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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

The active field of multi-phase flow has undergone fundamental changes in the last decade. Many salient complex interfacial dynamics of such flows are now understood at a basic level with precise mathematical and quantitative characterization. This is quite a departure from the traditional empirical approach. At an IUTAM Symposium at Notre Dame, in 1999, some of the leading researchers in the field gathered to review the progress thus far and to contemplate future directions. Their reports are summarized in this Proceedings. Topics covered include solitary wave dynamics on viscous film flows, sheet formation and drop entrainment in stratified flow, wetting and dewetting dynamics, self-similar drop formation dynamics, waves in bubbly and suspension flow, and bubble dynamics. It is a unique and essential reference for applied mathematicians, physicists, research engineers, and graduate students to keep abreast of the latest theoretical and numerical developments that promise to transform multi-phase flow research.

Condition modelling and control is a technique used to enable decision-making in manufacturing processes of interest to researchers and practising engineering. Condition Monitoring and Control for Intelligent Manufacturing will be bought by researchers and graduate students in manufacturing and control and engineering, as well as practising engineers in industries such as automotive and packaging manufacturing.

By now, most academics have heard something about the new science of complexity. In a manner reminiscent of Einstein and the last hundred years of physics, complexity science has captured the public imagination. (R) One can go to Amazon. com and purchase books on complexification (Casti 1994), emergence (Holland 1998), small worlds (Barabasi 2003), the web of life (Capra 1996), fuzzy thinking (Kosko 1993), global c- plexity (Urry 2003) and the business of long-tails (Anderson 2006). Even television has incorporated the topics of complexity science. Crime shows (R) (R) such as 24 or CSI typically feature investigators using the latest advances in computational modeling to "simulate scenarios" or "data mine" all p- sible suspects-all of which is done before the crime takes place. The (R) World Wide Web is another example. A simple search on Google. Com using the phrase "complexity science" gets close to a million hits! C- plexity science is ubiquitous. What most scholars do not realize, however, is the remarkable role sociologists are playing in this new science. C- sider the following examples. 0. 1 Sociologists in Complexity Science The first example comes from the new science of networks (Barabasi 2003). By now, most readers are familiar with the phenomena known as six-degrees of separation-the idea that, because most large networks are comprised of a significant number of non-random weak-ties, the nodes (e. g. , people, companies, etc.

This monograph is devoted to construction of novel theoretical approaches of m- eling non-homogeneous structural members as well as to development of new and economically ef?cient (simultaneously keeping the required high engineering ac- racy)computationalalgorithmsofnonlineardynamics(statics)ofstronglynonlinear behavior of either purely continuous mechanical objects (beams, plates, shells) or hybrid continuous/lumped interacting mechanical systems. In general, the results presented in this monograph cannot be found in the - isting literature even with the published papers of the authors and their coauthors. We take a challenging and originally developed approach based on the integrated mathematical-numerical treatment of various continuous and lumped/continuous mechanical structural members, putting emphasis on mathematical and physical modeling as well as on the carefully prepared and applied novel numerical - gorithms used to solve the derived nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) mainly via Bubnov-Galerkin type approaches. The presented material draws on the ?elds of bifurcation, chaos, control, and s- bility of the objects governed by strongly nonlinear PDEs and ordinary differential equations (ODEs),and may have a positive impact on interdisciplinary ? elds of n- linear mechanics, physics, and applied mathematics. We show, for the ?rst time in a book, the complexity and fascinating nonlinear behavior of continual mechanical objects, which cannot be found in widely reported bifurcational and chaotic dyn- ics of lumped mechanical systems, i. e. , those governed by nonlinear ODEs.

Vibro-impact dynamics has occupied a wide spectrum of studies by dyn- icists, physicists, and mathematicians. These studies may be classi?ed into three main categories: modeling, mapping and applications. The main te- niques used in modeling of vibro-impact systems include phenomenological modelings, Hertzian models, and non-smooth coordinate transformations- velopedbyZhuravlevandIvanov. Oneofthemostcriticalsituationsimpeded invibro-impactsystemsisthegrazingbifurcation. Grazingbifurcationisu- ally studied through discontinuity mapping techniques, which are very useful to uncover the rich dynamics in the process of impact interaction. Note the availablemappings arevalidonly intheabsenceofnon-impactnonlinearities. Complex dynamic phenomena of vibro-impact systems include subharmonic oscillations, chaotic motion, and coexistence of di?erent attractors for the sameexcitationand systemparametersbut under di?erent initial conditions. Selectedapplicationsofvibro-impactdynamics. Theseincludelumpedand continuous systems. Lumped systems cover a bouncing ball on an oscillating barrier, mass-spring-dashpot systems, normal and inverted pendulums, the spherical pendulum, the ship roll motion against icebergs, joints with fr- play, rotor-stator rubbing in rotating machinery, vocal folds, microactuators, strings, beams, pipes conveying ?uids with end-restraints, nuclear reactors and heat exchangers, and plates. These applications are discussed within the framework of the deterministic theory. Under random excitation the tre- ment requires special tools. The techniques of equivalent linearization and stochastic averaging have been applied to limited number of problems. One of the most bene?cial outcomesof vibro-impact dynamics is the development of impact dampers, which have witnessed signi?cant activities over the last four decades and have been used in several applications. On the other hand, vibro-impacthas detrimental e?ects on the operationsof mechanicalsystems and damage of pipes and rods in nuclear reactors.

