Micromechanics provides a link between the structure and the properties at different scales of observation. This book deals with micromechanical analysis of interfaces and interface layers and presents several modelling tools. These range from the rigorous method of asymptotic expansions to practical finite element simulations, suitable for this class of problems. The corresponding two parts of the book are self-contained, so they can be read separately.

In this book, the major ideas behind Organic Computing are delineated, together with a sparse sample of computational projects undertaken in this new field. Biological metaphors include evolution, neural networks, gene-regulatory networks, networks of brain modules, hormone system, insect swarms, and ant colonies. Applications are as diverse as system design, optimization, artificial growth, task allocation, clustering, routing, face recognition, and sign language understanding.

For most cases of interest, exact solutions to nonlinear equations describing stochastic dynamical systems are not available. This book details the relatively simple and popular linearization techniques available, covering theory as well as application. It examines models with continuous external and parametric excitations, those that cover the majority of known approaches.

Over the past decade there has been an increasing demand for suitable material in the area of mathematical modelling as applied to science and engineering. There has been a constant movement in the emphasis from developing proficiency in purely mathematical techniques to an approach which caters for industrial and scientific applications in emerging new technologies. In this textbook we have attempted to present the important fundamental concepts of mathematical modelling and to demonstrate their use in solving certain scientific and engineering problems. This text, which serves as a general introduction to the area of mathematical modelling, is aimed at advanced undergraduate students in mathematics or closely related disciplines, e.g., students who have some prerequisite knowledge such as one-variable calculus, linear algebra and ordinary differential equations. Some prior knowledge of computer programming would be useful but is not considered essential. The text also contains some more challenging material which could prove attractive to graduate students in engineering or science who are involved in mathematical modelling. In preparing the text we have tried to use our experience of teaching mathematical modelling to undergraduate students in a wide range of areas including mathematics and computer science and disciplines in engineering and science. An important aspect of the text is the use made of scientific computer software packages such as MAPLE for symbolic algebraic manipulations and MA TLAB for numerical simulation.

Nowadays, the engineering practice raises far more vibration problems than can be theoretically explained or modelled. Because Df this, measurements are used in almost all fields of industry, transportation and civil engineering in studies of mechanical and structural vibration. They are an invaluable tool for designing products and machines with high reliability and low noise level, vehicles and buildings with improved comfort and resistance to dynamic loads, as well as for obtaining increased safety of opera tion and optimum running parameters. In order to cope with the increasing demand for experimental measurement of vibration characteristics, young engineers and designers need an introductory book with emphasis on "what has to be measured" and "by what means" before learning "how measurements are done." The expertise to perform vibration measurements must be gained in time, with every new investi gation and studied problem . .A detailed presentation of instrumentation and measuring techniques is beyond the aim of this book. Such information can be found in product data sheets, application manuals and hand books supplied by equipment manufacturers. Only general princi ples and widely used methods are presented herein, in order to provide the reader with an overview of the instrumentation and techniques encountered in vibration measurement."

The core of ths book presents a theory developed by the author to combine the recent insight into empirical data with mathematical models in freeway traffic research based on dynamical non-linear processes.

Tensegrity Systems discusses analytical tools to design energy efficient and lightweight structures employing the concept of tensegrity. This word is Buckminister Fuller's contraction of the words Tensile and Integrity, which suggests that integrity or, as we would say, stability of the structure comes from tension. In a tensegrity structure the rigid bodies (the bars) might not have any contact, thus providing extraordinary freedom to control shape, by controlling only tendons. This book will provide both static and dynamic analysis of special tensegrity structural concepts, which are motivated by biological material architecture. This will be the first book written to attempt to integrate structure and control design. All other books on structure design and books on control design assume these are independent topics, but performance can be greatly improved if the dynamics of the structure and the dynamics of the controls are coordinated to reduce the control efforts required to accomplish the system performance requirements."

