FSR, the International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, is a robotics Symposium which has established over the past ten years the latest research and practical results towards the use of field and service robotics in the community with particular focus on proven technology. The first meeting was held in Canberra, Australia, in 1997. Since then the meeting has been held every two years in the pattern Asia, America, Europe. This books presents the results of the sixth edition of "Field and Service Robotics" FSR03, held in Chamonix, France, on 9th - 12th July 2003. The conference provided a forum for researchers, professionals and robot manufacturers to exchange up-to-date technical knowledge and experience. Field robots are non-factory robots, typically mobile, that operate in complex, and dynamic environments: on the ground (of Earth or planets), under the ground, underwater, in the air or in space. Service robots are those that work closely with humans to help them with their lives. This book offers a collection of a broad range of topics including: Underwater Robots and Systems, Autonomous Navigation for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, Climbing Robotics, Sensor Fusion."

Machining dynamics play an essential role in the performance of machine tools and machining processes in manufacturing. Current advances in computational modelling, sensors, diagnostic equipment and analysis tools, 3D surface metrology and manufacturing science are giving researchers and practising engineers a new perspective on the machining process.

Machining Dynamics: Fundamentals and Applications reflects the new integrated approach to studying machining dynamics by presenting state-of-the-art applications, practices and research in the field. Written by experts in each field, the first part of the book presents the basic theory, analysis and control methodology in addition to detailed modelling and diagnostic techniques for machining dynamics, while part two focuses on applying the fundamentals of machining dynamics in a variety of machining processes including turning, grinding, gear machining and non-traditional machining.

Advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students studying manufacturing engineering and machining technology will find Machining Dynamics: Fundamentals and Applications a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the subject while the book s thoroughness allows it to serve as a useful reference for manufacturing engineers, production supervisors, planning and application engineers and designers."

It is a well acknowledged fact that virtually all of our modern-day components and assemblies rely to some extent on machining operations in their manufacturing process. Thus, there is clearly a substantive machining requirement which will continue to be of prime importance for the foreseeable future. Cutting Tool Technology provides a comprehensive guide to the latest developments in the use of cutting tool technology. The book covers new machining and tooling topics such as high-speed and hard-part machining, near-dry and dry-machining strategies, multi-functional tooling, diamond-like and atomically-modified coatings, plus many others. Also covered are subjects important from a research perspective, such as micro-machining and artificial intelligence coupled to neural network tool condition monitoring. A practical handbook complete with troubleshooting tables for common problems, Cutting Tool Technology is an invaluable reference for researchers, manufacturers and users of cutting tools."

This book presents the most up-to-date methods of three-dimensional modeling of the fluid dymanics and the solid-fluid interaction within these machines, which are still being developed. Adding modeling to the design process makes it possible not only to predict flow patterns more accurately, and also to determine distorting effects on rotors and casing of pressure and temperature distribution within the compressor. Examples outline the scope of the applied mathematical model.

Mechatronics is the synergistic combination of precision engineering, electronics, photonics and IT engineering. The main research task for mechatronics is development and control of advanced hybrid systems covering all these fields and supported by interdisciplinary studies.

This book presents recent state of advances in mechatronics presented on the 7th International Conference Mechatronics 2007, hosted at the Faculty of Mechatronics, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland. The chosen topics of the conference included: Nanotechnology, Automatic Control and Robotics, Biomedical Engineering, Design Manufacturing and Testing of MEMS, Metrology, Photonics, Mechatronic Products. The selected papers give an overview of the state-of-the-art and present new research results and prospects of the future development in this interdisciplinary field of mechatronic systems. This book will provide up-to-date and useful knowledge for researchers and engineers involved in mechatronics and related fields.

Materials for springs is basically intended for engineers related to spring materials and technologies who graduated from metallurgical or mechanical engineering courses in technical high school, or in other higher engineering schools, as well as those who are related to the purchase or sales of spring materials.

