The theory of linear functional observers, which is the subject of this book, is increasingly becoming a popular researched topic because of the many advantages it presents in state observation and control system design. This book presents recent information on the current state of the art research in this field. This book will serve as a useful reference to researchers in this area of research to understand the fundamental concepts relevant to the theory of functional observers and to gather most recent advancements in the field. This book is useful to academics and postgraduate students researching into the theory of linear functional observers. This book can also be useful for specialized final year undergraduate courses in control systems engineering and applied mathematics with a research focus.

In this book for the first time two scientific fields - consensus formation and synchronization of communications - are presented together and examined through their interrelational aspects, of rapidly growing importance. Both fields have indeed attracted enormous research interest especially in relation to complex networks.
In networks of dynamic systems (or agents), consensus means to reach an agreement regarding a certain quantity of interest that depends on the state of all dynamical systems (agents). Consensus problems have a long history in control theory and computer sciences, and form the foundation of the field of distributed computing. Synchronization, which defines correlated-in-time behavior between different processes and roots going back to Huygens to the least, is now a highly popular, exciting and rapidly developing topic, with applications ranging from biological networks to mathematical epidemiology, and from processing information in the brain to engineering of communications devices.
The book reviews recent finding in both fields and describes novel approaches to consensus formation, where consensus is realized as an instance of the nonlinear dynamics paradigm of chaos synchronization. The chapters are written by world-known experts in both fields and cover topics ranging from fundaments to various applications of consensus and synchronization."

In 1998 the chairman of the Russian National Committee of TMM Professor Arcady Bessonov, recommended one of authors of this book to be come a member of the IFToMM Permanent Commission on the History of Mechanisms and Machines Sciences (PC HMMS). Willy-nilly from this time the history of technique, as hobby passed on to a serious the employment in the history of engineering science. Interest history of a subject is natural for Professor, a leading a course of Theory of Mechanisms and Machines in Bauman University. This interest is supported by the fact that Bauman University is one of the oldest technical universities in Russia, and the course "Applied Mechanics" - later "Theory of Mechanisms and Machines" was the first systematic course in Russia. The second author supervises a cycle of laboratory works on TMM. Models of mechanisms are placed in laboratory in show-windows of ancient cases quite possibly coevals of the first course. He became interested in contents of these cases: firstly in models, and then in their origin. Later he occupied himself with the creation of a web-site "The Collection of mechanisms in department TMM in Bauman University". Gradually both authors had the idea of cooperation, although several years previously, we could not imagine this happening. We took an active part in the work of PC HMMS from 2000. It was promoted by of chairman of the commission Professor Marco Ceccarelli.

This is the sixth volume of a sub series on Road Vehicle Automation published within the Lecture Notes in Mobility. The contents have been provided by researchers, engineers and analysts from all around the world. Topics covered include public sector activities, human factors and challenges, ethical, legal, energy and technology perspectives, vehicle systems development, as well as transportation infrastructure and planning. The book is based on the Automated Vehicles Symposium held on July 9-12, 2018 in San Francisco, CA (USA).

This book describes methods for adaptive control of distributed-collector solar fields: plants that collect solar energy and deliver it in thermal form. Controller design methods are presented that can overcome difficulties found in these type of plants: they are distributed-parameter systems, i.e., systems with dynamics that depend on space as well as time;their dynamics is nonlinear, with a bilinear structure;there is a significant level of uncertainty in plant knowledge.

Adaptive methods form the focus of the text because of the degree of uncertainty in the knowledge of plant dynamics. Parts of the text are devoted to design methods that assume only a very limited knowledge about the plant. Other parts detail methods that rely on knowledge of the dominant plant structure. These methods are more plant specific, but allow the improvement of performance.

"Adaptive Control of Solar Energy Collector Systems" demonstrates the dynamics of solar fields to be rich enough to present a challenge to the control designer while, at the same time, simple enough to allow analytic work to be done, providing case studies on dynamics and nonlinear control design in a simple and revealing, but nontrivial way.

The control approaches treated in this monograph can be generalized to apply to other plants modelled by hyperbolic partial differential equations, especially process plants in which transport phenomena occur, plants like dryers, steam super-heaters and even highway traffic.

An important example, used repeatedly throughout the text, is a distributed-collector solar field installed at Plataforma Solar de Almeria, located in southern Spain. The control algorithms laid out in the text are illustrated with experimental results generated from this plant.