Recently, research in robot kinematics has attracted researchers with different theoretical profiles and backgrounds, such as mechanical and electrica! engineering, computer science, and mathematics. It includes topics and problems that are typical for this area and cannot easily be met elsewhere. As a result, a specialised scientific community has developed concentrating its interest in a broad class of problems in this area and representing a conglomeration of disciplines including mechanics, theory of systems, algebra, and others. Usually, kinematics is referred to as the branch of mechanics which treats motion of a body without regard to the forces and moments that cause it. In robotics, kinematics studies the motion of robots for programming, control and design purposes. It deals with the spatial positions, orientations, velocities and accelerations of the robotic mechanisms and objects to be manipulated in a robot workspace. The objective is to find the most effective mathematical forms for mapping between various types of coordinate systems, methods to minimise the numerical complexity of algorithms for real-time control schemes, and to discover and visualise analytical tools for understanding and evaluation of motion properties ofvarious mechanisms used in a robotic system.

This monograph combines the knowledge of both the field of nonlinear dynamics and non-smooth mechanics, presenting a framework for a class of non-smooth mechanical systems using techniques from both fields. The book reviews recent developments, and opens the field to the nonlinear dynamics community. This book addresses researchers and graduate students in engineering and mathematics interested in the modelling, simulation and dynamics of non-smooth systems and nonlinear dynamics.

This book brings together scientists from all over the world who have defined and developed the field of Coordination Dynamics. Grounded in the concepts of self-organization and the tools of nonlinear dynamics, appropriately extended to handle informational aspects of living things, Coordination Dynamics aims to understand the coordinated functioning of a variety of different systems at multiple levels of description. The book addresses the themes of Coordination Dynamics and Dynamic Patterns in the context of the following topics: Coordination of Brain and Behavior, Perception-Action Coupling, Control, Posture, Learning, Intention, Attention, and Cognition.

I became interested in Random Vibration during the preparation of my PhD dissertation, which was concerned with the seismic response of nuclear reactor cores. I was initiated into this field through the cla.ssical books by Y.K.Lin, S.H.Crandall and a few others. After the completion of my PhD, in 1981, my supervisor M.Gera.din encouraged me to prepare a course in Random Vibration for fourth and fifth year students in Aeronautics, at the University of Liege. There was at the time very little material available in French on that subject. A first draft was produced during 1983 and 1984 and revised in 1986. These notes were published by the Presses Poly techniques et Universitaires Romandes (Lausanne, Suisse) in 1990. When Kluwer decided to publish an English translation ofthe book in 1992, I had to choose between letting Kluwer translate the French text in-extenso or doing it myself, which would allow me to carry out a sustantial revision of the book. I took the second option and decided to rewrite or delete some of the original text and include new material, based on my personal experience, or reflecting recent technical advances. Chapter 6, devoted to the response of multi degree offreedom structures, has been completely rewritten, and Chapter 11 on random fatigue is entirely new. The computer programs which have been developed in parallel with these chapters have been incorporated in the general purpose finite element software SAMCEF, developed at the University of Liege.

It is at least two decades since the conventional robotic manipulators have become a common manufacturing tool for different industries, from automotive to pharmaceutical. The proven benefits of utilizing robotic manipulators for manufacturing in different industries motivated scientists and researchers to try to extend the applications of robots to many other areas by inventing several new types of robots other than conventional manipulators. The new types of robots can be categorized in two groups; redundant (and hyper-redundant) manipulators, and mobile (ground, marine, and aerial) robots. These groups of robots, known as advanced robots, have more freedom for their mobility, which allows them to do tasks that the conventional manipulators cannot do.

Engineers have taken advantage of the extra mobility of the advanced robots to make them work in constrained environments, ranging from limited joint motions for redundant (or hyper-redundant) manipulators to obstacles in the way of mobile (ground, marine, and aerial) robots.

Since these constraints usually depend on the work environment, they are variable. Engineers have had to invent methods to allow the robots to deal with a variety of constraints automatically. A robot that is equipped with those methods is called an Autonomous Robot.

Autonomous Robots: Kinematics, Path Planning, and Control covers the kinematics and dynamic modeling/analysis of Autonomous Robots, as well as the methods suitable for their control. The text is suitable for mechanical and electrical engineers who want to familiarize themselves with methods of modeling/analysis/control that have been proven efficient through research.

Delay Differential Equations: Recent Advances and New Directions cohesively presents contributions from leading experts on the theory and applications of functional and delay differential equations (DDEs).

