Over the past century, mechanization has been an important means for optimizing resource utilization, improving worker health and safety and reducing labor requirements in farming while increasing productivity and quality of 4F (Food, Fuel, Fiber, Feed). Recognizing this contribution, agricultural mechanization was considered as one of the top ten engineering achievements of 20th century by the National Academy of Engineering. Accordingly farming communities have adopted increasing level of automation and robotics to further improve the precision management of crops (including input resources), increase productivity and reduce farm labor beyond what has been possible with conventional mechanization technologies. It is more important than ever to continue to develop and adopt novel automation and robotic solutions into farming so that some of the most complex agricultural tasks, which require huge amount of seasonal labor such as fruit and vegetable harvesting, could be automated while meeting the rapidly increasing need for 4F. In addition, continual innovation in and adoption of agricultural automation and robotic technologies is essential to minimize the use of depleting resources including water, minerals and other chemicals so that sufficient amount of safe and healthy food can be produced for current generation while not compromising the potential for the future generation. This book aims at presenting the fundamental principles of various aspects of automation and robotics as they relate to production agriculture (the branch of agriculture dealing with farming operations from field preparation to seeding, to harvesting and field logistics). The building blocks of agricultural automation and robotics that are discussed in the book include sensing and machine vision, control, guidance, manipulation and end-effector technologies. The fundamentals and operating principles of these technologies are explained with examples from cutting-edge research and development currently going on around the word. This book brings together scientists, engineers, students and professionals working in these and related technologies to present their latest examples of agricultural automation and robotics research, innovation and development while explaining the fundamentals of the technology. The book, therefore, benefits those who wish to develop novel agricultural engineering solutions and/or to adopt them in the future.

The development of inexpensive and fast computers, coupled with the discovery of efficient algorithms for dealing with polynomial equations, has enabled exciting new applications of algebraic geometry and commutative algebra. Algebraic Geometry for Robotics and Control Theory shows how tools borrowed from these two fields can be efficiently employed to solve relevant problem arising in robotics and control theory.After a brief introduction to various algebraic objects and techniques, the book first covers a wide variety of topics concerning control theory, robotics, and their applications. Specifically this book shows how these computational and theoretical methods can be coupled with classical control techniques to: solve the inverse kinematics of robotic arms; design observers for nonlinear systems; solve systems of polynomial equalities and inequalities; plan the motion of mobile robots; analyze Boolean networks; solve (possibly, multi-objective) optimization problems; characterize the robustness of linear; time-invariant plants; and certify positivity of polynomials.

Developments in bio-inspired computation have impacted multiple fields and created opportunities for new applications. In recent years, these techniques have been increasingly integrated into robotic systems. Membrane Computing for Distributed Control of Robotic Swarms: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an innovative reference source for the latest perspectives on biologically-inspired computation techniques for robot design and control. Highlighting a range of pivotal topics such as software engineering, simulation tools, and robotic security, this book is ideally designed for researchers, academics, students, and practitioners interested in the role of membrane computing in mobile robots.

This book discusses the principles, approaches, concepts and development programs for integrated aircraft avionics. The functional tasks of integrated on-board radio electronic equipment (avionics) of navigation, landing, data exchange and air traffic control are formulated that meet the modern requirements of civil and military aviation, and the principles of avionics integration are proposed. The modern approaches to the joint processing of information in navigation and landing complexes are analyzed. Algorithms of multichannel information processing in integrated avionics are considered, and examples of its implementation are presented. This book is intended for scientists and professionals in the field of aviation equipment, students and graduate students of relevant specialties.

