issues for future research and development, including design methodology, control methodology, and autonomous control strategy. This book is intended for researchers and graduate students in the fields of robotics, ocean engineering and related areas.

The Chemical Batch Reactor is aimed at tackling the above problems from a blending of academic and industrial perspectives. Advanced solutions (i.e., those based on recent research results) to the four fundamental problems of modeling, identification, control and fault diagnosis for batch processes are developed in detail in four distinct chapters. In each chapter, a general overview of foundational concepts is also given, together with a review of recent and classical literature on the various subjects.

To provide a unitary treatment of the different topics and give a firm link to the underlying practical applications, a single case study is developed as the book progresses; a batch process of industrial interest, i.e., the phenol-formaldehyde reaction for the production of phenolic resins, is adopted to test the various techniques developed. In this way, a roadmap of the solutions to fundamental problems, ranging from the early stages of the production process to the complete design of control and diagnosis systems, is provided for both industrial practitioners and academic researchers.

This book discusses human-machine interactions, specifically focusing on making them as natural as human-human interaction. It is based on the premise that to get the right connect between human and machines, it is essential to understand not only the behavior of the person interacting with the machine, but also the limitations of the technology. Firstly, the authors review the evolution of language as a spontaneous, natural phenomenon in the overall scheme of the evolutionary development of living beings. They then go on to examine the possible approaches to understanding and representing the meaning and the common aspects of human-human and human-machine interactions, and introduce the keyconcept-keyword (also called minimal parsing) approach as a convenient and realistic way to implement usable human-machine interface (HMI) systems. For researchers looking for practical approaches, way beyond the realms of theory, this book is a must read.

The book 'BiLBIQ: A biologically inspired Robot with walking and rolling locomotion' deals with implementing a locomotion behavior observed in the biological archetype Cebrennus villosus to a robot prototype whose structural design needs to be developed. The biological sample is investigated as far as possible and compared to other evolutional solutions within the framework of nature's inventions. Current achievements in robotics are examined and evaluated for their relation and relevance to the robot prototype in question. An overview of what is state of the art in actuation ensures the choice of the hardware available and most suitable for this project. Through a constant consideration of the achievement of two fundamentally different ways of locomotion with one and the same structure, a robot design is developed and constructed taking hardware constraints into account. The development of a special leg structure that needs to resemble and replace body elements of the biological archetype is a special challenge to be dealt with. Finally a robot prototype was achieved, which is able to walk and roll - inspired by the spider Cebrennus villosus.

Decentralized Control and Filtering provides a rigorous framework for examining the analysis, stability and control of large-scale systems, addressing the difficulties that arise because dimensionality, information structure constraints, parametric uncertainty and time-delays.This monograph serves three purposes: it reviews past methods and results from a contemporary perspective; it examines presents trends and approaches and to provide future possibilities; and it investigates robust, reliable and/or resilient decentralized design methods based on a framework of linear matrix inequalities. As well as providing an overview of large-scale systems theories from the past several decades, the author presents key modern concepts and efficient computational methods. Representative numerical examples, end-of-chapter problems, and typical system applications are included, and theoretical developments and practical applications of large-scale dynamical systems are discussed in depth.

This book proposes a consistent methodology for building intelligent systems. It puts forward several formal models for designing and implementing rules-based systems, and presents illustrative case studies of their applications. These include software engineering, business process systems, Semantic Web, and context-aware systems on mobile devices. Rules offer an intuitive yet powerful method for representing human knowledge, and intelligent systems based on rules have many important applications. However, their practical development requires proper techniques and models - a gap that this book effectively addresses.

This book, along with its companion volume, Nonlinear Dynamics New Directions: Models and Applications, covers topics ranging from fractal analysis to very specific applications of the theory of dynamical systems to biology. This first volume is devoted to fundamental aspects and includes a number of important new contributions as well as some review articles that emphasize new development prospects. The second volume contains mostly new applications of the theory of dynamical systems to both engineering and biology. The topics addressed in the two volumes include a rigorous treatment of fluctuations in dynamical systems, topics in fractal analysis, studies of the transient dynamics in biological networks, synchronization in lasers, and control of chaotic systems, among others. This book also: * Presents a rigorous treatment of fluctuations in dynamical systems and explores a range of topics in fractal analysis, among other fundamental topics * Features recent developments on large deviations for higher-dimensional maps, a study of measures resisting multifractal analysis and a overview of complex Kleninan groups * Includes thorough review of recent findings that emphasize new development prospects

This book is the first to present the application of the hybrid system theory to systems with EPCA (equations with piecewise continuous arguments). The hybrid system paradigm is a valuable modeling tool for describing a wide range of real-world applications. Moreover, although new technology has produced, and continues to produce highly hierarchical sophisticated machinery that cannot be analyzed as a whole system, hybrid system representation can be used to reduce the structural complexity of these systems. That is to say, hybrid systems have become a modeling priority, which in turn has led to the creation of a promising research field with several application areas. As such, the book explores recent developments in the area of deterministic and stochastic hybrid systems using the Lyapunov and Razumikhin-Lyapunov methods to investigate the systems' properties. It also describes properties such as stability, stabilization, reliable control, H-infinity optimal control, input-to-state stability (ISS)/stabilization, state estimation, and large-scale singularly perturbed systems.

Power quality describes a set of parameters of electric power and the load's ability to function properly under specific conditions. It is estimated that problems relating to power quality costs the European industry hundreds of billions of Euros annually. In contrast, financing for the prevention of these problems amount to fragments of these costs. Power Theories for Improved Power Quality addresses this imbalance by presenting and assessing a range of methods and problems related to improving the quality of electric power supply.
Focusing particularly on active compensators and the DSP based control algorithms, Power Theories for Improved Power Quality introduces the fundamental problems of electrical power. This introduction is followed by chapters which discuss:

'Power theories' including their historical development and application to practical problems,

operational principles of active compensator's DSP control based algorithms using examples and results from laboratory research, and

the key areas of application for these methods and suggested practical solutions.

Power Theories for Improved Power Quality is a key study resource for students in engineering and technical degrees as well as a reference for professional and practitioners in the electrical energy sector working with power quality.
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In his rich and varied career as a mathematician, computer scientist, and educator, Jacob T. Schwartz wrote seminal works in analysis, mathematical economics, programming languages, algorithmics, and computational geometry. In this volume of essays, his friends, students, and collaborators at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences present recent results in some of the fields that Schwartz explored: quantum theory, the theory and practice of programming, program correctness and decision procedures, dextrous manipulation in Robotics, motion planning, and genomics. In addition to presenting recent results in these fields, these essays illuminate the astonishingly productive trajectory of a brilliant and original scientist and thinker.