Students and researchers will benefit from a unique focus on theory, symbolic, and numerical methods, which illustrate how the concepts described can be applied to practical systems ranging from automotive engines to remote control over the Internet. Comprehensive coverage of recent advances, analytical contributions, computational techniques, and illustrative examples of the application of current results drawn from biology, physics, mechanics, and control theory.

Students, engineers and researchers from various scientific fields will find Delay Differential Equations: Recent Advances and New Directions a valuable reference.

Constantly increasing attention is paid in the course 'Vibration 'Theory' to vibration of mechanical systems with distributed parameters, since the real elements of machines, devices, and constructions are made of materials that are not perfectly rigid. 'Therefore, vibrations of the objects including, for ex ample, rod elastic elements excite the vibrations of these elements, which can produce a substantial effect on dynamic characteristics of moving objects and on readings of instruments. For a mechanical engineer working in the field of design of new technolo gies the principal thing is his know-how in developing the sophisticated math ematical models in which all specific features of operation of the objects under design in real conditions are meticulously taken into account. So, the main emphasis in this book is made on the methods of derivation of equations and on the algorithms of solving them (exactly or approximately) taking into con sideration all features of actual behavior of the forces acting upon elastic rod elements. 'The eigen value and eigen vector problems are considered at vibrations of curvilinear rods (including the rods with concentrated masses). Also consid ered are the problems with forced vibrations. When investigating into these problems an approximate method of numerical solution of the systems of lin ear differential equations in partial derivatives is described, which uses the principle of virtual displacements. Some problems are more complicated than others and can be used for practical works of students and their graduation theses."

The purpose of this book is to acquaint the reader with the developments in bilinear systems theory and its applications. Bilinear systems can be used to represent a wide range of physical, chemical, biological, and social systems, as well as manufacturing processes, which cannot be effectively modeled under the assumption of linearity. This book provides a unified approach for the identification and control of nonlinear complex objects that can be transformed into bilinear systems, with a focus on the control of open physical processes functioning in a non-equilibrium mode.

The material is intended for graduate students, researchers, and specialists engaged in the fields of quantum and molecular computing, control of physical processes, biophysics, superconducting magnetism, physical information science, mathematics, and engineering.

The 24 papers presented at the international concluding colloquium of the German priority programme (DFG-Verbundschwerpunktprogramm) "Transition," held in April 2002 in Stuttgart.

The unique and successful programme ran six years, starting April 1996, and was sponsored mainly by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG, but also by the Deutsches Zentrum f r Luft-und Raumfahrt, DLR, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Braunschweig, PTB, and Airbus Deutschland. The papers summarise the results of the programme and cover transition mechanisms, transition prediction, transition control, natural transition and measurement techniques, transition - turbulence - separation, and visualisation issues. Three invited papers are devoted to mechanisms of turbulence production, to a general framework of stability, receptivity and control, and a forcing model for receptivity analysis. Almost every transition topic arising in subsonic and transonic flow is covered.

A number of optimization problems of the mechanics of space flight and the motion of walking robots and manipulators, and of quantum physics, eco momics and biology, have an irregular structure: classical variational proce dures do not formally make it possible to find optimal controls that, as we explain, have an impulse character. This and other well-known facts lead to the necessity for constructing dynamical models using the concept of a gener alized function (Schwartz distribution). The problem ofthe systematization of such models is very important. In particular, the problem of the construction of the general form of linear and nonlinear operator equations in distributions is timely. Another problem is related to the proper determination of solutions of equations that have nonlinear operations over generalized functions in their description. It is well-known that "the value of a distribution at a point" has no meaning. As a result the problem to construct the concept of stability for generalized processes arises. Finally, optimization problems for dynamic systems in distributions need finding optimality conditions. This book contains results that we have obtained in the above-mentioned directions. The aim of the book is to provide for electrical and mechanical engineers or mathematicians working in applications, a general and systematic treat ment of dynamic systems based on up-to-date mathematical methods and to demonstrate the power of these methods in solving dynamics of systems and applied control problems."