The topics covered in this book range from modeling and programming languages and environments, via approaches for design and verification, to issues of ethics and regulation. In terms of techniques, there are results on model-based engineering, product lines, mission specification, component-based development, simulation, testing, and proof. Applications range from manufacturing to service robots, to autonomous vehicles, and even robots than evolve in the real world. A final chapter summarizes issues on ethics and regulation based on discussions from a panel of experts. The origin of this book is a two-day event, entitled RoboSoft, that took place in November 2019, in London. Organized with the generous support of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the University of York, UK, RoboSoft brought together more than 100 scientists, engineers and practitioners from all over the world, representing 70 international institutions. The intended readership includes researchers and practitioners with all levels of experience interested in working in the area of robotics, and software engineering more generally. The chapters are all self-contained, include explanations of the core concepts, and finish with a discussion of directions for further work. Chapters 'Towards Autonomous Robot Evolution', 'Composition, Separation of Roles and Model-Driven Approaches as Enabler of a Robotics Software Ecosystem' and 'Verifiable Autonomy and Responsible Robotics' are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Mankind's dependence on artificial intelligence and robotics is increasing rapidly as technology becomes more advanced. Finding a way to seamlessly intertwine these two worlds will help boost productivity in society and aid in a variety of ways in modern civilization. Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society is an essential scholarly resource that delves into the current issues, methodologies, and trends relating to advanced robotic technology in the modern world. Featuring relevant topics that include STEM technologies, brain-controlled androids, biped robots, and media perception, this publication is ideal for engineers, academicians, students, and researchers that would like to stay current with the latest developments in the world of evolving robotics.

This book deals with the stabilization issue of infinite dimensional dynamical systems both at the theoretical and applications levels. Systems theory is a branch of applied mathematics, which is interdisciplinary and develops activities in fundamental research which are at the frontier of mathematics, automation and engineering sciences. It is everywhere, innumerable and daily, and moreover is there something which is not system: it is present in medicine, commerce, economy, psychology, biological sciences, finance, architecture (construction of towers, bridges, etc.), weather forecast, robotics, automobile, aeronautics, localization systems and so on. These are the few fields of application that are useful and even essential to our society. It is a question of studying the behavior of systems and acting on their evolution. Among the most important notions in system theory, which has attracted the most attention, is stability. The existing literature on systems stability is quite important, but disparate, and the purpose of this book is to bring together in one document the essential results on the stability of infinite dimensional dynamical systems. In addition, as such systems evolve in time and space, explorations and research on their stability have been mainly focused on the whole domain in which the system evolved. The authors have strongly felt that, in this sense, important considerations are missing: those which consist in considering that the system of interest may be unstable on the whole domain, but stable in a certain region of the whole domain. This is the case in many applications ranging from engineering sciences to living science. For this reason, the authors have dedicated this book to extension of classical results on stability to the regional case. This book considers a very important issue, which is that it should be accessible to mathematicians and to graduate engineering with a minimal background in functional analysis. Moreover, for the majority of the students, this would be their only acquaintance with infinite dimensional system. Accordingly, it is organized by following increasing difficulty order. The two first chapters deal with stability and stabilization of infinite dimensional linear systems described by partial differential equations. The following chapters concern original and innovative aspects of stability and stabilization of certain classes of systems motivated by real applications, that is to say bilinear and semi-linear systems. The stability of these systems has been considered from a global and regional point of view. A particular aspect concerning the stability of the gradient has also been considered for various classes of systems. This book is aimed at students of doctoral and master's degrees, engineering students and researchers interested in the stability of infinite dimensional dynamical systems, in various aspects.

Machine learning has become one of the most prevalent topics in recent years. The application of machine learning we see today is a tip of the iceberg. The machine learning revolution has just started to roll out. It is becoming an integral part of all modern electronic devices. Applications in automation areas like automotive, security and surveillance, augmented reality, smart home, retail automation and healthcare are few of them. Robotics is also rising to dominate the automated world. The future applications of machine learning in the robotics area are still undiscovered to the common readers. We are, therefore, putting an effort to write this edited book on the future applications of machine learning on robotics where several applications have been included in separate chapters. The content of the book is technical. It has been tried to cover all possible application areas of Robotics using machine learning. This book will provide the future vision on the unexplored areas of applications of Robotics using machine learning. The ideas to be presented in this book are backed up by original research results. The chapter provided here in-depth look with all necessary theory and mathematical calculations. It will be perfect for laymen and developers as it will combine both advanced and introductory material to form an argument for what machine learning could achieve in the future. It will provide a vision on future areas of application and their approach in detail. Therefore, this book will be immensely beneficial for the academicians, researchers and industry project managers to develop their new project and thereby beneficial for mankind. Original research and review works with model and build Robotics applications using Machine learning are included as chapters in this book.