Although the primary focus of this monograph is solar energy collector, the range of other systems which can benefit from the methods described will make it of interest to control engineers working in many industries as well as to academic control researchers interested in adaptive control and its applications.

This book presents a survey of past and recent developments on human walking in virtual environments with an emphasis on human self-motion perception, the multisensory nature of experiences of walking, conceptual design approaches, current technologies, and applications. The use of Virtual Reality and movement simulation systems is becoming increasingly popular and more accessible to a wide variety of research fields and applications. While, in the past, simulation technologies have focused on developing realistic, interactive visual environments, it is becoming increasingly obvious that our everyday interactions are highly multisensory. Therefore, investigators are beginning to understand the critical importance of developing and validating locomotor interfaces that can allow for realistic, natural behaviours. The book aims to present an overview of what is currently understood about human perception and performance when moving in virtual environments and to situate it relative to the broader scientific and engineering literature on human locomotion and locomotion interfaces. The contents include scientific background and recent empirical findings related to biomechanics, self-motion perception, and physical interactions. The book also discusses conceptual approaches to multimodal sensing, display systems, and interaction for walking in real and virtual environments. Finally, it will present current and emerging applications in areas such as gait and posture rehabilitation, gaming, sports, and architectural design.

This book contains the papers included in the proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on High-speed and Intercity Railways (IWHIR 2011) held in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, China from July 19 to July 22, 2011, which is organized by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in collaboration with Southwest Jiaotong University, Beijing Jiaotong University, Dalian Jiaotong University, China Engineering Consultants, Inc., Zhejiang University, and Tsinghua University. Continuing the great initiatives and momentums of the rapid development in high-speed and intercity railways worldwide in recent years, IWHIR 2011 aims at providing a platform for academic scholars and practicing engineers to share knowledge and experience, to promote collaboration, and to strengthen R&D activities related to railway engineering. Engineers, scientists, professors, and students from universities, research institutes, and related industrial companies have been cordially invited to participate in the workshop. These papers have covered a wide range of issues concerning high-speed and intercity railways in the theoretical, numerical, and experimental work pertaining to high-speed and intercity railways. Showcasing diversity and quality, these papers report the state-of-the-art and point to future directions of research and development in this exciting area.

"AutomaticControl of Atmospheric and Space Flight Vehicles" is perhaps the firstbook on the market to present a unified and straightforwardstudyof the design and analysis of automatic control systems for both atmospheric and space flight vehicles.Covering basic control theory and design concepts, it is meantas a textbook for senior undergraduate and graduate students in moderncourses on flight control systems.

In addition to the basics of flight control, this book covers a number ofupper-level topicsand will therefore be of interest not only to advanced students, but also toresearchers and practitioners in aeronautical engineering, applied mathematics, and systems/control theory."

This volume is an outgrowth of the workshop Applications of Advanced Control Theory to Robotics and Automation, organized in honor of the 70th birthdays of Petar V. Kokotovic and Salvatore Nicosia. Both Petar and Turi have carried out distinguished work in the control community, and have long been recognized as mentors as well as experts and pioneers in the field of automatic control, covering many topics in control theory and several different applications. The variety of their research is reflected in this book, which includes contributions ranging from mathematics to laboratory experiments.Main topics covered include: * Observer design for time-delay systems, nonlinear systems, and identification for different classes of systems* Lyapunov tools for linear differential inclusions, control of constrained systems, and finite-time stability concepts * New studies of robot manipulators, parameter identification, and different control problems for mobile robots* Applications of modern control techniques to port-controlled Hamiltonian systems, different classes of vehicles, and web handling systems* Applications of the max-plus algebra to system-order reduction; optimal machine schedu used by many of the authors will make this book suitable for experts, as well as young researchers who seek a more intuitive understanding of these relevant topics in the field

