This monograph by Florian Rohrbein, Germano Veiga and Ciro Natale is an edited collection of 15 authoritative contributions in the area of robot technology transfer between academia and industry. It comprises three parts on "Future Industrial Robotics," "Robotic Grasping" as well as "Human-Centered Robots." The book chapters cover almost all the topics nowadays considered hot within the robotics community, from reliable object recognition to dexterous grasping, from speech recognition to intuitive robot programming, from mobile robot navigation to aerial robotics, from safe physical human-robot interaction to body extenders. All contributions stem from the results of ECHORD the European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development, a large-scale integrating project funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme from 2009 to 2013. ECHORD s two main pillars were the so-called experiments, 51 small-sized industry-driven research projects and the structured dialog a powerful interaction instrument between the stakeholders. The results described in this volume are expected to shed new light on innovation and technology transfer from academia to industry in the field of robotics."

Modelling and Control of Mini-Flying Machines is an exposition of models developed to assist in the motion control of various types of mini-aircraft: * Planar Vertical Take-off and Landing aircraft; * helicopters; * quadrotor mini-rotorcraft; * other fixed-wing aircraft; * blimps. For each of these it propounds: * detailed models derived from Euler-Lagrange methods; * appropriate nonlinear control strategies and convergence properties; * real-time experimental comparisons of the performance of control algorithms; * review of the principal sensors, on-board electronics, real-time architecture and communications systems for mini-flying machine control, including discussion of their performance; * detailed explanation of the use of the Kalman filter to flying machine localization. To researchers and students in nonlinear control and its applications Modelling and Control of Mini-Flying Machines provides valuable insights to the application of real-time nonlinear techniques in an always challenging area.

This book provides an introduction to Swarm Robotics, which is the application of methods from swarm intelligence to robotics. It goes on to present methods that allow readers to understand how to design large-scale robot systems by going through many example scenarios on topics such as aggregation, coordinated motion (flocking), task allocation, self-assembly, collective construction, and environmental monitoring. The author explains the methodology behind building multiple, simple robots and how the complexity emerges from the multiple interactions between these robots such that they are able to solve difficult tasks. The book can be used as a short textbook for specialized courses or as an introduction to Swarm Robotics for graduate students, researchers, and professionals who want a concise introduction to the field.

This book is for researchers, engineers, and students who are willing to understand how humanoid robots move and be controlled. The book starts with an overview of the humanoid robotics research history and state of the art. Then it explains the required mathematics and physics such as kinematics of multi-body system, Zero-Moment Point (ZMP) and its relationship with body motion. Biped walking control is discussed in depth, since it is one of the main interests of humanoid robotics. Various topics of the whole body motion generation are also discussed. Finally multi-body dynamics is presented to simulate the complete dynamic behavior of a humanoid robot. Throughout the book, Matlab codes are shown to test the algorithms and to help the readers understanding.

This book moves toward the realization of domestic robots by presenting an integrated view of computer vision and robotics, covering fundamental topics including optimal sensor design, visual servo-ing, 3D object modelling and recognition, and multi-cue tracking, emphasizing robustness throughout. Covering theory and implementation, experimental results and comprehensive multimedia support including video clips, VRML data, C++ code and lecture slides, this book is a practical reference for roboticists and a valuable teaching resource.

We live in an ever complex, dynamic and technological-based world. A world where industries, businesses and agencies rely ever increasingly on automated systems to maintain efficiency, increase productivity, minimize human error or gain a competitive edge. Moreover, automation is now seen by many organizations as the solution to human performance problems. These organizations continue to invest significant resources to implement automated systems wherever possible and there is no doubt that automation has helped such organizations manage their sophisticated, information-rich environments, where humans have limited capabilities. Therefore, automation has helped to improve industrial and commercial progress to the extent that organizations now depend upon it for their own benefit. However, new and unresolved problems have arisen as more individuals, groups and teams interact with automated systems. Hence, the need and motivation of this volume. The chapters contained in this volume explore some of the key human performance issues facing organizations as they implement or manage automated systems. Dealing with a range of topics, from how to design optional use, avoiding misuse, to creating training strategies for automated systems, this volume also explores which theories may help us understand automation better and what research needs to be conducted. This publication attempts to illustrate how human performance research on automation can help organizations design better systems and also hopes to motivate more theoretically-based but practically-relevant research in the technological-based world of the 21st century.

