This book presents the most recent research advances in the theory, design, control and application of robotic systems, which are intended for a variety of purposes such as manipulation, manufacturing, automation, surgery, locomotion and biomechanics. The issues addressed are fundamentally kinematic in nature, including synthesis, calibration, redundancy, force control, dexterity, inverse and forward kinematics, kinematic singularities, as well as over-constrained systems. Methods used include line geometry, quaternion algebra, screw algebra, and linear algebra. These methods are applied to both parallel and serial multi-degree-of-freedom systems. The results should interest researchers, teachers and students, in fields of engineering and mathematics related to robot theory, design, control and application. All articles in the book were reported at the seventh international symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics that was organised in June 2000 in the beautiful ancient Mediterranean town of Piran in Slovenia. The preceding symposia of the series took place in Ljubljana (1988), Linz (1990), Ferrara (1992), Ljubljana (1994), and Piran (1996), and Salzburg (1998).

In Fascination of Fluid Dynamics contains a collection of papers by international experts in hydrodynamics, based on oral presentations at a symposium held in honour of Professor Leen van Wijngaarden on his 65th birthday. The book begins with a personal sketch of his life and scientific career. It continues with a mixture of papers that address recent developments in various branches of fluid mechanics. Many of the papers cover different aspects of multiphase flows: bubble dynamics, cavitation, bubbles and particles in turbulent flows, suspension flows, and wave phenomena in fluidised beds. Other topics that are addressed include: dynamics of jets, shock waves, MHD turbulence, selforganisation phenomena in 2D turbulence, vortex rings and the thermodynamics of tropical cyclones. This edited volume will be valuable reading for researchers, engineers and students interested in hydrodynamics, and in particular in multiphase flows.

Biomedical Engineering Principles in Sports contains in-depth discussions on the fundamental biomechanical and physiological principles underlying the acts of throwing, shooting, hitting, kicking, and tackling in sports, as well as vision training, sports injury, and rehabilitation. The topics include: -Golf ball aerodynamics and golf club design, -Golf swing and putting biomechanics, -Tennis ball aerodynamics and ball- and shoe-surface interactions, -Tennis stroke mechanics and optimizing ball-racket interactions, -Baseball pitching biomechanics and perceptual illusions of batters, -Football forward pass aerodynamics and tackling biomechanics, -Soccer biomechanics, -Basketball aerodynamics and biomechanics, -Vision training in sports, -Children maturation and performance, -Rehabilitation and medical advances in treatment of sports injuries. This book is essential reading for biomedical engineers, physicists, sport scientists, and physiologists who wish to update their knowledge of biomechanical and biomedical principles and their applications to sports. The book can be used in a one-semester Senior or Graduate-level course in Biomechanics, Biomedical Engineering, Sports Technology, Sports Medicine, or Exercise Physiology. In addition, it will be of value to interested athletic laypersons who enjoy watching or participating in sports such as golf, tennis, softball, football, soccer, and basketball.

This book considers signal processing and physical modeling meth ods for sound synthesis. Such methods are useful for example in mu sic synthesizers, computer sound cards, and computer games. Physical modeling synthesis has been commercialized for the first time about 10 years ago. Recently, it has been one of the most active research topics in musical acoustics and computer music. The authors of this book, Dr. Lutz Trautmann and Dr. Rudolf Rabenstein, are active researchers and inventors in the field of sound synthesis. Together they have developed a new synthesis technique, called the functional transformation method, which can be used for pro ducing musical sound in real time. Before this book, they have published over 20 papers on the topic in journals and conference proceedings. In this excellent textbook, the results are combined in a single volume. I believe that this will be considered an important step forward for the whole community.

