This book contains the edited version of the lectures presented at the NATO ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE on "COMPUTER AIDED ANALYSIS OF RIGID AND FLEXIBLE MECHANICAL SYSTEMS." held in Troia. Portugal. from the 27 June to 9 July. 1993. and organized by the Instituto de Engenharia Mecanica. Instituto Superior Tecnico. This ASI addressed the state-of-art in the field of multibody dynamics. which is now a well developed subject with a great variety of formalisms. methods and principles. Ninety five participants. from twenty countries. representing academia. industry. government and research institutions attended this Institute. This contributed greatly to the success of the Institute since it encouraged the interchange of experiences between leading scientists and young scholars and promoted discussions that helped to generate new ideas and to defme directions of research and future developments. The full program of the Institute included also contributed presentations made by participants where different topics have been explored. Such topics include: formulations and numerical aspects in rigid and flexible mechanical systems; object-oriented paradigms; optimal design and synthesis; robotics; kinematics; path planning; control; impact dynamics; and several application oriented developments in weapon systems. vehicles and crash worthiness. These papers have been revised and will be published by Kluwer in a special issue of the Journal of Nonlinear Dynamics and in a forthcoming companion book. This book brings together. in a tutorial and review manner. a comprehensive summary of current work and is therefore suitable for a wide range of interests.

This book is concerned with Intelligent Control methods and applications. The field of intelligent control has been expanded very much during the recent years and a solid body of theoretical and practical results are now available. These results have been obtained through the synergetic fusion of concepts and techniques from a variety of fields such as automatic control, systems science, computer science, neurophysiology and operational research. Intelligent control systems have to perform anthropomorphic tasks fully autonomously or interactively with the human under known or unknown and uncertain environmental conditions. Therefore the basic components of any intelligent control system include cognition, perception, learning, sensing, planning, numeric and symbolic processing, fault detection/repair, reaction, and control action. These components must be linked in a systematic, synergetic and efficient way. Predecessors of intelligent control are adaptive control, self-organizing control, and learning control which are well documented in the literature. Typical application examples of intelligent controls are intelligent robotic systems, intelligent manufacturing systems, intelligent medical systems, and intelligent space teleoperators. Intelligent controllers must employ both quantitative and qualitative information and must be able to cope with severe temporal and spatial variations, in addition to the fundamental task of achieving the desired transient and steady-state performance. Of course the level of intelligence required in each particular application is a matter of discussion between the designers and users. The current literature on intelligent control is increasing, but the information is still available in a sparse and disorganized way.

In this volume the investigations of filtering problems, a start on which has been made in 55], are being continued and are devoted to theoretical problems of processing stochastic fields. The derivation of the theory of processing stochastic fields is similar to that of the theory extensively developed for stochastic processes ('stochastic fields with a one-dimensional domain'). Nevertheless there exist essential distinctions between these cases making a construction of the theory for the multi-dimensional case in such a way difficult. Among these are the absence of the notion of the 'past-future' in the case of fields, which plays a fundamental role in constructing stochastic processes theory. So attempts to introduce naturally the notion of the causality (non-anticipativity) when synthesising stable filters designed for processing fields have not met with success. Mathematically, principal distinctions between multi-dimensional and one-dimensional cases imply that the set of roots of a multi-variable polyno mial does not necessary consist of a finite number of isolated points. From the main theorem of algebra it follows that in the one-dimensional case every poly nomial of degree n has just n roots (considering their multiplicity) in the com plex plane. As a consequence, in particular, an arbitrary rational function cents(."

Within the past twenty years, the field of robotics has been finding many areas of applications ranging from space to underwater explo rations. One of these areas which is slowly gaining popularity among the users group is the notion of service robotics. This book is an in vestigation and exploration of engineering principles in the design and development of mechanisms and robotic devices that can be used in the field of surgery. Specifically the results of this book can be used for designing tools for class of Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS). Generally, Minimal Invasive Surgery (MIS), e. g. laparoscopic surgery, is performed by using long surgical tools, that are inserted through small incisions at the ports of entry to the body (e. g. abdominal wall) for reaching the surgical site. The main drawback of current designs of en doscopic tools is that they are not able to extend all the movements and sensory capabilities of the surgeon's hand to the surgical site. By im proving surgical procedures, training, and more practice, it is possible for surgeons to reduce completion time for each task and increase their level of skill. However, even in the best cases the level of performance of a surgeon in Minimally Invasive Surgery is still a fraction of the con ventional surgery. Any dramatically improvement is usually driven by introduction of new tools or systems that in turn bring totally new pro cedures and set of skills.