A discussion of challenges related to the modeling and control of greenhouse crop growth, this book presents state-of-the-art answers to those challenges. The authors model the subsystems involved in successful greenhouse control using different techniques and show how the models obtained can be exploited for simulation or control design; they suggest ideas for the development of physical and/or black-box models for this purpose. Strategies for the control of climate- and irrigation-related variables are brought forward. The uses of PID control and feedforward compensators, both widely used in commercial tools, are summarized. The benefits of advanced control techniques-event-based, robust, and predictive control, for example-are used to improve on the performance of those basic methods. A hierarchical control architecture is developed governed by a high-level multiobjective optimization approach rather than traditional constrained optimization and artificial intelligence techniques. Reference trajectories are found for diurnal and nocturnal temperatures (climate-related setpoints) and electrical conductivity (fertirrigation-related setpoints). The objectives are to maximize profit, fruit quality, and water-use efficiency, these being encouraged by current international rules. Illustrative practical results selected from those obtained in an industrial greenhouse during the last eight years are shown and described. The text of the book is complemented by the use of illustrations, tables and real examples which are helpful in understanding the material. Modeling and Control of Greenhouse Crop Growth will be of interest to industrial engineers, academic researchers and graduates from agricultural, chemical, and process-control backgrounds.

This monograph is a comprehensive introduction to the field of soccer robotics. Soccer robotics has become an important research area integrating mechatronics, computer science and artificial intelligence techniques to create real-world autonomous systems. It also serves as a popular test arena in which to compare the different approaches, in diverse types of competition and with varying levels of distributed perception and collaboration. The focus of this monograph is the FIRA framework of Soccer Robotics, in particular MiroSot, which uses a central overhead camera to overview the whole soccer field and a central control of the robots. "Soccer Robotics" completely describes the different requirements to create a soccer team and details the hardware aspects, the computer vision needed, navigation, action selection, basic skills and game strategy. These aspects are described at an undergraduate level, resulting in a book not only useful as a text for courses but also indispensable for everyone who wants to participate in MiroSot robotics.

This book focuses on the framework and implementation of energy integration systems with energy and smart-control technologies. It describes in detail We-Energy, a novel energy interaction mode based on a cyber-physical-economy-energy model, which can be adopted to solve the problem of energy supply and utilization. It then analyzes the key devices and technologies for developing the Energy Internet, such as converters, energy-conversion devices, system-level connection devices, optimization control strategies, cyber-physical system security, energy-system stability, communication technologies' operating modes and distributed optimization algorithms, to enable readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic. Lastly, it offers an outlook on the development of the Energy Internet, providing a reference for cross-integration between different disciplines. The book is an indispensable resource for power enterprises, manufacturers in the power-supply industry, and researchers in the field of Energy Internet application. It is also useful for university and college teachers and students seeking to deepen their understanding of the Energy Internet, as well as for readers interested in the Energy Internet correlation techniques.

The process control industry has seen generations of technology advancement, from pneumatic communication to electrical communication to electronic c- munication, from centralized control to distributed control. At the center of today's distributed control systems are operator workstations. These operator wo- stations provide the connection between those overseeing and running plant operations to the process itself. With each new generation of products the operator workstation has become increasingly more intelligent. Newer applications provide advanced alarming, control, and diagnostics. Behind all of these applications are smarter devices. These smart devices provide greater process insight, reduce en- neering costs, and contribute to improving the overall operational performance of the plant. Smart devices include advanced diagnostics that can report the health of the device and in many cases, the health of the process that the device is connected to. It is not uncommon for smart devices to include diagnostics that can detect plugged lines, burner flame instability, agitator loss, wet gas, orifice wear, leaks, and cavitations. These devices tell the user how well they are operating and when they need maintenance. Improvements in sensor technology and diagnostics have lead to a large variety of smart devices. So how do users connect the capabilities of these smart devices to their existing control system infrastructures? The answer is wireless. Wireless technology has matured to the point that it now can be safely applied in industrial control, monitor, and asset management applications.

Computational intelligence techniques are gaining momentum in the medical prognosis and diagnosis. This volume presents advanced applications of machine intelligence in medicine and bio-medical engineering. Applied methods include knowledge bases, expert systems, neural networks, neuro-fuzzy systems, evolvable systems, wavelet transforms, and specific internet applications. The volume is written in view of explaining to the practitioner the fundamental issues related to computational intelligence paradigms and to offer a fast and friendly-managed introduction to the most recent methods based on computer intelligence in medicine.

