The chapters in this volume, and the volume itself, celebrate the life and research of Roberto Tempo, a leader in the study of complex networked systems, their analysis and control under uncertainty, and robust designs. Contributors include authorities on uncertainty in systems, robustness, networked and network systems, social networks, distributed and randomized algorithms, and multi-agent systems-all fields that Roberto Tempo made vital contributions to. Additionally, at least one author of each chapter was a research collaborator of Roberto Tempo's. This volume is structured in three parts. The first covers robustness and includes topics like time-invariant uncertainties, robust static output feedback design, and the uncertainty quartet. The second part is focused on randomization and probabilistic methods, which covers topics such as compressive sensing, and stochastic optimization. Finally, the third part deals with distributed systems and algorithms, and explores matters involving mathematical sociology, fault diagnoses, and PageRank computation. Each chapter presents exposition, provides new results, and identifies fruitful future directions in research. This book will serve as a valuable reference volume to researchers interested in uncertainty, complexity, robustness, optimization, algorithms, and networked systems.

Microsystems are an important success factor in the automobile industry. In order to fulfil the customers' requests for safety convenience and vehicle economy, and to satisfy environmental requirements, microsystems are becoming indispensable. Thus a large number of microsystem applications came into the discussion. With the international conference AMAA 2000, VDI/VDE-IT provides a platform for the discussion of all MST relevant components for automotive applications. The conference proceedings gather the papers by authors from automobile suppliers and manufacturers.

* Provides an elegant introduction to the geometric concepts that are important to applications in robotics

* Includes significant state-of-the art material that reflects important advances, connecting robotics back to mathematical fundamentals in group theory and geometry

* An invaluable reference that serves a wide audience of grad students and researchers in mechanical engineering, computer science, and applied mathematics

This book provides basic theories and implementations using SCILAB open-source software for digital images. The book simplifies image processing theories and well as implementation of image processing algorithms, making it accessible to those with basic knowledge of image processing. This book includes many SCILAB programs at the end of each theory, which help in understanding concepts. The book includes more than sixty SCILAB programs of the image processing theory. In the appendix, readers will find a deeper glimpse into the research areas in the image processing.

In the mathematical treatment of many problems which arise in physics, economics, engineering, management, etc., the researcher frequently faces two major difficulties: infinite dimensionality and randomness of the evolution process. Infinite dimensionality occurs when the evolution in time of a process is accompanied by a space-like dependence; for example, spatial distribution of the temperature for a heat-conductor, spatial dependence of the time-varying displacement of a membrane subject to external forces, etc. Randomness is intrinsic to the mathematical formulation of many phenomena, such as fluctuation in the stock market, or noise in communication networks. Control theory of distributed parameter systems and stochastic systems focuses on physical phenomena which are governed by partial differential equations, delay-differential equations, integral differential equations, etc., and stochastic differential equations of various types. This has been a fertile field of research with over 40 years of history, which continues to be very active under the thrust of new emerging applications. Among the subjects covered are: Control of distributed parameter systems; Stochastic control; Applications in finance/insurance/manufacturing; Adapted control; Numerical approximation . It is essential reading for applied mathematicians, control theorists, economic/financial analysts and engineers.

This book is the fourth volume of the sub series of the Lecture Notes in Mobility dedicated to Road Vehicle Automation. lts chapters have been written by researchers, engineers and analysts from all around the globe. 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 which took place in San Francisco, California (USA) in July 2016.

The present book includes a set of selected papers from the eighth "International Conference on Informatics in Control Automation and Robotics" (ICINCO 2011), held in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, from 28 to 31 July 2011. The conference was organized in four simultaneous tracks: "Intelligent Control Systems and Optimization", "Robotics and Automation", "Signal Processing, Sensors, Systems Modeling and Control" and "Industrial Engineering, Production and Management". The book is based on the same structure. ICINCO received 322 paper submissions, not including those of workshops or special sessions, from 52 countries, in all continents. After a double blind paper review performed by the Program Committee only 33 submissions were accepted as full papers and thus selected for oral presentation, leading to a full paper acceptance ratio of 10%. Additional papers were accepted as short papers and posters. A further refinement was made after the conference, based also on the assessment of presentation quality, so that this book includes the extended and revised versions of the very best papers of ICINCO 2011. Commitment to high quality standards is a major concern of ICINCO that will be maintained in the next editions of this conference, including not only the stringent paper acceptance ratios but also the quality of the program committee, keynote lectures, workshops and logistics.

The Engineering of Complex Real-Time Computer Control Systems brings together in one place important contributions and up-to-date research results in this important area. The Engineering of Complex Real-Time Computer Control Systems serves as an excellent reference, providing insight into some of the most important research issues in the field.