up with automated systems for assessment of road condition. For example, Haas et al (1997) developed an automated algorithm for detecting cracks and joints con- tion. Smith and Lin (1997) developed a fuzzy logic classification scheme for pavement distress condition. Oh et al (1997) developed iterative algorithm for overcoming noisy images of roads due to shadows and low light conditions. Koustsopoulos and Mishalani (1997) presented a model for distress assessment in a local (microscopic) and global (macroscopic) level using captured images of pavement. Lee (1993) presented a comparison between 15 different imaging al- rithms used in crack detection. Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) has also been used for pavement assessment. Special computer algorithms were developed for quick analysis of GPR data (Adeli & Hung 1993 and Maser 1996). Heiler and McNeil (1997) proposed a modified system for analyzing the GPR data using an artificial neural network (ANN). 2.3.2 Traffic Analysis and Control Currently imaging systems provide essential data for transportation and traffic engineering planning (Anon 1999). Machine vision techniques were introduced to intersection traffic signal control in the late 1970's (Chou and Sethi 1993). No- days, many systems have been developed all over the world for traffic analysis and control applications, in addition to image based systems for traffic violations. Nallamathu and Wang (1997) developed one of the first automated systems for license plate recognition using character recognition algorithm for the use in monitoring violators at toll stations and many other traffic applications.

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.

Nonlinear Dynamics represents a wide interdisciplinary area of research dealing with a variety of "unusual" physical phenomena by means of nonlinear differential equations, discrete mappings, and related mathematical algorithms. However, with no real substitute for the linear superposition principle, the methods of Nonlinear Dynamics appeared to be very diverse, individual and technically complicated. This book makes an attempt to find a common ground for nonlinear dynamic analyses based on the existence of strongly nonlinear but quite simple counterparts to the linear models and tools. It is shown that, since the subgroup of rotations, harmonic oscillators, and the conventional complex analysis generate linear and weakly nonlinear approaches, then translations and reflections, impact oscillators, and hyperbolic (Clifford's) algebras must give rise to some "quasi impact" methodology. Such strongly nonlinear methods are developed in several chapters of this book based on the idea of non-smooth time substitutions. Although most of the illustrations are based on mechanical oscillators, the area of applications may include also electric, electro-mechanical, electrochemical and other physical models generating strongly anharmonic temporal signals or spatial distributions. Possible applications to periodic elastic structures with non-smooth or discontinuous characteristics are outlined in the final chapter of the book.

The purpose of this book is to provide students, practicing engineers and scientists with a treatment of nonlinear phenomena occurring in physical systems. Although only mechanical models are used, the theory applies to all physical systems governed by the same equations, so that the book can be used to study nonlinear phenomena in other branches of engineering, such as electrical engineering and aerospace engineering, as well as in physics. The book consists of two volumes. Volume I is concerned with single degree-of-freedom systems and it presents the fundamental concepts of nonlinear analysis. Both analytical methods and computer simulations are included. The material is presented in such a manner that the book can be used as a graduate as well as an undergraduate textbook. Volume II deals with multi-degree-of-freedom systems. Following an introduc tion to linear systems, the volume presents fundamental concepts of geometric theory and stability of motion of general nonlinear systems, as well as a concise discussion of basic approximate methods for the response of such systems. The material represents a generalization of a series of papers on the vibration of nonlinear multi-degree-of-freedom systems, some of which were published by me and my associates during the period 1965 - 1983 and some are not yet published."

This book studies methods for a robust design of rotors against self-excited vibrations. The occurrence of self-excited vibrations in engineering applications if often unwanted and in many cases difficult to model. Thinking of complex systems such as machines with many components and mechanical contacts, it is important to have guidelines for design so that the functionality is robust against small imperfections. This book discusses the question on how to design a structure such that unwanted self-excited vibrations do not occur. It shows theoretically and practically that the old design rule to avoid multiple eigenvalues points toward the right direction and have optimized structures accordingly. This extends results for the well-known flutter problem in which equations of motion with constant coefficients occur to the case of a linear conservative system with arbitrary time periodic perturbations.