Adaptive Structural Systems with Piezoelectric Transducer Circuitry provides a comprehensive discussion on the integration of piezoelectric transducers with electrical circuitry for the development and enhancement of adaptive structural systems.

Covering a wide range of interdisciplinary research, this monograph presents a paradigm of taking full advantage of the two-way electro-mechanical coupling characteristics of piezoelectric transducers for structural control and identification in adaptive structural systems. Presenting descriptions of algorithm development, theoretical analysis and experimental investigation, engineers and researchers alike will find this a valuable reference.

This book focuses on solving different types of time-varying problems. It presents various Zhang dynamics (ZD) models by defining various Zhang functions (ZFs) in real and complex domains. It then provides theoretical analyses of such ZD models and illustrates their results. It also uses simulations to substantiate their efficacy and show the feasibility of the presented ZD approach (i.e., different ZFs leading to different ZD models), which is further applied to the repetitive motion planning (RMP) of redundant robots, showing its application potential.

In this book, the state-of-the-art fuzzy-model-based (FMB) based control approaches are covered. A comprehensive review about the stability analysis of type-1 and type-2 FMB control systems using the Lyapunov-based approach is given, presenting a clear picture to researchers who would like to work on this field. A wide variety of continuous-time nonlinear control systems such as state-feedback, switching, time-delay and sampled-data FMB control systems, are covered. In short, this book summarizes the recent contributions of the authors on the stability analysis of the FMB control systems. It discusses advanced stability analysis techniques for various FMB control systems, and founds a concrete theoretical basis to support the investigation of FMB control systems at the research level. The analysis results of this book offer various mathematical approaches to designing stable and well-performed FMB control systems. Furthermore, the results widen the applicability of the FMB control approach and help put the fuzzy controller in practice. A wide range of advanced analytical and mathematical analysis techniques will be employed to investigate the system stability and performance of FMB-based control systems in a rigorous manner. Detailed analysis and derivation steps are given to enhance the readability, enabling the readers who are unfamiliar with the FMB control systems to follow the materials easily. Simulation examples, with figures and plots of system responses, are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed FMB control approaches.

The increasing demands for internal combustion engines with regard to fuel consumption, emissions and driveability lead to more actuators, sensors and complex control functions. A systematic implementation of the electronic control systems requires mathematical models from basic design through simulation to calibration. The book treats physically-based as well as models based experimentally on test benches for gasoline (spark ignition) and diesel (compression ignition) engines and uses them for the design of the different control functions. The main topics are: - Development steps for engine control - Stationary and dynamic experimental modeling - Physical models of intake, combustion, mechanical system, turbocharger, exhaust, cooling, lubrication, drive train - Engine control structures, hardware, software, actuators, sensors, fuel supply, injection system, camshaft - Engine control methods, static and dynamic feedforward and feedback control, calibration and optimization, HiL, RCP, control software development - Control of gasoline engines, control of air/fuel, ignition, knock, idle, coolant, adaptive control functions - Control of diesel engines, combustion models, air flow and exhaust recirculation control, combustion-pressure-based control (HCCI), optimization of feedforward and feedback control, smoke limitation and emission control This book is an introduction to electronic engine management with many practical examples, measurements and research results. It is aimed at advanced students of electrical, mechanical, mechatronic and control engineering and at practicing engineers in the field of combustion engine and automotive engineering.

One of the main goals of optimal control theory is to provide a theoretical basis for choosing an appropriate controller for whatever system is under consideration by the researcher or engineer. Two popular norms that have proved useful are known as H-2 and H - infinity control. The first has been particularly applicable to problems arising in the aerospace industry. However, most industrial problems are badly modeled and the second norm proved to be more appropriate when the actual conditions of the problem did not conform to the stipulated conditions of the theory. This book takes the topic of H-infinity control as a point of departure and pursues an improved controller design which has been suggested in the mainstream of robust control. Its main theme, minimum entropy control, provides a means of trading off some of the features of other control problems. The book is aimed at research workers in networking systems as well as those in operator theory and linear multivariable control. The use of stochastic methods makes the book also of importance to the circuits and systems community. CONTENTS: Preface Introduction Preliminaries Induced Operator Norms Discrete-Time Entropy Connections With Related Optimal Control Problems Minimum Entropy Control Continuous-Time Entropy A. Proof of Theorem B. Proof of Theorem Bibliography Notation Index"