This book gathers extended versions of the best papers presented at the 8th IEEE conference on Intelligent Systems, held in Sofia, Bulgaria on September 4-6, 2016, which are mainly related to theoretical research in the area of intelligent systems. The main focus is on novel developments in fuzzy and intuitionistic fuzzy sets, the mathematical modelling tool of generalized nets and the newly defined method of intercriteria analysis. The papers reflect a broad and diverse team of authors, including many young researchers from Australia, Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Iran, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Korea and the UK.

Fault Diagnosis of Dynamic Systems provides readers with a glimpse into the fundamental issues and techniques of fault diagnosis used by Automatic Control (FDI) and Artificial Intelligence (DX) research communities. The book reviews the standard techniques and approaches widely used in both communities. It also contains benchmark examples and case studies that demonstrate how the same problem can be solved using the presented approaches. The book also introduces advanced fault diagnosis approaches that are currently still being researched, including methods for non-linear, hybrid, discrete-event and software/business systems, as well as, an introduction to prognosis. Fault Diagnosis of Dynamic Systems is valuable source of information for researchers and engineers starting to work on fault diagnosis and willing to have a reference guide on the main concepts and standard approaches on fault diagnosis. Readers with experience on one of the two main communities will also find it useful to learn the fundamental concepts of the other community and the synergies between them. The book is also open to researchers or academics who are already familiar with the standard approaches, since they will find a collection of advanced approaches with more specific and advanced topics or with application to different domains. Finally, engineers and researchers looking for transferable fault diagnosis methods will also find useful insights in the book.

In the last ten years, a true explosion of investigations into fuzzy modeling and its applications in control, diagnostics, decision making, optimization, pattern recognition, robotics, etc. has been observed. The attraction of fuzzy modeling results from its intelligibility and the high effectiveness of the models obtained. Owing to this the modeling can be applied for the solution of problems which could not be solved till now with any known conventional methods. The book provides the reader with an advanced introduction to the problems of fuzzy modeling and to one of its most important applications: fuzzy control. It is based on the latest and most significant knowledge of the subject and can be used not only by control specialists but also by specialists working in any field requiring plant modeling, process modeling, and systems modeling, e.g. economics, business, medicine, agriculture,and meteorology.

It is a great pleasure for me to introduce this book which has the main ambition to make thermodynamics more directly accessible to engineers and physicists by stressing the analogies with the other physical domains; this science has discouraged more than a few students. The book comes from the meeting of two persons: 1. Jean Thoma, inventor of hydrostatic machines and transmissions, pro fessor at the University of Waterloo (Canada), expert in simulation and pilgrim for the promotion of bond graphs around the world. 2. Belkacem Ould Bouamama, associated professor at the University of Science and Technology in Lille, France, specialist in industrial control and seduced by the richness and structure of the bond graph method. Thermodynamics is a difficult subject; its concepts like entropy, enthalpy, etc. are not intuitive and often very abstract. For this reason, it is current practice to neglect the thermal aspects, although they are necessarily there in all physical phenomena, and to use isothermal models. This is equivalent to think that the system is immersed in an infinite temperature reservoir and maintains its temperature constant even if it receives or dissipates electric and other type of energy. For heat transfer and variable temperature, if it should be included, the classical approach is to study the changes between equilibrium states, and not the process itself, which is more a thermostatic than a thermodynamic approach. This is justified when only the constraints of equilibrium state must be satisfied."

This book covers the conventional and most recent theories and applications in the area of evolutionary algorithms, swarm intelligence, and meta-heuristics. Each chapter offers a comprehensive description of a specific algorithm, from the mathematical model to its practical application. Different kind of optimization problems are solved in this book, including those related to path planning, image processing, hand gesture detection, among others. All in all, the book offers a tutorial on how to design, adapt, and evaluate evolutionary algorithms. Source codes for most of the proposed techniques have been included as supplementary materials on a dedicated webpage.

This book incorporates recent advances in the design of feedback laws to the purpose of globally stabilizing nonlinear systems via state or output feedback. It is a continuation of the first volume by Alberto Isidori on Nonlinear Control Systems. Specifically this second volume will cover: *Stability analysis of interconnected nonlinear systems. The notion of Input-to-State stability and its role in analysing stability of cascade-connected or feedback-connected systems. The notion of dissipativity and its consequences (passivity and "gain"). *Robust stabilization in the case of parametric uncertainties. The case of state feedback: global or semi-global stabilization. The case of output feedback: semi-global stabilization. *Robust stabilization in the case of unstructured perturbations. Feedback design via the small-gain approach. Robust semi-global stabilization via output feedback. *Methods for asymptotic tracking, disturbance rejection and model following. Global and semi-global analysis. *Normal forms for multi-input multi-output nonlinear systems form a global point of view. Their role in feedback design.