This volume contains contributions from the speakers at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "3D 5tructure and Dynamics of RNA", which was held in Renesse, The Netherlands, 21 - 24 August, 1985. Two major developments have determined the progress of nucleic acid research during the last decade. First, manipulation of genetic material by recombinant DNA methodology has enabled detailed studies of the function of nucleic acids in vivo. 5econd, the use of powerful physical methods, such as X-ray diffraction and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, in the study of biomacromolecules has provided information regarding the structure and the dynamics of nucleic acids. Both developments were enabled by the advance of synthetic methods that allow preparation of nucleic acid molecules of required sequence and length. The basic understanding of nucleic acid function will ultimately depend on a close collaboration between molecular biologists and biophy sicists. In the case of RNA, the ground rules for the formation of secondary structure have been derived from physical studies of oligoribonucleotides. Powerfull spectroscopic techniques have revealed more details of ~~A structure including novel conformations (e.g. left-handed Z-RNA). A wealth of information has been obtained by studying the relatively small transfer RNA molecules. A few of these RNAs have been crystallized, enabling determination of their three-dimensional structure. It has become apparent that "non-classical" basepairing between distal nucleotides gives rise to tertiary interactions, determining the overall shape of the molecule.

Excessive noise levels are generally acknowledged to have adverse effects on our environment. Studies indicate that excessive noise levels can cause fatigue in exposed individuals, lower efficiency and productivity, impaired speech communication, and hearing loss. Excessive noise is almost everywhere today - in the office, in schools, hospitals and other institutional facilities, in all classes of public buildings, and in our factories. INDUSTRIAL NOISE High noise levels in factories can make speech communication in the plant difficult and at times impossible. Foremen are often unable to hear warning shouts from co-workers. The problem of hearing loss due to excessive noise exposure is of particular concern to industry, and to the federal government. In the early 1970s, the United States Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) which sets criteria for health hazards and established limits for noise exposure of industrial workers. The OSHA Noise Standard was amended in 1982 to require audiometric testing of all employees exposed to noise levels of 85 dB or above for eight hours. A NOISE IN COMMERCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS While noise levels in offices, stores, schools, and other commercial and institutional buildings seldom reach those encountered in many industrial environments, they often reach levels which are distracting to the occupants of such buildings. Impairment of speech communica tion among workers, or inversely the lack of speech privacy, are both deterrents to effiCiency and productivity and are detrimental to the occupants' comfort and sense of well-being."

Synchronization of chaotic systems, a patently nonlinear phenomenon, has emerged as a highly active interdisciplinary research topic at the interface of physics, biology, applied mathematics and engineering sciences. In this connection, time-delay systems described by delay differential equations have developed as particularly
suitable tools for modeling specific dynamical systems. Indeed, time-delay is ubiquitous in many physical systems, for example due to finite
switching speeds of amplifiers in electronic circuits, finite lengths of vehicles in traffic flows, finite signal propagation times in biological networks and circuits, and quite generally whenever memory effects are relevant.
This monograph presents the basics of chaotic time-delay systems and their synchronization with an emphasis on the effects of time-delay feedback which give rise to new collective dynamics.
Special attention is devoted to scalar chaotic/hyperchaotic time-delay
systems, and some higher order models, occurring in different branches of science and technology as well as to the synchronization of their coupled versions.

Last but not least, the presentation as a whole strives for a balance between the necessary mathematical description of the basics
and the detailed presentation of real-world applications.

The dynamics of bodies containing fluids is a subject of long-standing im portance in many technical applications. The stability of motion of such bodies, in particular, has been the subject of study by Soviet engineers and applied mathematicians who have brought their fuH powers of analysis to bear on the problem, and have succeeded in developing a very weH-founded body of theory. It is difficult to find a more striking example anywhere of the application of the classical methods of analytical mechanics, together with more modern concepts of stability analysis, in such a comprehensive and elegent form as that presented by Profs. Moiseyev and Rumyantsev. Therefore, it is highly significant that this recent monograph has been trans lated and made available to the English-speaking community. H. NORMAN ABRAMSON San Antonio July, 1967 v Foreword During the last 15-20 years, problems of dynamics of rigid bodies with fluid-filled cavities have increasingly attracted the attention of scientists."