This book provides a conceptual and computational framework to study how the nervous system exploits the anatomical properties of limbs to produce mechanical function. The study of the neural control of limbs has historically emphasized the use of optimization to find solutions to the muscle redundancy problem. That is, how does the nervous system select a specific muscle coordination pattern when the many muscles of a limb allow for multiple solutions? I revisit this problem from the emerging perspective of neuromechanics that emphasizes finding and implementing families of feasible solutions, instead of a single and unique optimal solution. Those families of feasible solutions emerge naturally from the interactions among the feasible neural commands, anatomy of the limb, and constraints of the task. Such alternative perspective to the neural control of limb function is not only biologically plausible, but sheds light on the most central tenets and debates in the fields of neural control, robotics, rehabilitation, and brain-body co-evolutionary adaptations. This perspective developed from courses I taught to engineers and life scientists at Cornell University and the University of Southern California, and is made possible by combining fundamental concepts from mechanics, anatomy, mathematics, robotics and neuroscience with advances in the field of computational geometry. Fundamentals of Neuromechanics is intended for neuroscientists, roboticists, engineers, physicians, evolutionary biologists, athletes, and physical and occupational therapists seeking to advance their understanding of neuromechanics. Therefore, the tone is decidedly pedagogical, engaging, integrative, and practical to make it accessible to people coming from a broad spectrum of disciplines. I attempt to tread the line between making the mathematical exposition accessible to life scientists, and convey the wonder and complexity of neuroscience to engineers and computational scientists. While no one approach can hope to definitively resolve the important questions in these related fields, I hope to provide you with the fundamental background and tools to allow you to contribute to the emerging field of neuromechanics.

Dry Clutch Control for Automated Manual Transmission Vehiclesanalyses the control of a part of the powertrain which has a key role in ride comfort during standing-start and gear-shifting manoeuvres. The mechanical conception of the various elements in the driveline has long since been optimised so this book takes a more holistic system-oriented view of the problem featuring: a comprehensive description of the driveline elements and their operation paying particular attention to the clutch, a nonlinear model of the driveline for simulation and a simplified model for control design, with a standing-start driver automaton for closed loop simulation, a detailed analysis of the engagement operation and the related comfort criteria, different control schemes aiming at meeting these criteria, friction coefficient and unknown input clutch torque observers, practical implementation issues and solutions based on experience of implementing optimal engagement strategies on two Renault prototypes.

Societies survive in their environment and compete with each other depending on the technology they develop. Economic, military and political power are directly related to the available technology, while access to technology is key to the well-being of our societies at the individual, community and national level. The Robotics Divide analyzes how robotics will shape our societies in the twenty-first century; a time when industrial and service robotics, particularly for military and aerospace purposes, will become an essential technology. The book, written by experts in the field, focuses on the main technological trends in the field of robotics, and the impact that robotics will have on different facets of social life. By doing so, the authors aim to open the "black box" of a technology which, like any other, is designed, implemented and evaluated according to the economic and cultural patterns of a cosmopolitan society, as well as its relations of power. The Robotics Divide explores future developments in robotics technology and discusses the model of technological development and the implementation of robotics in this competitive market economy. Then the authors examine to what extent it is possible to determine the characteristic features of the robotic divide, namely in what ways the robotic divide differs from the digital divide, and how a model to integrate this technology can be developed without reproducing patterns of inequality and power that have characterized the advent of previous technologies. These issues - inequality, robotics and power - are of concern to robotics and advanced automation engineers, social scientists, economists and science policy experts alike.

This constitutes the Proceedings of the 22nd IFIP TC7 Conference held in July 2005, in Torino, Italy, and dedicated to Camillo Possio, on the 60th anniversary of his death during the last air raid over Torino. The papers in this volume concern primarily stochastic and distributed systems, their control/optimization, and inverse problems. These proceedings also explore applications of optimization techniques and computational methods in fields such as medicine, biology and economics.

Hydraulic Servo-systems details the basic concepts of many recent developments of nonlinear identification and nonlinear control and their application to hydraulic servo-systems: developments such as feedback linearisation and fuzzy control. It also reviews the principles, benefits and limitations associated with standard control design approaches such as linear state feedback control, feedforward control and compensation for static nonlinearities, because of their continued practical importance. Featuring: theoretical (physically based) modelling of hydraulic servo-systems; experimental modelling (system identification); control strategies for hydraulic servo-systems; case studies and experimental results. Appendices outline the most important fundamentals of (nonlinear) differential geometry and fuzzy control. The book is very application-oriented and provides the reader with detailed working procedures and hints for implementation routines and software tools. It will interest scientists and qualified engineers involved in the analysis and design of hydraulic control systems, especially in advanced hydraulic industries, the aeronautical and space and automotive industries.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th IFIP WG 5.5 International Precision Assembly Seminar, IPAS 2012, held in Chamonix, France, in February 2012. The 15 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized into the following topical sections: micro processes and systems; handling and manipulation in assembly; tolerance management and error compensation methods; metrology and quality control; intelligent control of assembly systems; and process selection and modelling techniques.