Selected contributions to the Workshop WAFR 2002, held December 15-17, 2002, Nice, France. This fifth biannual Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics focuses on algorithmic issues related to robotics and automation. The design and analysis of robot algorithms raises fundamental questions in computer science, computational geometry, mechanical modeling, operations research, control theory, and associated fields. The highly selective program highlights significant new results such as algorithmic models and complexity bounds. The validation of algorithms, design concepts, or techniques is the common thread running through this focused collection.

Piecewise Linear (PL) approximation of non-linear behaviour is a well-known technique in synthesis and analysis of electrical networks. However, the PL description should be efficient in data storage and the description should allow simple retrieval of the stored information. Furthermore, it would be useful if the model description could handle a large class of piecewise linear mappings. Piecewise Linear Modeling and Analysis explains in detail all possible model descriptions for efficiently storing piecewise linear functions, starting with the Chua descriptions. Detailed explanation on how the model parameter can be obtained for a given mapping is provided and demonstrated by examples. The models are ranked to compare them and to show which model can handle the largest class of PL mappings. All model descriptions are implicitly related to the Linear Complementarity Problem and most solution techniques for this problem, like Katzenelson and Lemke, are discussed according to examples that are explained in detail. To analyse PL electrical networks a simulator is mandatory. Piecewise Linear Modeling and Analysis provides a detailed outline of a possible PL simulator, including pseudo-programming code. Several simulation domains like transient, AC and distortion are discussed. The book explains the attractive features of PL simulators with respect to mixed-level and mixed-signal simulation while paying due regard also to hierarchical simulation. Piecewise Linear Modeling and Analysis shows in detail how many existing components in electrical networks can be modeled. These range from digital logic and analog basic elements such as transistors to complex systems like Phase-Locked Loops and detection systems. Simulation results are also provided. The book concludes with a discussion on how to find multiple solutions for PL functions or networks. Again, the most common techniques are outlined using clear examples. Piecewise Linear Modeling and Analysis is an indispensable guide for researchers and designers interested in network theory, network synthesis and network analysis.

Semantic Models in IoT and eHealth Applications explores the key role of semantic web modeling in eHealth technologies, including remote monitoring, mobile health, cloud data and biomedical ontologies. The book explores different challenges and issues through the lens of various case studies of healthcare systems currently adopting these technologies. Chapters introduce the concepts of semantic interoperability within a healthcare model setting and explore how semantic representation is key to classifying, analyzing and understanding the massive amounts of biomedical data being generated by connected medical devices. Continuous health monitoring is a strong solution which can provide eHealth services to a community through the use of IoT-based devices that collect sensor data for efficient health diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. All of this collected data needs to be represented in the form of ontologies which are considered the cornerstone of the Semantic Web for knowledge sharing, information integration and information extraction.

The design of nonlinear controllers for mechanical systems has been an ex tremely active area of research in the last two decades. From a theoretical point of view, this attention can be attributed to their interesting dynamic behavior, which makes them suitable benchmarks for nonlinear control the oreticians. On the other hand, recent technological advances have produced many real-world engineering applications that require the automatic con trol of mechanical systems. the mechanism for de Often, Lyapunov-based techniques are utilized as veloping different nonlinear control structures for mechanical systems. The allure of the Lyapunov-based framework for mechanical system control de sign can most likely be assigned to the fact that Lyapunov function candi dates can often be crafted from physical insight into the mechanics of the system. That is, despite the nonlinearities, couplings, and/or the flexible effects associated with the system, Lyapunov-based techniques can often be used to analyze the stability of the closed-loop system by using an energy like function as the Lyapunov function candidate. In practice, the design procedure often tends to be an iterative process that results in the death of many trees. That is, the controller and energy-like function are often constructed in concert to foster an advantageous stability property and/or robustness property. Fortunately, over the last 15 years, many system the ory and control researchers have labored in this area to produce various design tools that can be applied in a variety of situations."

This book, written by experts in the field, is based on the latest research on the analysis and synthesis of switched time-delay systems. It covers the stability, filtering, fault detection and control problems, which are studied using the average dwell time approach. It presents both the continuous-time and discrete-time systems and provides useful insights and methods, as well as practical algorithms that can be considered in other complex systems, such as neuron networks and genetic regulatory networks, making it a valuable resource for researchers, scientists and engineers in the field of system sciences and control communities.