The aim of this book is to present a rigorous phenomenological and mathematical formulation of sedimentation processes and to show how this theory can be applied to the design and control of continuous thickeners. The book is directed to stu dents and researchers in applied mathematics and engineering sciences, especially in metallurgical, chemical, mechanical and civil engineering, and to practicing en gineers in the process industries. Such a vast and diverse audience should read this book differently. For this reason we have organized the chapters in such a way that the book can be read in two ways. Engineers and engineering students will find a rigorous formulation of the mathematical model of sedimentation and the exact and approximate solutions for the most important problems encountered in the laboratory and in industry in Chapters 1 to 3, 7 and 8, and 10 to 12, which form a self-contained subject. They can skip Chapters 4 to 6 and 9, which are most important to applied mathematicians, without losing the main features of sedimentation processes. On the other hand, applied mathematicians will find special interest in Chapters 4 to 6 and 9 which show some known but many recent results in the field of conservation laws of quasilinear hyperbolic and degenerate parabolic equations of great interest today. These two approaches to the theory keep their own styles: the mathematical approach with theorems and proofs, and the phenomenological approach with its deductive technique."

The ?eld of robotics continues to ?ourish and develop. In common with general scienti?c investigation, new ideas and implementations emerge quite spontaneously and these are discussed, used, discarded or subsumed at c- ferences, in the reference journals, as well as through the Internet. After a little more maturity has been acquired by the new concepts, then archival publication as a scienti?c or engineering monograph may occur. The goal of the Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics is to publish new developments and advances in the ?elds of robotics research - rapidly and informally but with a high quality. It is hoped that prospective authors will welcome the opportunity to publish a structured presentation of some of the emerging robotics methodologies and technologies. The edited volume by Antonio Bicchi, Henrik Christensen and Domenico Prattichizzo is the outcome of the second edition of a workshop jointly sponsored by the IEEE Control Systems Society and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. Noticeably, the previous volume was published in the Springer Lecture Notes on Control and Information Sciences. The authors are recognised as leading scholars internationally. A n- ber of challenging control problems on the forefront of today's research in robotics and automation are covered, with special emphasis on vision, sensory-feedback control, human-centered robotics, manipulation, planning, ?exible and cooperative robots, assembly systems.

Modeling and analysing multibody systems require a comprehensive understanding of the kinematics and dynamics of rigid bodies. In this volume, the relevant fundamental principles are first reviewed in detail and illustrated in conformity with the multibody formalisms that follow. Whatever the kind of system (tree-like structures, closed-loop mechanisms, systems containing flexible beams or involving tire/ground contact, wheel/rail contact, etc), these multibody formalisms have a common feature in the proposed approach, viz, the symbolic generation of most of the ingredients needed to set up the model.
The symbolic approach chosen, specially dedicated to multibody systems, affords various advantages: it leads to a simplification of the theoretical formulation of models, a considerable reduction in the size of generated equations and hence in resulting computing time, and also enhanced portability of the multibody models towards other specific environments. Moreover, the generation of multibody models as symbolic toolboxes proves to be an excellent pedagogical medium in teaching mechanics.

This volume contains the edited version of selected papers presented at the Nato Advanced Study Institute on "Computer Aided Analysis of Rigid and Flexible Mechanical Systems," held in Portugal, from the 27 June to 9 July, 1994. The present volume can be viewed as a natural extension of the material addressed in the Institute which was published by KLUWER in the NATO ASI Series, Vol. 268, in 1994. The requirements for accurate and efficient analysis tools for design of large and lightweight mechanical systems has driven a strong interest in the challenging problem of multibody dynamics. The development of new analysis and design formulations for multi body systems has been more recently motivated with the need to include general features such as: real-time simulation capabilities, active control of machine flexibilities and advanced numerical methods related to time integration of the dynamic systems equations. In addition to the presentation of some basic formulations and methodologies in dynamics of multibody systems, including computational aspects, major applications of developments to date are presented herein. The scope of applications is extended to vehicle dynamics, aerospace technology, robotics, mechanisms design, intermittent motion and crashworthiness analysis. Several of these applications are explored by many contributors with a constant objective to pace development and improve the dynamic performance of mechanical systems avoiding different mechanical limitations and difficult functional requirements, such as, for example, accurate positioning of manipulators.