Advances in Structural Optimization presents the techniques for a wide set of applications, ranging from the problems of size and shape optimization (historically the first to be studied) to topology and material optimization. Structural models are considered that use both discrete and finite elements. Structural materials can be classical or new. Emerging methods are also addressed, such as automatic differentiation, intelligent structures optimization, integration of structural optimization in concurrent engineering environments, and multidisciplinary optimization. For researchers and designers in industries such as aerospace, automotive, mechanical, civil, nuclear, naval and offshore. A reference book for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses on structural optimization and optimum design.

The Eurotherm Committee has chosen Thermal Management of Electronic Systems as the subject of its 29th Seminar, at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, 14-16 June 1993. This volume constitutes the proceedings of the Seminar. Thermal Management is but one of the several critical topics in the design of electronic systems. However, as a result of the combined effects of increasing heat fluxes, miniaturisation and the striving for zero defects, preferably in less time and at a lower cost than before, thermal management has become an increasingly tough challenge. Therefore, it is being increasingly recognised that cooling requirements could eventually hamper the technical progress in miniaturisation. It might be argued that we are on the verge of a revolution in thermal management techniques. Previously, a packaging engineer had no way of predicting the tempera tures of critical electronic parts with the required accuracy. He or she* had to rely on full-scale experiments, doubtful design rules, or worst-case estimates. This situation is going to be changed in the foreseeable future. User-friendly software tools, the acquisition and integrity of input and output data, the badly needed training mea sures, the introduction into a concurrent engineering environment: all these items will exert a heavy toll on the flexibility of the electronics industries. Fortunately, this situation is being realised at the appropriate management levels, and the interest in this seminar and the pre-conference tutorials testifies to this assertion.

There has been significant interest for designing flight controllers for small-scale unmanned helicopters. Such helicopters preserve all the physical attributes of their full-scale counterparts, being at the same time more agile and dexterous. This book presents a comprehensive and well justified analysis for designing flight controllers for small-scale unmanned helicopters guarantying flight stability and tracking accuracy. The design of the flight controller is a critical and integral part for developing an autonomous helicopter platform. Helicopters are underactuated, highly nonlinear systems with significant dynamic coupling that needs to be considered and accounted for during controller design and implementation. Most reliable mathematical tools for analysis of control systems relate to modern control theory. Modern control techniques are model-based since the controller architecture depends on the dynamic representation of the system to be controlled. Therefore, the flight controller design problem is tightly connected with the helicopter modeling.

This book provides a step-by-step methodology for designing, evaluating and implementing efficient flight controllers for small-scale helicopters. Design issues that are analytically covered include:

An illustrative presentation of both linear and nonlinear models of ordinary differential equations representing the helicopter dynamics. A detailed presentation of the helicopter equations of motion is given for the derivation of both model types. In addition, an insightful presentation of the main rotor's mechanism, aerodynamics and dynamics is also provided. Both model types are of low complexity, physically meaningful and capable of encapsulating the dynamic behavior of a large class of small-scale helicopters.

An illustrative and rigorous derivation of mathematical control algorithms based on both the linear and nonlinear representation of the helicopter dynamics. Flight controller designs guarantee that the tracking objectives of the helicopter's inertial position (or velocity) and heading are achieved. Each controller is carefully constructed by considering the small-scale helicopter's physical flight capabilities. Concepts of advanced stability analysis are used to improve the efficiency and reduce the complexity of the flight control system. Controller designs are derived in both continuous time and discrete time covering discretization issues, which emerge from the implementation of the control algorithm using microprocessors.

Presentation of the most powerful, practical and efficient methods for extracting the helicopter model parameters based on input/output responses, collected by the measurement instruments. This topic is of particular importance for real-life implementation of the control algorithms.

This book is suitable for students and researches interested in the development and the mathematical derivation of flight controllers for small-scale helicopters. Background knowledge in modern control is required."