This book is focused on the recent advances in computer vision methodologies and technical solutions using conventional and intelligent paradigms. The Contributions include: * Morphological Image Analysis for Computer Vision Applications. * Methods for Detecting of Structural Changes in Computer Vision Systems. * Hierarchical Adaptive KL-based Transform: Algorithms and Applications. * Automatic Estimation for Parameters of Image Projective Transforms Based on Object-invariant Cores. * A Way of Energy Analysis for Image and Video Sequence Processing. * Optimal Measurement of Visual Motion Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. * Scene Analysis Using Morphological Mathematics and Fuzzy Logic. * Digital Video Stabilization in Static and Dynamic Scenes. * Implementation of Hadamard Matrices for Image Processing. * A Generalized Criterion of Efficiency for Telecommunication Systems. The book is directed to PhD students, professors, researchers and software developers working in the areas of digital video processing and computer vision technologies.

This unified volume is a collection of invited articles on topics presented at the Symposium on Systems, Control, and Networks, held in Berkeley June 5-7, 2005, in honor of Pravin Varaiya on his 65th birthday. Varaiya is an eminent faculty member of the University of California at Berkeley, widely known for his seminal contributions in areas as diverse as stochastic systems, nonlinear and hybrid systems, distributed systems, communication networks, transportation systems, power networks, economics, optimization, and systems education.The chapters include recent results and surveys by leading experts on topics that reflect many of the research and teaching interests of Varaiya, including: hybrid systems and applications - communication, wireless and sensor networks - transportation systems - stochastic systems - systems education Advances in Systems, Control, and Networks will serve as an excellent resource for practicing and research engineers, applied mathematicians, and graduate students working in such areas as communication networks, sensor networks, transportation systems, control theory, hybrid systems, and applications. Contributors: J.S. Baras, V.S. Borkar, M.H.A. Davis, A. Hwang, T. Jiang, R. Johari, A. Kotsialos, A.B. Kurzhanski, E.A. Lee, X. Liu, H.S. Mahmassani, D. Manjunath, B. Mishra, L. Munoz, M. Papageorgiou, C. Piazza, S.E. Shladover, D.M. Stipanovic, T.M. Stoenescu, X. Sun, D. Teneketzis, C.J. Tomlin, J.N. Tsitsiklis, J. Walrand, X. Zhou

Recent years have seen a rapid development of neural network control tech niques and their successful applications. Numerous simulation studies and actual industrial implementations show that artificial neural network is a good candidate for function approximation and control system design in solving the control problems of complex nonlinear systems in the presence of different kinds of uncertainties. Many control approaches/methods, reporting inventions and control applications within the fields of adaptive control, neural control and fuzzy systems, have been published in various books, journals and conference proceedings. In spite of these remarkable advances in neural control field, due to the complexity of nonlinear systems, the present research on adaptive neural control is still focused on the development of fundamental methodologies. From a theoretical viewpoint, there is, in general, lack of a firmly mathematical basis in stability, robustness, and performance analysis of neural network adaptive control systems. This book is motivated by the need for systematic design approaches for stable adaptive control using approximation-based techniques. The main objec tives of the book are to develop stable adaptive neural control strategies, and to perform transient performance analysis of the resulted neural control systems analytically. Other linear-in-the-parameter function approximators can replace the linear-in-the-parameter neural networks in the controllers presented in the book without any difficulty, which include polynomials, splines, fuzzy systems, wavelet networks, among others. Stability is one of the most important issues being concerned if an adaptive neural network controller is to be used in practical applications."

This monograph presents a novel concept of a mobile robot, which is a single-wheel, gyroscopically stabilized robot. The robot is balanced by a spinning wheel attached through a two-link manipulator at the wheel bearing, and actuated by a drive motor. This configuration conveys significant advantages including insensitivity to attitude disturbances, high maneuverability, low rolling resistance, ability to recover from falls, and amphibious capability for potential applications on both land and water. This book focuses on the dynamics and control aspects, including modeling, model-based control, learning-based control, and shared control with human operators. This novel mobile robot concept opens up the science of dynamically stable systems with a single wheel configuration. The book also presents considerations in concept, design implementations, and kinematics modeling, as well as experimental results from various algorithms and cases. The system is a nonholonomic, underactuated, and highly nonlinear system, so this book is appropriate for scientists and engineers with interests in mobile robot, dynamics and control, as a research reference and postgraduate textbook.