In 1960, Dr. George Deacon ofthe National Institute ofOceanography in England organized a meeting in Easton, Maryland that summarized the state of our understanding at that time of ocean wave statistics and dynamics. It was a pivotal occasion: spectral techniques for wave measurement were beginning to be used, wave-wave interactions hadjust been discovered, and simple models for the growth of waves by wind were being developed. The meeting laid the foundation for much work that was to follow, but one could hardly have imagined the extent to which new techniques of measurement, particularly by remote sensing, new methods of calculation and computation, and new theoretical and laboratory results would, in the following twenty years, build on this base. When Gaspar Valenzuela of the V. S. Naval Research Laboratory perceived that the time was right for a second such meeting, it was natural that Sir George Deacon would be invited to serve as honorary chairman for the meeting, and the entire waves community was delighted at his acceptance. The present volume contains reviewed and edited papers given at this second meeting, held this time in Miami, Florida, May 13-20, 1981, with the generous support of the Office of Naval Research, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This plenary paper and the accompanying presentation have highlighted field problems involving fluid-structure interaction over a wide span of Navy operations. Considering the vast size and versatility of the Navy's inventory, the cases presented represent examples of a much larger problem. But even this limited set provides sufficient evidence that fluid-structure interaction does hinder the Navy's ability to accomplish its missions. This survey has also established that there are no accurate and generally applicable design tools for addressing these problems. In the majority of cases the state-of-practice is to either make ad-hoc adjustments and estimates based on historical evidence, or conduct expensive focused tests directed at each specific problem and/or candidate solution. Unfortunately, these approaches do not provide insight into the fundamental problem, and neither can be considered reliable regarding their likelihood of success. So the opportunities for applying computational fluid-structure interaction modeling to Navy problems appear limitless. Scenarios range from the "simple" resonant strumming of underwater and in-air cables, to the "self-contained" flow field and vibration of aircraft/ordnance bodies at various Mach numbers, to violent underwater transient detonations and local hull structural collapse. Generally applicable and computationally tractable design-oriented models for these phenomena are of course still far in the future. But the Navy has taken the first steps in that direction by sponsoring specialized numerical models, validation experiments tailored for specific applications, and conferences such as this one."

The book provides an introduction to the mechanics of composite materials, written for graduate students and practitioners in industry. It examines ways to model the impact event, to determine the size and severity of the damage and discusses general trends observed during experiments.

Multibody systems are used extensively in the investigation of mechanical systems including structural and non-structural applications. It can be argued that among all the areas in solid mechanics the methodologies and applications associated to multibody dynamics are those that provide an ideal framework to aggregate d- ferent disciplines. This idea is clearly reflected, e. g. , in the multidisciplinary applications in biomechanics that use multibody dynamics to describe the motion of the biological entities, in finite elements where multibody dynamics provides - werful tools to describe large motion and kinematic restrictions between system components, in system control where the methodologies used in multibody dynamics are the prime form of describing the systems under analysis, or even in many - plications that involve fluid-structure interaction or aero elasticity. The development of industrial products or the development of analysis tools, using multibody dynamics methodologies, requires that the final result of the devel- ments are the best possible within some limitations, i. e. , they must be optimal. Furthermore, the performance of the developed systems must either be relatively insensitive to some of their design parameters or be sensitive in a controlled manner to other variables. Therefore, the sensitivity analysis of such systems is fundamental to support the decision making process. This book presents a broad range of tools for designing mechanical systems ranging from the kinematic and dynamic analysis of rigid and flexible multibody systems to their advanced optimization.