The first chapter introduces into the fundamental selection processes of spring materials including the information sources on materials database. It is followed by the basic mechanisms and theories of spring failures such as fatigue fracture, creep/stress relaxation and stress corrosion cracking of metallic materials.

The focuses of the second chapter is put on ferrous and non-ferrous metallic materials, including some materials developed in these two decades, such as high strength automobile suspension steels etc.

In the third and fourth chapters, polymer materials, FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastics), ceramics and C/C composite materials are the main subject respectively.

In the fifth chapter, lists of Japanese spring material manufacturers and their material grades being produced, comparisons of spring materials in the Japanese Industrial Standards with some other foreign standards, etc, are summarized.

At the dawn of the new millennium, robotics is undergoing a major transformation in scope and dimension. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics is rapidly expanding into the challenges of unstructured environments. Interacting with, assi- ing, serving, and exploring with humans, the emerging robots will increasingly touch people and their lives. The goal of the Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) series is to bring, in a timely fashion, the latest advances and developments in robotics on the basis of their significance and quality. It is our hope that the wider dissemination of research - velopments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this rapidly growing field. The European Robotics Symposium (EUROS) was launched in 2006 as an inter- tional scientific single-track event promoted by EURON, the European Robotics Network linking most of the European research teams since its inception in 2000. Since then, EUROS has found its parental home under STAR, together with the other thematic symposia devoted to excellence in robotics research: FSR, ISER, ISRR, WAFR.

The objective of this book, being the first one on magnesium injection molding, is to treat both the scientific background and the technological aspects as they are understood at present. All aspects of material development, manufacturing and engineering are covered. The book provides a single source of information covering the interdisciplinary field of net shape forming of magnesium alloys. It reflects a unique blend of science and industrial practice.

This book presents the methods of quantitative determination of solar irradiation incident amount on a surface on the Earth. It brings together information not found elsewhere in a single source, and includes an innovative exposition of expert system methodologies used in the domain of solar irradiation and energy. The book provides a background to the underlying physical principles of solar irradiation and energy, with explanations as to how these can be modelled and applied.

"Nonlinear Oscillations in Mechanical Engineering" explores the effects of nonlinearities encountered in applications in that field. Since the nonlinearities are caused, first of all, by contacts between different mechanical parts, the main part of this book is devoted to oscillations in mechanical systems with discontinuities caused by dry friction and collisions. Another important source of nonlinearity which is covered is that caused by rotating unbalanced parts common in various machines as well as variable inertias occurring in all kinds of crank mechanisms. This book is written for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, but it may be also helpful and interesting for both theoreticians and practitioners working in the area of mechanical engineering at universities, in research labs or institutes and especially in the R and D departments within industrial firms.

This volume contains a collection of papers presented at the 3rd Interna tional Symposium on Autonomous Minirobots for Research and Edutainment (AMiRE 2005) that is held at Awara-Spa, Fukui, Japan, September 20-22, 2005. This is a biennial symposium, which started as AMiRE 2001 at the Heinz Nixdorf Institute of the University of Paderborn, Germany, in 2001, and was followed by AMiRE 2003 at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, in 2003. After these successful symposia, AMiRE 2005 is held under the sponsorship of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Fukui and under the co-sponsorship of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. It is funded by the Fukui Convention Bureau and the University of Fukui. Each full-length paper submitted to the symposium was independently reviewed by 3 referees from the world's front-line researchers, and 55 papers were accepted for oral presentation. We acknowledge generous support for those who gave excellent reviews in order to maintain the high standards of the symposium despite a very tight schedule."