A successful cyber-physical system, a complex interweaving of hardware and software with some part of the physical environment, depends on proper identification of the, often pre-existing, physical element. A bespoke "cyber" part of the system may then be designed from scratch. Optimal Mobile Sensing and Actuation Strategies in Cyber-physical Systems focuses on distributed-parameter systems the dynamics of which can be modelled with partial differential equations. These are very challenging to observe, their states and inputs being distributed throughout a spatial domain. Consequently, systematic approaches to the optimization of sensor location have to be devised for parameter estimation. The text begins by reviewing the field of cyber-physical systems and introducing background notions of distributed parameter systems and optimal observation theory. New research problems are then defined within this framework. Two important problems considered are optimal mobile sensor trajectory planning and the accuracy effects and allocation of remote sensors. These are followed up with a solution to the problem of optimal robust estimation. Actuation policies are then introduced into the framework with the purpose of improving estimation and optimizing the trajectories of both sensors and actuators simultaneously. The large number of illustrations within the text will assist the reader to visualize the application of the methods proposed. A group of similar examples are used throughout the book to help the reader assimilate the material more easily. The monograph concentrates on the use of methods for which a cyber-physical-systems infrastructure is required. The methods are computationally heavy and require mobile sensors and actuators with communications abilities. Application examples cover fields from environmental science to national security so that readers are encouraged to link the ideas of cyber-physical systems with their own research.

This book contains the papers included in the proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on High-speed and Intercity Railways (IWHIR 2011) held in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, China from July 19 to July 22, 2011, which is organized by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in collaboration with Southwest Jiaotong University, Beijing Jiaotong University, Dalian Jiaotong University, China Engineering Consultants, Inc., Zhejiang University, and Tsinghua University. Continuing the great initiatives and momentums of the rapid development in high-speed and intercity railways worldwide in recent years, IWHIR 2011 aims at providing a platform for academic scholars and practicing engineers to share knowledge and experience, to promote collaboration, and to strengthen R&D activities related to railway engineering. Engineers, scientists, professors, and students from universities, research institutes, and related industrial companies have been cordially invited to participate in the workshop. These papers have covered a wide range of issues concerning high-speed and intercity railways in the theoretical, numerical, and experimental work pertaining to high-speed and intercity railways. Showcasing diversity and quality, these papers report the state-of-the-art and point to future directions of research and development in this exciting area.

This book includes 15 programming and constructional projects, and covers the range of AVR chips currently available, including the recent Tiny AVR. No prior experience with microcontrollers is assumed.
John Morton is author of the popular PIC: Your Personal Introductory Course, also published by Newnes.
*The hands-on way of learning to use the Atmel AVR microcontroller
*Project work designed to put the AVR through its paces
*The only book designed to get you up-and-running with the AVR from square one

Autonomy for Marine Robots provides a timely and insightful overview of intelligent autonomy in marine robots. A brief history of this emerging field is provided, along with a discussion of the challenges unique to the underwater environment and their impact on the level of intelligent autonomy required. Topics covered at length examine advanced frameworks, path-planning, fault tolerance, machine learning, and cooperation as relevant to marine robots that need intelligent autonomy.

This book introduces physical effects and fundamentals of piezoelectric sensors and actuators. It gives a comprehensive overview of piezoelectric materials such as quartz crystals and polycrystalline ceramic materials. Different modeling approaches and methods to precisely predict the behavior of piezoelectric devices are described. Furthermore, a simulation-based approach is detailed which enables the reliable characterization of sensor and actuator materials. One focus of the book lies on piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers. An optical approach is presented that allows the quantitative determination of the resulting sound fields. The book also deals with various applications of piezoelectric sensors and actuators. In particular, the studied application areas are * process measurement technology, * ultrasonic imaging, * piezoelectric positioning systems and * piezoelectric motors. The book addresses students, academic as well as industrial reseachers and development engineers who are concerned with piezoelectric sensors and actuators.