Darwin2K: An Evolutionary Approach to Automated Design for Robotics is an essential reference tool for researchers, professionals, and students involved in robot design or in evolutionary synthesis, design, and optimization. It is also necessary for users of Darwin2K. Researchers and hobbyists interested in genetic algorithms and artificial life techniques will find the book interesting. The primary purpose of this book is to describe a methodology for using computers to automatically design robots to meet the specific needs of an application. Details of many novel aspects of the methodology are presented, including an evolutionary algorithm for synthesizing and optimizing multiple objective functions, an algorithm for dynamic simulation of arbitrary robots, an extensible software architecture, and a new representation for robots that is appropriate for robot design. The methodology as a whole is significant in terms of its impact on robot design practices, and as a case study in building evolutionary design systems. Individual parts of the systems are also relevant to other areas. For example, the evolutionary algorithm can be used for design and optimization problems other than robotics, and the dynamic simulation algorithm can be used for analysis and simulation of existing robots or as a part of a manual design tool. The book also gives an overview of previous work in automated design of robots, and of evolutionary design in other engineering disciplines.

Crandall's Power Supply Testing Handbook comes into the marketplace at an optimum time. Now, more than ever, there is an urgency for a comprehensive handbook on power supply testing that will fulfill the reference needs of the wide variety of professionals testing power supplies, including designers, manufacturers, purchasers, and field service organizations.

In the area of computer-integrated manufacturing, concurrent engineering is recognized as the manufacturing philosophy for the next decade.

Designing inclusively is no longer an option for companies. It is a business essential. Global populations are getting older, legislation is increasingly prohibitive of unnecessary exclusion and consumer attitudes are beginning to change. Exclusivity is out, inclusivity is in. Research communities the world over are responding to this change in design emphasis. Conferences such as the Cambridge Workshops on Universal Access and Assistive Technology (CWUAAT) offer a forum for researchers from diverse and varied disciplines to bring their perspectives on inclusive design together. This book has been inspired by the second CWUAAT, held in Cambridge, England in March 2004. It contains chapters from an international group of leading researchers in this field. Contributions focus on the following topics: design issues for universal access and assistive technology; enabling computer access and new technologies; and, assistive technology and rehabilitation robotics. This series of conferences is aimed at a broad range of interests, with a general focus on the development of products and solutions. Numerous case studies are used to raise awareness of the challenges faced in developing truly inclusive products, along with examples of good practice for design for a more inclusive world.

The objective of this book is to bring together contributions by eminent researchers from industry and academia who specialize in the currently separate study and application of the key aspects of integration. The state of knowledge on integration and collaboration models and methods is reviewed, followed by an agenda for needed research that has been generated by the participants. The book is the result of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Integration: Information and Collaboration Models" that took place at II Ciocco, Italy, during June 1993. Significant developments and research projects have been occurring internationally in a major effort to integrate increasingly complex systems. On one hand, advancements in computer technology and computing theories provide better, more timely, information. On of users and clients, and the the other hand, the geographic and organizational distribution proliferation of computers and communication, lead to an explosion of information and to the demand for integration. Two important examples of interest are computer integrated manufacturing and enterprises (CIM/E) and concurrent engineering (CE). CIM/E is the collection of computer technologies such as CNC, CAD, CAM. robotics and computer integrated engineering that integrate all the enterprise activities for competitiveness and timely response to changes. Concurrent engineering is the complete life-cycle approach to engineering of products. systems. and processes including customer requirements, design. planning. costing. service and recycling. In CIM/E and in CE, computer based information is the key to integration.

There currently exists an abundance of materials selection advice for designers suited to solving technical product requirements. In contrast, a stark gap can be found in current literature that articulates the very real personal, social, cultural and economic connections between materials and the design of the material world. "In Materials Experience: fundamentals of materials and design," thirty-four of the leading academicians and experts, alongside 8 professional designers, have come together for the first time to offer their expertise and insights on a number of topics common to materials and product design. The result is a very readable and varied panorama on the world of materials and product design as it currently stands.
Contributions by many of the most prominent materials experts and designers in the field today, with a foreword by Mike Ashby.The book is organized into4 main themes: sustainability, user interaction, technology and selection.