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.

Motion and vibration control is a fundamental technology for the development of advanced mechanical systems such as mechatronics, vehicle systems, robots, spacecraft, and rotating machinery. Often the implementation of high performance, low power consumption designs is only possible with the use of this technology. It is also vital to the mitigation of natural hazards for large structures such as high-rise buildings and tall bridges, and to the application of flexible structures such as space stations and satellites. Recent innovations in relevant hardware, sensors, actuators, and software have facilitated new research in this area. This book deals with the interdisciplinary aspects of emerging technologies of motion and vibration control for mechanical, civil and aerospace systems. It covers a broad range of applications (e.g. vehicle dynamics, actuators, rotor dynamics, biologically inspired mechanics, humanoid robot dynamics and control, etc.) and also provides advances in the field of fundamental research e.g. control of fluid/structure integration, nonlinear control theory, etc. Each of the contributors is a recognised specialist in his field, and this gives the book relevance and authority in a wide range of areas.

This compact and original reference and textbook presents the most important classical and modern essentials of control engineering in a single volume. It constitutes a harmonic mixture of control theory and applications, which makes the book especially useful for students, practicing engineers and researchers interested in modeling and control of processes. Well written and easily understandable, it includes a range of methods for the analysis and design of control systems.

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.

On average, 60% of the world's people and cargo is transported by vehicle that move on rubber tires over roadways of various construction, composition, and quality. The number of such vehicles, including automobiles and all manner of trucks, increases continually with a growing positive impact on accessibility and a growing negative impact on interactions among humans and their relationship to the surrounding environment. This multiplicity of vehicles, through their physical impact and their emissions, is responsible for, among other negative results: waste of energy, pollution through emission of harmful compounds, degradation of road surfaces, crowding of roads leading to waste of time and increase of social stress, and decrease in safety and comfort. In particular, the safety of vehicular traffic depends on a man-vehicle-road system that includes both active and passive security controls. In spite of the drawbacks mentioned above, the governments of almost every country in the world not only expect but facilitate improvements in vehicular transport performance in order to increase such parameters as load capacity and driving velocity, while decreasing such parameters as costs to passengers, energy resources investments, fuel consumption, etc. Some of the problems have clear, if not always easily attainable, solutions.

Stellar pulsations provide a complex system in stars. This complexity is studied by analyzing the non-sinusoidal, semi-regular, or irregular light curves. This unique volume summarizes the application of recent theoretical results obtained from stellar pulsation studies. In addition, the latest developments in hydrodynamic simulations are discussed. A historical sketch of the study of beat Cepheids, first known for their variable amplitudes, is given as an introduction to the book. This introduction clearly demonstrates how complicated the study of variable stars can be, and therefore challenges and invites the reader to study the entire book.

This book contains 31 papers presented at the symposium on "Recent Advances in Composite Materials" which was organized in honor of Professor Stephanos A. Paipetis. The symposium took place at Democritus University of Thrace, in Xanthi, Greece on June 12-14, 2003. The book is a tribute to Stephanos A. Paipetis, a pioneer of composite materials, in recognition of his continuous, original diversified and outstanding contributions for half a century. The book consists of invited papers written by leading experts in the field. It contains original contributions concerning the latest developments in composite materials. It covers a wide range of subjects including experimental characterization, analytical modeling and applications of composite materials. The papers are arranged in the following six sections: General concepts, stress and failure analysis, mechanical properties, metal matrix composites, structural analysis and applications of composite materials. The first section on general concepts contains seven papers dealing with composites through the pursuit of the consilience among them, computation and mechatronic automation of multiphysics research, a theory of anisotropic scattering, wave propagation, multi-material composite wedges, a three-dimensional finite element analysis around broken fibers and an in situ assessment of the micromechanics of large scale bridging in ceramic composites.

The coupling of models from different physical domains and the efficient and reliable simulation of multidisciplinary problems in engineering applications are important topics for various fields of engineering, in simulation technology and in the development and analysis of numerical solvers.