During its 2004 meeting in Warsaw the General Assembly of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) decided to support a proposal of the Georgian National Committee to hold in Tbilisi (Georgia), on April 23-27, 2007, the IUTAM Symposium on the Relation of Shell, Plate, Beam, and 3D Models, dedicated to the Centenary of Ilia Vekua. The sci- ti?c organization was entrusted to an international committee consisting of Philipppe G. Ciarlet (Hong Kong), the late Anatoly Gerasimovich Gorshkov (Russia),JornHansen(Canada),GeorgeV.Jaiani(Georgia,Chairman),Re- hold Kienzler (Germany), Herbert A. Mang (Austria), Paolo Podio-Guidugli (Italy), and Gangan Prathap (India). The main topics to be included in the scienti?c programme were c- sen to be: hierarchical, re?ned mathematical and technical models of shells, plates, and beams; relation of 2D and 1D models to 3D linear, non-linear and physical models; junction problems. The main aim of the symposium was to thoroughly discuss the relations of shell, plate, and beam models to the 3D physicalmodels.Inparticular,peculiaritiesofcuspedshells,plates,andbeams were to be emphasized and special attention paid to junction, multibody and ? uid-elastic shell (plate, beam) interaction problems, and their applications. The expected contributions of the invited participants were anticipated to be theoretical, practical, and numerical in character.

The Summer School has been dedicated to one of the proponents and ?rst Chairman of the Strategy Board of MACSI-net, the late Jacques Louis Lions (see the dedication by Roland Glowinski). MACSI-net is a European Network of Excellence, where both enterprises and university institutions co-operate to solve challenging problems to their mutual bene?t. In particular the network focuses on strategies to enhance interactions between industry and academia. The aim is to help industry (in particular SMEs) alert academia about industrial needs in terms of advanced mathematical and computational methods and tools. The network is mul- disciplinary oriented, combining the power of applied mathematics, scienti?c computing and engineering, for modeling and simulation. It was set up by a joint e?ort of ECCOMAS and ECMI European associations. Thisparticularevent,occurredduringMarch17-22,2003,wasajointe?ort ofthe TrainingCommittee (chairedby VC)andIndustrialRelationsComm- tee (chairedby JP)to alert both Academia and Industry about the increasing role of Multidisciplinary Methods and Tools for the design of complex pr- uctsinvariousareasofindustrialinterest.Thisincreasingcomplexityisdriven by societal constraints to be satis? ed in a simultaneous and a?ordable way. The mastering of complexity implies the sharing of di?erent tools by di?erent actors which require much higher level of communication between culturally di?erent people. The school o?ered to young researchers the opportunity to be exposed to the presentation of real industrial and societal problems and the relevant innovative methods used; the need of further contributions from mathematics to improve or provide better solutions had also been considered.

These Conference Proceedings are intended to summarise the latest developments in diffraction and scattering theory as reported at the IU TAM Symposium on Diffraction and Scattering in Fluid Mechanics and Elasticity held in Manchester, England on 16-20 July 2000. This in formal meeting was organised to discuss mathematical advances, both from the theoretical and more applied points of view. However, its pri mary goal was to bring together groups of researchers working in dis parate application areas, but who nevertheless share common models, phenomenological features arising in such problems, and common math ematical tools. To this end, we were delighted to have four Plenary Speakers, Professors Allan Pierce, Ed Kerschen, Roger Grimshaw and John Willis FRS, who are undisputed leaders in the four thematic ar eas of our meeting (these are respectively acoustics, aeroacoustics, water or other free surface waves, elasticity). These Proceedings should offer an excellent vehicle for continuing the dialogue between these groups of researchers. The participants were invited because of their expertise and recent contributions to this field. Collectively, there were around 90 contrib utors to the Symposium from some 13 countries located all around the world. These included 45 speakers, 35 co-authors and about 10 other delegates. Individuals came from many of the major international cen tres of excellence in the field of scattering theory."

This is the first mechatronics book dealing with coupled mechanical and electrical actions, an emerging branch of modern technology. Authored by the leading scientist in this field, the book treats various subjects along the interface between mechanics and electronics.