"Advances in Intelligent Vehicles" presents recent advances in intelligent vehicle technologies that enhance the safety, reliability, and performance of vehicles and vehicular networks and systems. This book provides readers with up-to-date research results and cutting-edge technologies in the area of intelligent vehicles and transportation systems. Topics covered include virtual and staged testing scenarios, collision avoidance, human factors, and modeling techniques.

The Series in Intelligent Systems publishes titles that cover state-of-the-art knowledge and the latest advances in research and development in intelligent systems. Its scope includes theoretical studies, design methods, and real-world implementations and applications.
Provides researchers and engineers with up-to-date research results and state-of-the art technologies in the area of intelligent vehicles and transportation systems Covers hot topics, including driver assistance systems; cooperative vehicle-highway systems; collision avoidance; pedestrian protection; image, radar and lidar signal processing; and V2V and V2I communications

"Introduction to Mobile Robot Control" provides a complete and concise study of modeling, control, and navigation methods for wheeled non-holonomic and omnidirectional mobile robots and manipulators. The book begins with a study of mobile robot drives and corresponding kinematic and dynamic models, and discusses the sensors used in mobile robotics. It then examines a variety of model-based, model-free, and vision-based controllers with unified proof of their stabilization and tracking performance, also addressingthe problems of path, motion, and task planning, along with localization and mapping topics. The book provides a host of experimental results, a conceptual overview of systemic and software mobile robot control architectures, and a tour of the use of wheeled mobile robots and manipulators in industry and society.

"Introduction to Mobile Robot Control" is an essential reference, and is also a textbook suitable as a supplement for many university robotics courses. It is accessible to all and can be used as a reference for professionals and researchers in the mobile robotics field.
Clearly and authoritatively presents mobile robot conceptsRichly illustrated throughout with figures and examplesKey concepts demonstrated with a host of experimental and simulation examplesNo prior knowledge of the subject is required; each chapter commences with an introduction and background"

This book draws inspiration from natural shepherding, whereby a farmer utilizes sheepdogs to herd sheep, to inspire a scalable and inherently human friendly approach to swarm control. The book discusses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) approaches needed to design smart robotic shepherding agents capable of controlling biological swarms or robotic swarms of unmanned vehicles. These smart shepherding agents are described with the techniques applicable to the control of Unmanned X Vehicles (UxVs) including air (unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs), ground (unmanned ground vehicles or UGVs), underwater (unmanned underwater vehicles or UUVs), and on the surface of water (unmanned surface vehicles or USVs). This book proposes how smart 'shepherds' could be designed and used to guide a swarm of UxVs to achieve a goal while ameliorating typical communication bandwidth issues that arise in the control of multi agent systems. The book covers a wide range of topics ranging from the design of deep reinforcement learning models for shepherding a swarm, transparency in swarm guidance, and ontology-guided learning, to the design of smart swarm guidance methods for shepherding with UGVs and UAVs. The book extends the discussion to human-swarm teaming by looking into the real-time analysis of human data during human-swarm interaction, the concept of trust for human-swarm teaming, and the design of activity recognition systems for shepherding. Presents a comprehensive look at human-swarm teaming; Tackles artificial intelligence techniques for swarm guidance; Provides artificial intelligence techniques for real-time human performance analysis.

This book discusses biologically inspired robotic actuators designed to offer improved robot performance and approaching human-like efficiency and versatility. It assesses biological actuation and control in the human motor system, presents a range of technical actuation approaches, and discusses potential applications in wearable robots, i.e., powered prostheses and exoskeletons. Gathering the findings of internationally respected researchers from various fields, the book provides a uniquely broad perspective on bioinspired actuator designs for robotics. Its scope includes fundamental aspects of biomechanics and neuromechanics, actuator and control design, and their application in (wearable) robotics. The book offers PhD students and advanced graduate students an essential introduction to the field, while providing researchers a cutting-edge research perspective.