Very often, practical design of embedded systems lacks consistency resulting in computer control systems that do not provide the performance they should. Most notably they lack dependability, a key property now that programmed electronic devices are so pervasive, even in extremely safety-critical applications. Distributed Embedded Control Systems handles the domains encountered when designing a distributed embedded computer control system as an integrated whole. First to be discussed are some basic issues about real-time systems and their properties, specifically safety. Then, system and hardware architectures are dealt with: areas like scheduling, asymmetrical distributed multiprocessor architectures, time-triggered communications, middleware, fault-tolerant peripherals, etc. Next, programming issues, embodying desired properties, basic language subsets, object orientation and language support for hardware and software specifications and co-design are elaborated and finally, the prototype implementation of a distributed embedded control system is given as a detailed example. Different audiences will find much of interest in this work: industrial professionals are given guidelines for the design of embedded hardware and software with fault tolerance that will help them to decide which methods, tools and solutions they should employ and to which features they should pay attention. Academics have a new source of solutions and further questions to stimulate research and it will also be informative for graduate students in electrical, control and computer engineering.

Intelligent Mobile Robot Navigation builds upon the application of fuzzy logic to the area of intelligent control of mobile robots. Reactive, planned, and teleoperated techniques are considered, leading to the development of novel fuzzy control systems for perception and navigation of nonholonomic autonomous vehicles. The unique feature of this monograph lies in its comprehensive treatment of the problem, from the theoretical development of the various schemes down to the real-time implementation of algorithms on mobile robot prototypes. As such, the book spans different domains ranging from mobile robots to intelligent transportation systems, from automatic control to artificial intelligence.

The microelectronics market, with special emphasis to the production of complex mixed-signal systems-on-chip (SoC), is driven by three main dynamics, time-- market, productivity and managing complexity. Pushed by the progress in na- meter technology, the design teams are facing a curve of complexity that grows exponentially, thereby slowing down the productivity design rate. Analog design automation tools are not developing at the same pace of technology, once custom design, characterized by decisions taken at each step of the analog design flow, - lies most of the time on designer knowledge and expertise. Actually, the use of - sign management platforms, like the Cadences Virtuoso platform, with a set of - tegrated CAD tools and database facilities to deal with the design transformations from the system level to the physical implementation, can significantly speed-up the design process and enhance the productivity of analog/mixed-signal integrated circuit (IC) design teams. These design management platforms are a valuable help in analog IC design but they are still far behind the development stage of design automation tools already available for digital design. Therefore, the development of new CAD tools and design methodologies for analog and mixed-signal ICs is ess- tial to increase the designer's productivity and reduce design productivitygap. The work presented in this book describes a new design automation approach to the problem of sizing analog ICs.

"Dynamics and Control of Mechanical Systems in Offshore Engineering" is a comprehensive treatment of marine mechanical systems (MMS) involved in processes of great importance such as oil drilling and mineral recovery. Ranging from nonlinear dynamic modeling and stability analysis of flexible riser systems, through advanced control design for an installation system with a single rigid payload attached by thrusters, to robust adaptive control for mooring systems, it is an authoritative reference on the dynamics and control of MMS. Readers will gain not only a complete picture of MMS at the system level, but also a better understanding of the technical considerations involved and solutions to problems that commonly arise from dealing with them.

The text provides:

. a complete framework of dynamical analysis and control design for marine mechanical systems;

. new results on the dynamical analysis of riser, mooring and installation systems together with a general modeling method for a class of MMS;

. a general method and strategy for realizing the control objectives of marine systems with guaranteed stability the effectiveness of which is illustrated by extensive numerical simulation; and

. approximation-based control schemes using neural networks for installation of subsea structures with attached thrusters in the presence of time-varying environmental disturbances and parametric uncertainties.

Most of the results presented are analytical with repeatable design algorithms with proven closed-loop stability and performance analysis of the proposed controllers is rigorous and detailed.

"Dynamics and Control of Mechanical Systems in Offshore Engineering" is primarily intended for researchers and engineers in the system and control community, but graduate students studying control and marine engineering will also find it a useful resource as will practitioners working on the design, running or maintenance of offshore platforms."

As a stand-alone volume, Transistor Circuits For Spacecraft Power System presents numerous transistor circuits and building blocks associated with power electronics in general, and examines the major subsystem components for solar-based spacecraft power systems. The technique and concept, of "continuity of states" for nonlinear circuits handling power transfer under cyclic excitation is introduced in Part I and further developed throughout the book. This powerful technique employing matrix formulation bypasses eigen-transients and yields steady-state responses rapidly. Closed-loop treatments are also given for large-scale linear circuits, many closed-form solutions for control loop-gain, conducted susceptibility, output impedance, etc. are covered. Extensive mathematical procedures are retained to highlight the importance of analytical flows.