"Hybrid Predictive Control for Dynamic Transport Problems" develops methods for the design of predictive control strategies for nonlinear-dynamic hybrid discrete-/continuous-variable systems. The methodology is designed for real-time applications, particularly the study of dynamic transport systems. Operational and service policies are considered, as well as cost reduction. The control structure is based on a sound definition of the key variables and their evolution. A flexible objective function able to capture the predictive behaviour of the system variables is described. Coupled with efficient algorithms, mainly drawn from area of computational intelligence, this is shown to optimize performance indices for real-time applications. The framework of the proposed predictive control methodology is generic and, being able to solve nonlinear mixed integer optimization problems dynamically, is readily extendable to other industrial processes.

The main topics of this book are:

. hybrid predictive control (HPC) design based on evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO);

. HPC based on EMO for dial-a-ride systems; and

. HPC based on EMO for operational decisions in public transport systems.

"Hybrid Predictive Control for Dynamic Transport Problems" is a comprehensive analysis of HPC and its application to dynamic transport systems. Introductory material on evolutionary algorithms is presented in summary in an appendix. The text will be of interest to control and transport engineers working on the operational optimization of transport systems and to academic researchers working with hybrid systems. The potential applications of the generic methods presented here to other process fields will make the book of interest to a wider group of researchers, scientists and graduate students working in other control-related disciplines."

The international conference on Automation and Robotics-ICAR2011 is held during December 12-13, 2011 in Dubai, UAE. The proceedings of ICAR2011 have been published by Springer Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, which include 163 excellent papers selected from more than 400 submitted papers.

The conference is intended to bring together the researchers and engineers/technologists working in different aspects of intelligent control systems and optimization, robotics and automation, signal processing, sensors, systems modeling and control, industrial engineering, production and management.

This part of proceedings includes 81 papers contributed by many researchers in relevant topic areas covered at ICAR2011 from various countries such as France, Japan, USA, Korea and China etc.

Many papers introduced their advanced research work recently; some of them gave a new solution to problems in the field, with powerful evidence and detail demonstration. Others stated the application of their designed and realized systems. The session topic of this proceeding is intelligent control and robotics and automation, which includes papers about Distributed Control Systems, Intelligent Fault Detection and Identification, Machine Learning in Control, Neural Networks based Control Systems, Fuzzy Control, Genetic Algorithms, Robot Design, Human-robots Interfaces, Network Robotics, and Autonomous Systems, Industrial Networks and Automation, Modeling, Simulation and Architectures, Vision, Recognition and Reconstruction, Virtual Reality, Image Processing, and so on.

All of papers here involved the authors' numerous time and energy, will be proved valuable in their research field. Sincere thanks to the committee and all the authors, moreover anonymous reviewers from many fields and organizations. That is a power for all of us to go on research work for the world."

This book surveys the well-known results and also presents a series of original results on the mathematical modeling of social networks, focusing on models of informational influence, control and confrontation. Online social networks are intended for communication, opinion exchange and information acquisition for their members, but recently, online social networks have been intensively used as the objects and means of informational control and an arena of informational confrontation. They have become a powerful informational influence tool, particularly for the manipulation of individuals, social groups and society as a whole, as well as a battlefield of information warfare (cyberwars). This book aimed at under- and postgraduate university students as well as experts in information technology and modeling of social systems and processes.

Sight and touch are two elementary, but highly complementary senses - for humans as well as for robots. This monograph develops an integrated vision/force control approach for robotics, combining the advantages of both types of sensors while overcoming their individual drawbacks. It shows how integrated vision/force control improves the task quality in the sense of increased accuracy and execution velocity and widens the range of feasible tasks. The unique feature of this work lies in its comprehensive treatment of the problem from the theoretical development of the various schemes down to the real-time implementation of interaction control algorithms on an industrial robot. The presented approach and its potential impact on the performance of the next generation of robots is starting to be recognized by major manufacturers worldwide.

This book provides readers with a solid set of diversified and essential tools for the theoretical modeling and control of complex robotic systems, as well as for digital human modeling and realistic motion generation. Following a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of robotic kinematics, dynamics and control systems design, the author extends robotic modeling procedures and motion algorithms to a much higher-dimensional, larger scale and more sophisticated research area, namely digital human modeling. Most of the methods are illustrated by MATLAB (TM) codes and sample graphical visualizations, offering a unique closed loop between conceptual understanding and visualization. Readers are guided through practicing and creating 3D graphics for robot arms as well as digital human models in MATLAB (TM), and through driving them for real-time animation. This work is intended to serve as a robotics textbook with an extension to digital human modeling for senior undergraduate and graduate engineering students. At the same time, it represents a comprehensive reference guide for all researchers, scientists and professionals eager to learn the fundamentals of robotic systems as well as the basic methods of digital human modeling and motion generation.