Between chapters, you willfind theresults of interviews conducted with internationally known designers. These designer perspectives will provide a time out from the academic articles, with emphasis placed on fascinating insights, product examples and visuals. "

In Finite Element Analysis of Electrical Machines the author covers two-dimensional analysis, emphasizing the use of finite elements to perform the most common calculations required of machine designers and analysts. The book explains what is inside a finite element program, and how the finite element method can be used to determine the behavior of electrical machines. The material is tutorial and includes several completely worked out examples. The main illustrative examples are synchronous and induction machines. The methods described have been used successfully in the design and analysis of most types of rotating and linear machines. Audience: A valuable reference source for academic researchers, practitioners and designers of electrical machinery.

This is a unified collection of important recent results for the design of robust controllers for uncertain systems, primarily based on H8 control theory or its stochastic counterpart, risk sensitive control theory. Two practical applications are used to illustrate the methods throughout.

This book is a compilation of research accomplishments in the fields of modeling, simulation, and their applications, as presented at AsiaSim 2011 (Asia Simulation Conference 2011). The conference, held in Seoul, Korea, November 16-18, was organized by ASIASIM (Federation of Asian Simulation Societies), KSS (Korea Society for Simulation), CASS (Chinese Association for System Simulation), and JSST (Japan Society for Simulation Technology). AsiaSim 2011 provided a forum for scientists, academicians, and professionals from the Asia-Pacific region and other parts of the world to share their latest exciting research findings in modeling and simulation methodologies, techniques, and their tools and applications in military, communication network, industry, and general engineering problems.

Machines will gradually become programmed using computers which have the knowledge of how the objects in the world relate to one another. This book capitalizes on the fact that products which are manufactured can be designed on the computer and that information about the product such as its physical shape provide powerful information to reason about how to develop the process plan for their manufacture. This book explores the whole aspect of using the principles of how parts behave naturally to automatically generate programs that govern how to produce them. The last decade saw tremendous work on how machines can be programmed to perform a variety of tasks automatically. Robotics has witnessed the most work on programming techniques. But it was not until the emergence of the advanced CAD system as a proper source of information representation about objects which are to be manipulated by the robot that it became viable for automated processors to generate robot programs without human interface. It became possible for objects to be described and for principles about how they interact in the world to be developed. The functions which the features designed into the objects serve for the objects can be adequately represented and used in reasoning about the manufacturing of the parts using the robot. This book describes the necessary principles which must be developed for a robot to generate its own programs with the knowledge of the world in the CAD system.

This unique book is the only recent summary presenting a comprehensive, up-to-date and detailed treatment of relay feedback theory, the use of relay feedback for process identification and the use of identified models for general control design in a single volume.

This book is devoted to the optimization of product design and manufacturing systems. It contains selected and carefully composed articles based on presentations given at the IDMME conference held in Nantes, France in 1996. The authors are all involved in cutting-edge research in their respective fields of specialization. The integration of manufacturing constraints and their optimization in the design process is becoming more and more widespread in the development of mechanical products or systems. There is a clear industrial need for these kind of methodologies. Important - but still unsolved - problems are related to the definition of design processes, the choice of optimal manufacturing processes and their integration through coherent methodologies in adapted environments. The main topics addressed in this book are: the optimization and evaluation of the product design process (design methodology, representation and integration of design constraints, design for manufacturing, synthesis of objects with constraints, automatic modelling) the optimization and evaluation of the manufacturing systems (modelling of machining processes, modelling for control and measuring, feature-based manufacturing, CAM and off-line programming) some methodological aspects (computational geometry, simultaneous and concurrent engineering, integrated design and CAD/CAM systems, object modelling, feature-based modelling, design and communication, automatic solvers and optimizers) . Apart from giving a thorough theoretical background, a very important theme is the relation between research and industrial applications. The book is of interest for engineers, researchers and PhD students who are involved in the optimization of design and manufacturing processes.