Dear reader! In your hand you have the second book from the series "XXI Century Techno- gies. " The first book under the title "Manufacturing Technologies for Machines of the Future" was published by "Springer" in 2003. This book is aimed at solving one of the basic problems in the development of modern machine-building - working out of technologies and manufacturing equipment which would promote the continuous development and improvement of the final product design, rapidly "adaptable" to the requirements of the market as for the quantity, quality, and variety of products manufactured with the lowest cost and minimum time and labor of the product process. In this book the problems of theory and practice of development in the reconfigurable manufacturing systems and transformable factories for various machine-building branches with a focus on automotive industry are discussed. The problems concerning the development of a new class of production systems which in comparison to the flexible manufact- ing systems are composed of a far less quantity of machine-tools (reduced cost of production) are discussed. In comparison to the conventional automated lines (dedicated systems) they make it possible to rapidly transform the equipment for new products manufacturing. The book has some advantages concerning the art of scientific ideas and the presentation of developments.

Overview of recent achievements, describing the microactuator development of microvalves and liner actuators comprehensively from concept through prototype. Further key aspects included are three-dimensional models for handling complex SMA actuator geometries and coupled simulation routines that take multifunctional properties into account. Mechanical and thermal optimization criteria are introduced for actuator design, allowing an optimum use of the shape memory effect. It is shown that some of the prototypes presented, e.g. SMA microgrippers, already outperform conventional components.

Over the past 30 years, leading experts in turbomachinery unsteady aerodynamics, aer- coustics, and aeroelasticity from around the world have gathered to present and discuss recent advancements in the ?eld. The ?rst International Symposium on Unsteady Aero- namics, Aeroacoustics, and Aeroelasticity of Turbomachines (ISUAAAT) was held in Paris, France in 1976. Since then, the symposium has been held in Lausanne, Switzerland (1980), Cambridge, England (1984), Aachen, Germany (1987), Beijing, China (1989), Notre Dame, Indiana(1991), Fukuoka, Japan(1994), Stockholm, Sweden(1997), andLyon, France(2000). The Tenth ISUAAAT was held September 7-11, 2003 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. This volume contains an archival record of the papers presented at that meeting. The ISUAAAT, held roughly every three years, is the premier meeting of specialists in turbomachinery aeroelasticity and unsteady aerodynamics. The Tenth ISUAAAT, like its predecessors, provided a forum for the presentation of leading-edge work in turbomachinery aeromechanics and aeroacoustics of turbomachinery. Not surprisingly, with the continued development of both computer algorithms and computer hardware, the meeting featured a number of papers detailing computational methods for predicting unsteady ?ows and the resulting aerodynamics loads. In addition, a number of papers describing interesting and very useful experimental studies were presented. In all, 44 papers from the meeting are published in this v

Computational Welding Mechanics (CWM) provides readers with a complete introduction to the principles and applications of computational welding including coverage of the methods engineers and designers are using in computational welding mechanics to predict distortion and residual stress in welded structures, thereby creating safer, more reliable and lower cost structures.

Drawing upon years of practical experience and the study of computational welding mechanics the authors instruct the reader how to:

- understand and interpret computer simulation and virtual welding techniques including an in depth analysis of heat flow during welding, microstructure evolution and distortion analysis and fracture of welded structures,

- relate CWM to the processes of design, build, inspect, regulate, operate and maintain welded structures,

- apply computational welding mechanics to industries such as ship building, natural gas and automobile manufacturing.

Ideally suited for practicing engineers and engineering students, Computational Welding Mechanics is a must-have book for understanding welded structures and recent technological advances in welding, and it provides a unified summary of recent research results contributed by other researchers.

Recent Developments of Electrical Drives is composed of the papers which were presented at the XVI International Conference on Electrical Machines - ICEM 2004, which was held in Cracow, Poland on September 5-8, 2004.

The contributions selected for the book cover a wide spectrum of theory and practice, thus they are deeply rooted in engineering problems, being simultaneously of high theoretical level. This way the contents of the book is believed to touch the heart of the matter in electrical drives (theory, control systems and applications).