This handbook presents state-of-the-art research in reinforcement learning, focusing on its applications in the control and game theory of dynamic systems and future directions for related research and technology. The contributions gathered in this book deal with challenges faced when using learning and adaptation methods to solve academic and industrial problems, such as optimization in dynamic environments with single and multiple agents, convergence and performance analysis, and online implementation. They explore means by which these difficulties can be solved, and cover a wide range of related topics including: deep learning; artificial intelligence; applications of game theory; mixed modality learning; and multi-agent reinforcement learning. Practicing engineers and scholars in the field of machine learning, game theory, and autonomous control will find the Handbook of Reinforcement Learning and Control to be thought-provoking, instructive and informative.

The design of control systems is at the very core of engineering. Feedback controls are ubiquitous, ranging from simple room thermostats to airplane engine control. Helping to make sense of this wide-ranging field, this book provides a new approach by keeping a tight focus on the essentials with a limited, yet consistent set of examples. Analysis and design methods are explained in terms of theory and practice. The book covers classical, linear feedback controls, and linear approximations are used when needed. In parallel, the book covers time-discrete (digital) control systems and juxtaposes time-continuous and time-discrete treatment when needed. One chapter covers the industry-standard PID control, and one chapter provides several design examples with proposed solutions to commonly encountered design problems.

The book is ideal for upper level students in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biological/biomedical engineering, chemical engineering and agricultural and environmental engineering and provides a helpful refresher or introduction for graduate students and professionals
Focuses on the essentials of control fundamentals, system analysis, mathematical description and modeling, and control design to guide the readerIllustrates the theory and practical application for each point using real-world examplesStrands weave throughout the book, allowing the reader to understand clearly the use and limits of different analysis and design tools

This book is the first comprehensive book about reservoir computing (RC). RC is a powerful and broadly applicable computational framework based on recurrent neural networks. Its advantages lie in small training data set requirements, fast training, inherent memory and high flexibility for various hardware implementations. It originated from computational neuroscience and machine learning but has, in recent years, spread dramatically, and has been introduced into a wide variety of fields, including complex systems science, physics, material science, biological science, quantum machine learning, optical communication systems, and robotics. Reviewing the current state of the art and providing a concise guide to the field, this book introduces readers to its basic concepts, theory, techniques, physical implementations and applications. The book is sub-structured into two major parts: theory and physical implementations. Both parts consist of a compilation of chapters, authored by leading experts in their respective fields. The first part is devoted to theoretical developments of RC, extending the framework from the conventional recurrent neural network context to a more general dynamical systems context. With this broadened perspective, RC is not restricted to the area of machine learning but is being connected to a much wider class of systems. The second part of the book focuses on the utilization of physical dynamical systems as reservoirs, a framework referred to as physical reservoir computing. A variety of physical systems and substrates have already been suggested and used for the implementation of reservoir computing. Among these physical systems which cover a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, are mechanical and optical systems, nanomaterials, spintronics, and quantum many body systems. This book offers a valuable resource for researchers (Ph.D. students and experts alike) and practitioners working in the field of machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, neuromorphic computing, complex systems, and physics.

GEOM TICA: TECNOLOG AS DE PUNTA. Geom tica: Tecnolog a de Punta; presenta una introducci n a este t rmino cient fico moderno, que agrupa las reas de cartograf a, geograf a e informaci n del espacio y espacial; algunas definiciones, que a n est n en evoluci n. Da una opini n sobre los OVIS y presenta descripciones de los sistemas GNSS; equipos y aplicaciones, e igualmente, su evoluci n. Da una opini n gremial y una perspectiva de la Geom tica en la administraci n; refiriendo algunos aspectos de la tramparencia e igualmente anuncia su segunda edici n.