As Directors of this NATO Workshop we welcome this opportunity to record formally our thanks to the NATO Scientific Affairs Division for making our meeting possible through generous financial support and encouragement. This meeting had two purposes: the first obvious one because we have collected key scientists from East and West together to discuss the latest developments in the design against fatigue for structures and components. The second is less obvious but perhaps in the longer term more important; that is the building of bridges between East and West Europe, bridges cemented in the first place by personal friendship between scientists. Fatigue is the process by which structures subjected to cyclical loads deteriorate. The advent of the industrial revolution and in particular the spread of railways caused this phenomena to be recognised and studied some 150 years ago. Despite intensive efforts over the years and despite a huge increase in our theoretical and practical understanding offatigue, failures still occur causing economic disruption and even loss of life. Some of the reasons lying behind this apparent failure to apply advanced knowledge to everyday engineering were explored during this Workshop. Economic pressures to extend the lives of existing plant are becoming more intense. Therefore of vital importance is the generation of knowledge used to assess the performance of existing structures and machines and to produce guidance on their continued safe operation.

Comprehensive treatment of approximation methods for filters and controllers. It is fully up to date, and it is authored by two leading researchers who have personally contributed to the development of some of the methods. Balanced truncation, Hankel norm reduction, multiplicative reduction, weighted methods and coprime factorization methods are all discussed. The book is amply illustrated with examples, and will equip practising control engineers and graduates for intelligent use of commercial software modules for model and controller reduction.

For a long time, quality has been one of industry's main preoccupations. It remains so today. There is some foundation for the statement that there is a 'quality crisis' in Europe, the methods traditionally used in our industries being unable to meet today's demands. Consequently it is essential to look for new directions in which to progress, taking account of the methods for achieving quality that have been developed in recent years. These methods impact on all parts of the industrial enterprise - marketing, manufacturing, research and development, after-sales services. All staff, administrative or technical, are involved. The present book describes the tools that can help anyone who is concerned with the concept of 'total quality'; it will also be a valuable educational aid for students reading for degrees or other qualifications in engineering. P. Lyonnet I General questions and concepts 1 INTRODUCTION: HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE TOTAL QUALITY? This book is concerned with the various techniques and methods of analysis that can be used to ensure total quality in a project. In this first chapter we show the costs that result from not achieving quality, so as to make clear how important a quality-assurance service is to any enterprise. We stress also the involvement of marketing, particularly in laying down specifications for reliability.

The 1980s have witnessed a tremendous growth in the field of computer integrated manufacturing systems. The other major areas of development have been computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, industrial robotics, automated assembly, cellular and modular material handling, computer networking and office automation to name just a few. These new technologies are generally capital intensive and do not conform to traditional cost structures. The net result is a tremendous change in the way costs should be estimated and economic analyses performed. The majority of existing engineering economy texts still profess application of traditional analysis methods. But, as was men tioned above, it is clear that the basic trend in manufacturing industries is itself changing. So it is quite obvious that the practice of traditional economic analysis methods should change too. This book is an attempt to address the various issues associated with non-traditional methods for evaluation of advanced computer-integrated technologies. This volume consists of twenty refereed articles which are grouped into five parts. Part one, Economic Justification Methods, consists of six articles. In the first paper, Soni et at. present a new classification for economic justification methods for advanced automated manufacturing systems. In the second, Henghold and LeClair look at strengths and weaknesses of expert systems in general and more specifically, an ap plication aimed at investment justification in advanced technology. The third paper, by Carrasco and Lee, proposes an enhanced economic methodology to improve the needs analysis, conceptual design and de tailed design activities associated with technology modernization.

This volume originates from two workshops, both focusing on themes that are reflected in the title of the volume. The first workshop took place at Eindhoven University of Technology, April 24-26, 2001, on the occasion of the University granting a doctorate honoris causa to Profes sor John A. Buzacott. The second workshop was held on June 15, 2002 at Cornell University (preceding the annual INFORMSjMSOM Confer ence), honoring John's retirement and his lifetime contributions. Each of the two workshops consisted of about a dozen technical presentations. The objective of the volume, however, is not to simply publish the proceedings of the two workshops. Rather, our objective is to put to gether a select set of articles, each organized into a well-written chapter, focusing on a timely topic. Collected into a single volume, these chapters aim to serve as a useful reference for researchers and practitioners alike, and also as reading materials for graduate courses or seminars.

This essential book documents the latest research progress and key issues affecting SSM software development. With a particular focus on the CAD/CAM environment, it provides a rich source of reference and covers a wide range of topics.