The book, stating the recent developments of electrical drives, can be useful for engineers and researchers investigating and designing electrical and electronic devices as well as for students and young researchers dealing with electrical and electronic engineering, computer sciences (advanced computer modelling, sophisticated control systems with artificial intelligence tools applied, optimal design bye use of classical and genetic algorithms employed), applied mathematics and all the topics where electromagnetic, thermal, mechanical phenomena occur.

Recent Developments of Electrical Drives covers a wide range of interest of industry engineers, and scientists involved in modelling, control, measurements, new motor structures design, and could be also useful for engineers working in the field of electrical drives implementation. "

Computer Numerical Control (CNC) controllers are high value-added products counting for over 30% of the price of machine tools. The development of CNC technology depends on the integration of technologies from many different industries, and requires strategic long-term support. Theory and Design of CNC Systems covers the elements of control, the design of control systems, and modern open-architecture control systems. Topics covered include Numerical Control Kernel (NCK) design of CNC, Programmable Logic Control (PLC), and the Man-Machine Interface (MMI), as well as the major modules for the development of conversational programming methods. The concepts and primary elements of STEP-NC are also introduced. A collaboration of several authors with considerable experience in CNC development, education, and research, this highly focused textbook on the principles and development technologies of CNC controllers can also be used as a guide for those working on CNC development in industry.

Compiling the expertise of nine pioneers of the field, Magnetic Bearings - Theory, Design, and Application to Rotating Machinery offers an encyclopedic study of this rapidly emerging field with a balanced blend of commercial and academic perspectives. Every element of the technology is examined in detail, beginning at the component level and proceeding through a thorough exposition of the design and performance of these systems.

The book is organized in a logical fashion, starting with an overview of the technology and a survey of the range of applications. A background chapter then explains the central concepts of active magnetic bearings while avoiding a morass of technical details. From here, the reader continues to a meticulous, state-of-the-art exposition of the component technologies and the manner in which they are assembled to form the AMB/rotor system. These system models and performance objectives are then tied together through extensive discussions of control methods for both rigid and flexible rotors, including consideration of the problem of system dynamics identification. Supporting this, the issues of system reliability and fault management are discussed from several useful and complementary perspectives. At the end of the book, numerous special concepts and systems, including micro-scale bearings, self-bearing motors, and self-sensing bearings, are put forth as promising directions for new research and development.

Newcomers to the field will find the material highly accessible while veteran practitioners will be impressed by the level of technical detail that emerges from a combination of sophisticated analysis and insights gleaned from many collective years of practical experience. An exhaustive, self-contained text on active magnetic bearing technology, this book should be a core reference for anyone seeking to understand or develop systems using magnetic bearings.

A systematic control of mixture formation with modern high-pressure injection systems enables us to achieve considerable improvements of the combustion pr- ess in terms of reduced fuel consumption and engine-out raw emissions. However, because of the growing number of free parameters due to more flexible injection systems, variable valve trains, the application of different combustion concepts within different regions of the engine map, etc., the prediction of spray and m- ture formation becomes increasingly complex. For this reason, the optimization of the in-cylinder processes using 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) becomes increasingly important. In these CFD codes, the detailed modeling of spray and mixture formation is a prerequisite for the correct calculation of the subsequent processes like ignition, combustion and formation of emissions. Although such simulation tools can be viewed as standard tools today, the predictive quality of the sub-models is c- stantly enhanced by a more accurate and detailed modeling of the relevant pr- esses, and by the inclusion of new important mechanisms and effects that come along with the development of new injection systems and have not been cons- ered so far. In this book the most widely used mathematical models for the simulation of spray and mixture formation in 3D CFD calculations are described and discussed. In order to give the reader an introduction into the complex processes, the book starts with a description of the fundamental mechanisms and categories of fuel - jection, spray break-up, and mixture formation in internal combustion engines.