Though the reductionist approachto biology and medicine has led to several imp- tant advances, further progresses with respect to the remaining challenges require integration of representation, characterization and modeling of the studied systems along a wide range of spatial and time scales. Such an approach, intrinsically - lated to systems biology, is poised to ultimately turning biology into a more precise and synthetic discipline, paving the way to extensive preventive and regenerative medicine [1], drug discovery [20] and treatment optimization [24]. A particularly appealing and effective approach to addressing the complexity of interactions inherent to the biological systems is provided by the new area of c- plex networks [34, 30, 8, 13, 12]. Basically, it is an extension of graph theory [10], focusing on the modeling, representation, characterization, analysis and simulation ofcomplexsystemsbyconsideringmanyelementsandtheirinterconnections.C- plex networks concepts and methods have been used to study disease [17], tr- scription networks [5, 6, 4], protein-protein networks [22, 36, 16, 39], metabolic networks [23] and anatomy [40].

The aim of the present book is to present theoretical nonlinear aco- tics with equal stress on physical and mathematical foundations. We have attempted explicit and detailed accounting for the physical p- nomena treated in the book, as well as their modelling, and the f- mulation and solution of the mathematical models. The nonlinear acoustic phenomena described in the book are chosen to give phy- cally interesting illustrations of the mathematical theory. As active researchers in the mathematical theory of nonlinear acoustics we have found that there is a need for a coherent account of this theory from a unified point of view, covering both the phenomena studied and mathematical techniques developed in the last few decades. The most ambitious existing book on the subject of theoretical nonlinear acoustics is "Theoretical Foundations of Nonlinear Aco- tics" by O. V. Rudenko and S. I. Soluyan (Plenum, New York, 1977). This book contains a variety of applications mainly described by Bu- ers' equation or its generalizations. Still adhering to the subject - scribed in the title of the book of Rudenko and Soluyan, we attempt to include applications and techniques developed after the appearance of, or not included in, this book. Examples of such applications are resonators, shockwaves from supersonic projectiles and travelling of multifrequency waves. Examples of such techniques are derivation of exact solutions of Burgers' equation, travelling wave solutions of Bu- ers' equation in non-planar geometries and analytical techniques for the nonlinear acoustic beam (KZK) equation.

This book has been written to provide an intro Chapter 2 deals with the mechanism of hear duction to the fundamental concepts of sound ing and the subjective rating of sound, includ and a comprehensive coverage whereby un ing age-related and noise-induced hearing loss. wanted sound (noise) can be controlled. Al Assessment of any noise problem involves a though there are many notable textbooks which knowledge of the instrumentation available for deal primarily with the physics (or theory) of measurements, the limitations of this instru sound, and others which treat noise control in mentation, the appropriate procedures for mak a strictly practical (and sometimes even empir ing the measurements with the instrumentation, ical) manner, there are few textbooks that pro and the methods by which the measured data vide a bridging between the necessary under can be analyzed. Chapter 3 provides an up-to standing of the fundamentals of sound (its date coverage of these requirements, including generation, propagation, measurement) and the a section on one of the newest and most valu application of these fundamentals to its control. able tools in noise studies-sound intensity This book provides that link. measurement. The capability of being able to The text presents noise control primarily at measure sound intensity as compared with con the introductory level."

The interest of the media in dust explosions increased considerably following two major grain-elevator disasters in the United States in 1979. However, these were not isolated incidents and were statistically unusual only in the high loss of life involved. Any oxidizable material that is dispersed in fine powder form may be explosive, and ignition sources with sufficient energy to ignite a dust cloud are easily produced in normal industrial processing. Dust fires and minor incidents are not uncommon in many industries, but fortunately the combination of events and circumstances that must coincide for a large-scale explosion arise only rarely. Nevertheless, this is often more by luck than by good management and many potentially hazardous situations are common in industry. An explosive dust cloud and the circumstances in which it can ignite are not as simple to define as the equivalent situation in gases or flammable vapors. A large number of definitions and experimental tests have been devised to characterize the explosibility of dusts and ignition sources. The aim of this book is to provide a guide describing conditions in industry that could lead to dust explosions and the means to avoid them. Ignition sources and the way in which they can arise in powder processing are discussed and illustrated by case histories of reported incidents. The methods by which the potential hazards of a process or product can be evaluated are described, with special attention paid to the interpretation of the results of the different experimental methods.