The author also reviews the evolution of solar-based spacecraft power systems; introduces modes of operations: discharge (boost), shunt, and charge; and covers pulse-width-modulated (PWM) boost power converter for both DC and AC conditions. A configuration tree for shunt mode operation is conceived. Based on the configuration tree, the best topologies, sequential PWM shunt and ripple-regulated free-running shunt, are intensively examined and formulated.

Transistor Circuits For Spacecraft Power System provides important information for understanding the relationship between earthbound semiconductor circuits and space borne vehicles.

The extended and revised second edition of this successful monograph presents advanced modeling, analysis and control techniques of Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS). The book covers comprehensively a range of power-system control problems: from steady-state voltage and power flow control, to voltage and reactive power control, to voltage stability control, to small signal stability control using FACTS controllers.

In the six years since the first edition of the book has been published research on the FACTS has continued to flourish while renewable energy has developed into a mature and booming global green business. The second edition reflects the new developments in converter configuration, smart grid technologies, super power grid developments worldwide, new approaches for FACTS control design, new controllers for distribution system control, and power electronic controllers in wind generation operation and control. The latest trends of VSC-HVDC with multilevel architecture have been included and four completely new chapters have been added devoted to Multi-Agent Systems for Coordinated Control of FACTS-devices, Power System Stability Control using FACTS with Multiple Operating Points, Control of a Looping Device in a Distribution System, and Power Electronic Control for Wind Generation.

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The International Symposium of Robotics Research (ISRR) continues to be the premiere meeting of the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR). The 13th International Symposium of Robotics Research took place Novemb3r 26-29, 2007, in Hiroshima, Japan, and was organized by the two editors of this book. This volume brings a collection of a broad range of topics in robotics. The content of these contributions provides a wide coverage of the current state of robotics research: the advances and challenges in its theoretical foundation and technology basis, and the developments in its traditional and novel areas of applications. Historically, the proceedings of the ISRR have featured ground-breaking work of the highest caliber, which influenced generations to come. The present volume promises to be no exception. The collection of scientific articles in this volume provides new insights to important problems in robotics, written by some of the leaders in the field.

This book presents the cyber culture of micro, macro, cosmological, and virtual computing. The book shows how these work to formulate, explain, and predict the current processes and phenomena monitoring and controlling technology in the physical and virtual space.The authors posit a basic proposal to transform description of the function truth table and structure adjacency matrix to a qubit vector that focuses on memory-driven computing based on logic parallel operations performance. The authors offer a metric for the measurement of processes and phenomena in a cyberspace, and also the architecture of logic associative computing for decision-making and big data analysis.The book outlines an innovative theory and practice of design, test, simulation, and diagnosis of digital systems based on the use of a qubit coverage-vector to describe the functional components and structures. Authors provide a description of the technology for SoC HDL-model diagnosis, based on Test Assertion Blocks Activated Graph. Examples of cyber-physical systems for digital monitoring and cloud management of social objects and transport are proposed. A presented automaton model of cosmological computing explains the cyclical and harmonious evolution of matter-energy essence, and also a space-time form of the Universe.

Controlled stochastic processes with discrete time form a very interest ing and meaningful field of research which attracts widespread attention. At the same time these processes are used for solving of many applied problems in the queueing theory, in mathematical economics. in the theory of controlled technical systems, etc. . In this connection, methods of the theory of controlled processes constitute the every day instrument of many specialists working in the areas mentioned. The present book is devoted to the rather new area, that is, to the optimal control theory with functional constraints. This theory is close to the theory of multicriteria optimization. The compromise between the mathematical rigor and the big number of meaningful examples makes the book attractive for professional mathematicians and for specialists who ap ply mathematical methods in different specific problems. Besides. the book contains setting of many new interesting problems for further invf'stigatioll. The book can form the basis of special courses in the theory of controlled stochastic processes for students and post-graduates specializing in the ap plied mathematics and in the control theory of complex systf'ms. The grounding of graduating students of mathematical department is sufficient for the perfect understanding of all the material. The book con tains the extensive Appendix where the necessary knowledge ill Borel spaces and in convex analysis is collected. All the meaningful examples can be also understood by readers who are not deeply grounded in mathematics."