ISRR, the "International Symposium on Robotics Research," is one of robotics pioneering symposia, which has established some of the field's most fundamental and lasting contributions over the past two decades. This book presents the results of the eleventh edition of "Robotics Research" ISRR03, offering a broad range of topics in robotics. The contributions provide 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 new emerging areas of applications. The diversity, novelty, and span of the work unfolding in these areas reveal the field's increased maturity and expanded scope, and define the state of the art of robotics and its future direction. "

Machine tools are the main production factor for many industrial applications in many important sectors. Recent developments in new motion devices and numerical control have lead to considerable technological improvements in machine tools. The use of five-axis machining centers has also spread, resulting in reductions in set-up and lead times. As a consequence, feed rates, cutting speed and chip section increased, whilst accuracy and precision have improved as well. Additionally, new cutting tools have been developed, combining tough substrates, optimal geometries and wear resistant coatings. "Machine Tools for High Performance Machining" describes in depth several aspects of machine structures, machine elements and control, and application. The basics, models and functions of each aspect are explained by experts from both academia and industry. Postgraduates, researchers and end users will all find this book an essential reference.

The 5th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics (FSR05) was held in Port Douglas, Australia, on 29th - 31st July 2005, and brought together the worlds' leading experts in field and service automation. The goal of the conference was to report and encourage the latest research and practical results towards the use of field and service robotics in the community with particular focus on proven technology. The conference provided a forum for researchers, professionals and robot manufacturers to exchange up-to-date technical knowledge and experience. Field robots are robots which operate in outdoor, complex, and dynamic environments. Service robots are those that work closely with humans, with particular applications involving indoor and structured environments. There are a wide range of topics presented in this issue on field and service robots including: Agricultural and Forestry Robotics, Mining and Exploration Robots, Robots for Construction, Security & Defence Robots, Cleaning Robots, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles and Autonomous Flying Robots. This meeting was the fifth in the series and brings FSR back to Australia where it was first held. FSR has been held every 2 years, starting with Canberra 1997, followed by Pittsburgh 1999, Helsinki 2001 and Lake Yamanaka 2003.

Everything important, up-to-date and practical about turbopumps can be found in this book. The material is arranged to cover the most important topics, from basic theories to practical applications. This book can also serve as a useful textbook for students who are taking courses in the area of turbopumps and hydraulic machineries. It is the complete reference book for turbopumps.

The first comprehensive monograph in blast cleaning technology, this book provides a comprehensive review of the technology, with an emphasis on practical applications. The author first systematically and critically reviews the theory behind the technology. Next you ll learn about the state of current blast cleaning, surface quality aspects, and the effects of blast cleaning on the performance of applied coatings. You ll also discover many of today 's cutting-edge applications, including micro-machining, polishing, maintenance, and surface preparation for coating applications. Finally, the author describes recent advanced applications in the machining industry, including blast cleaning-assisted laser milling.

Traditionally, electrical machines are classi?ed into d. c. commutator (brushed) machines, induction (asynchronous) machines and synchronous machines. These three types of electrical machines are still regarded in many academic curricula as fundamental types, despite that d. c. brushed machines (except small machines) have been gradually abandoned and PM brushless machines (PMBM) and switched reluctance machines (SRM) have been in mass p- duction and use for at least two decades. Recently, new topologies of high torque density motors, high speed motors, integrated motor drives and special motors have been developed. Progress in electric machines technology is stimulated by new materials, new areas of applications, impact of power electronics, need for energy saving and new technological challenges. The development of electric machines in the next few years will mostly be stimulated by computer hardware, residential and public applications and transportation systems (land, sea and air). At many Universities teaching and research strategy oriented towards el- trical machinery is not up to date and has not been changed in some co- tries almost since the end of the WWII. In spite of many excellent academic research achievements, the academia-industry collaboration and technology transfer are underestimated or, quite often, neglected. Underestimation of the role of industry, unfamiliarity with new trends and restraint from technology transfer results, with time, in lack of external ?nancial support and drastic - cline in the number of students interested in Power Electrical Engineering.