Our everyday life is in?uenced by many unexpected (dif?cult to predict) events usually referred as a chance. Probably, we all are as we are due to the accumulation point of a multitude of chance events. Gambling games that have been known to human beings nearly from the beginning of our civilization are based on chance events. These chance events have created the dream that everybody can easily become rich. This pursuit made gambling so popular. This book is devoted to the dynamics of the mechanical randomizers and we try to solve the problem why mechanical device (roulette) or a rigid body (a coin or a die) operating in the way described by the laws of classical mechanics can behave in such a way and produce a pseudorandom outcome. During mathematical lessons in primary school we are taught that the outcome of the coin tossing experiment is random and that the probability that the tossed coin lands heads (tails) up is equal to 1/2. Approximately, at the same time during physics lessons we are told that the motion of the rigid body (coin is an example of suchabody)isfullydeterministic. Typically,studentsarenotgiventheanswertothe question Why this duality in the interpretation of the simple mechanical experiment is possible? Trying to answer this question we describe the dynamics of the gambling games based on the coin toss, the throw of the die, and the roulette run.

The ECCOMAS Thematic Conference "Multibody Dynamics 2009" was held in Warsaw, representing the fourth edition of a series which began in Lisbon (2003), and was then continued in Madrid (2005) and Milan (2007), held under the auspices of the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS). The conference provided a forum for exchanging ideas and results of several topics related to computational methods and applications in multibody dynamics, through the participation of 219 scientists from 27 countries, mostly from Europe but also from America and Asia. This book contains the revised and extended versions of invited conference papers, reporting on the state-of-the-art in the advances of computational multibody models, from the theoretical developments to practical engineering applications. By providing a helpful overview of the most active areas and the recent efforts of many prominent research groups in the field of multibody dynamics, this book can be highly valuable for both experienced researches who want to keep updated with the latest developments in this field and researches approaching the field for the first time.

This text 1s designed to introduce the fundamentals of esti mation to engineers, scientists, and applied mathematicians. The level of the presentation should be accessible to senior under graduates and should prove especially well-suited as a self study guide for practicing professionals. My primary motivation for writing this book 1s to make a significant contribution toward minimizing the painful process most newcomers must go through in digesting and applying the theory. Thus the treatment 1s intro ductory and essence-oriented rather than comprehensive. While some original material 1s included, the justification for this text lies not in the contribution of dramatic new theoretical re sults, but rather in the degree of success I believe that I have achieved in providing a source from which this material may be learned more efficiently than through study of an existing text or the rather diffuse literature. This work is the outgrowth of the author's mid-1960's en counter with the subject while motivated by practical problems aSSociated with space vehicle orbit determination and estimation of powered rocket trajectories. The text has evolved as lecture notes for short courses and seminars given to professionals at Pr>efaae various private laboratories and government agencies, and during the past six years, in conjunction with engineering courses taught at the University of Virginia. To motivate the reader's thinking, the structure of a typical estimation problem often assumes the following form: * Given a dynamical system, a mathematical model is hypothesized based upon the experience of the investigator.

Time series with mixed spectra are characterized by hidden periodic components buried in random noise. Despite strong interest in the statistical and signal processing communities, no book offers a comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the subject. Filling this void, Time Series with Mixed Spectra focuses on the methods and theory for the statistical analysis of time series with mixed spectra. It presents detailed theoretical and empirical analyses of important methods and algorithms. Using both simulated and real-world data to illustrate the analyses, the book discusses periodogram analysis, autoregression, maximum likelihood, and covariance analysis. It considers real- and complex-valued time series, with and without the Gaussian assumption. The author also includes the most recent results on the Laplace and quantile periodograms as extensions of the traditional periodogram. Complete in breadth and depth, this book explains how to perform the spectral analysis of time series data to detect and estimate the hidden periodicities represented by the sinusoidal functions. The book not only extends results from the existing literature but also contains original material, including the asymptotic theory for closely spaced frequencies and the proof of asymptotic normality of the nonlinear least-absolute-deviations frequency estimator.