The volume presents advanced modelling and simulation techniques for the dynamical analysis of coupled engineering systems consisting of mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and biological components as well as control devices often based on computer hardware and software. The book starts with some basics in multibody dynamics and in port-based modelling and focuses on the modelling and simulation of heterogeneous systems with special emphasis on robust and efficient numerical solution techniques and on a variety of applied problems including case studies of co-simulation in industrial applications, methods and problems of model based controller design and real-time application.

Discontinuous Systems develops nonsmooth stability analysis and discontinuous control synthesis based on novel modeling of discontinuous dynamic systems, operating under uncertain conditions. While being primarily a research monograph devoted to the theory of discontinuous dynamic systems, no background in discontinuous systems is required; such systems are introduced in the book at the appropriate conceptual level. Being developed for discontinuous systems, the theory is successfully applied to their subclasses variable-structure and impulsive systems as well as to finite- and infinite-dimensional systems such as distributed-parameter and time-delay systems. The presentation concentrates on algorithms rather than on technical implementation although theoretical results are illustrated by electromechanical applications. These specific applications complete the book and, together with the introductory theoretical constituents bring some elements of the tutorial to the text.

Computational methods within structural acoustics, vibration and fluid-structure interaction are powerful tools for investigating acoustic and structural-acoustic problems in many sectors of industry; in the building industry regarding room acoustics, in the car industry and aeronautical industry for optimizing structural components with regard to vibrations characteristics etc. It is on the verge of becoming a common tool for noise characterization and design for optimizing structural properties and geometries in order to accomplish a desired acoustic environment. The book covers the field of computational mechanics, and then moved into the field of formulations of multiphysics and multiscale.

The book is addressed to graduate level, PhD students and young researchers interested in structural dynamics, vibrations and acoustics. It is also suitable for industrial researchers in mechanical, aeronautical and civil engineering with a professional interest in structural dynamics, vibrations and acoustics or involved in questions regarding noise characterization and reduction in building, car, plane, space, train, industries by means of computer simulations.

In this book a detailed and systematic treatment of asymptotic methods in the theory of plates and shells is presented. The main features of the book are the basic principles of asymptotics and their applications, traditional approaches such as regular and singular perturbations, as well as new approaches such as the composite equations approach. The book introduces the reader to the field of asymptotic simplification of the problems of the theory of plates and shells and will be useful as a handbook of methods of asymptotic integration. Providing a state-of-the-art review of asymptotic applications, this book will be useful as an introduction to the field for novices as well as a reference book for specialists.

] Starting with the research of G. Bogelsack in the 1970s, the analysis of biological locomotion andmanipulation systemsandtheirtechnical realizationhas beenan- portant research eld within the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Ilmenau University of Technology. In 1996, the German Research Foundation (DFG) funded the Innovation College "Motion Systems" at the University of Jena in a coope- tion with engineers at the Ilmenau University of Technology. Thus, research was able to be intensi ed and extended. Of course, the whole spectrum of biologically inspired systems is much too wide, so the analysis was still focused on locomotion and manipulation systems. At this stage J. Steigenberger from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural S- ences at the Ilmenau University of Technology contributed important studies of worm-like locomotion systems with much dedication and technical competence. Moreover, he conceived and carried out a lecture series entitled "Mathematical Basics for Locomotion Systems," which was based on his evaluation of national and international research developments in this eld. I. Zeidis and K. Zimmermann contributed many publications on the mechanics of worm-like locomotion systems based on continuum and rigid-body models as well as asymptotic methods. Since 2004 the German Research Foundation has supported a series of projects led by K. Zimmermann dedicated to biologically inspired robotics. In addition to these activities, the Department of Technical Mechanics and the Department of Computer Application in Mechanical Engineering (M. Weiss) together with masters and doctoral students started the development of mobile robots for the RoboCup Small-Size League in 1998."

Vibration problems dealing with advanced Mathematical and Numerical Techniques have extensive application in a wide class of problems in ae- nautics, aerodynamics, space science and technology, off-shore engineering and in the design of different structural components of high speed space crafts and nuclear reactors. Different classes of vibration problems dealing with complex geometries and non-linear behaviour require careful attention of scientists and engineers in pursuit of their research activities. Almost all fields of Engineering, Science and Technology, ranging from small domestic building subjected to earthquake and cyclone to the space craft venturing towards different planets, from giant ship to human skeleton, encounter problems of vibration and dynamic loading. This being truly an interdisciplinary field, where the mathematicians, phy- cists and engineers could interface their innovative ideas and creative thoughts to arrive at an appropriate solution, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, India, a premier institution for education and research in engineering, science and technology felt it appropriate to organize 8th International C- ference on "Vibration Problems (ICOVP-2007)" as a part of its sesquicentenary celebration. The conference created a platform and all aspects of vibration phenomenon with the focus on the state-of-the art in theoretical, experimental and applied research areas were addressed and the scientific interaction, p- ticipated by a large gathering including eminent personalities and young research workers, generated many research areas and innovative ideas.