Mechatronic Components: Roadmap to Design explains the practical application of mechatronics, including sections on adaptive structures, robotics and other areas where mechanics and electronics converge. Professional engineers in a variety of areas will find this textbook to be extremely helpful with its in-depth use of flow diagrams and schemes that help readers understand the logic behind the design of such systems. Using approximately 130 different components with diagrams and flowcharts that help engineers from different fields understand the general properties and selection criteria of a component, this book presents a comprehensive resource on mechatronic components.

Microbiorobotics: Biologically Inspired Microscale Robotic Systems, Second Edition presents information on a new engineering discipline that takes a multidisciplinary approach to accomplish precise manipulation of microscale spaces. Microorganisms have evolved various mechanisms to thrive in microscale environments and are therefore a useful tool for use in many applications, ranging from micromanufacturing techniques, to cellular manipulation. In the context of microrobotics, biological microrobots can directly harness the microorganisms for propulsive and sensing power and synthetic microrobots can mimic the microorganisms' motions for effective locomotion. This second edition covers new advances and insights that have emerged in recent years. Several new chapters have been added on important new research areas, with existing chapters thoroughly revised. In particular, increased coverage is given to fluid dynamics of microswimmers in nature.

The implementation of robotics and automation in the food sector offers great potential for improved safety, quality and profitability by optimising process monitoring and control. Robotics and automation in the food industry provides a comprehensive overview of current and emerging technologies and their applications in different industry sectors.
Part one introduces key technologies and significant areas of development, including automatic process control and robotics in the food industry, sensors for automated quality and safety control, and the development of machine vision systems. Optical sensors and online spectroscopy, gripper technologies, wireless sensor networks (WSN) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems are discussed, with consideration of intelligent quality control systems based on fuzzy logic. Part two goes on to investigate robotics and automation in particular unit operations and industry sectors. The automation of bulk sorting and control of food chilling and freezing is considered, followed by chapters on the use of robotics and automation in the processing and packaging of meat, seafood, fresh produce and confectionery. Automatic control of batch thermal processing of canned foods is explored, before a final discussion on automation for a sustainable food industry.
With its distinguished editor and international team of expert contributors, Robotics and automation in the food industry is an indispensable guide for engineering professionals in the food industry, and a key introduction for professionals and academics interested in food production, robotics and automation.
Provides a comprehensive overview of current and emerging robotics and automation technologies and their applications in different industry sectorsChapters in part one cover key technologies and significant areas of development, including automatic process control and robotics in the food industry and sensors for automated quality and safety controlPart two investigates robotics and automation in particular unit operations and industry sectors, including the automation of bulk sorting and the use of robotics and automation in the processing and packaging of meat, seafood, fresh produce and confectionery

The IFAC Workshop on Intelligent Components for Vehicles (ICV'98) was held in Seville (Spain), on March 23-24 1998. The event follows the Workshop on Intelligent Components for Autonomous and Semiautonomous Vehicles (ICASAV'95) held in Toulouse (France, October 1995).

The main objective of ICV'98 was to bring together specialists on components and instruments for automotive systems, mobile robots and vehicles in general to enhance the value of their experience in both hardware and software intelligent components.

Future vehicles will deal more and more with autonomous functions to improve safety and traffic management and to reduce consumption and pollution. Numerous on-board decision systems will replace the driver in critical running phases. The problems and solutions experienced, by adopting this new technology, will bring out many common points with other transportation systems and mobile robots.

Research and Developments on Mobile Robotics have produced many components for perception, control and planning that can be used in vehicles for collision detection and avoidance, position estimation, guidance and manoeuvering aids for drivers, advanced teleoperation, and other applications.

The topics of the Workshop are in an emerging field in which the research is quickly being converted into industrial products. Several applications in the automotive domain, marine vehicles, agricultural and others were included in the program.

In addition to the presentation of the papers, ICV also included a plenary talk and a round table about intelligent components for future vehicles with the participation of several industrial companies.

Held from 3-5 September 1997 in Nantes, France, this was the fifth of the IFAC series of triennial Symposia on Robot Control.
The final selection lead to 126 papers (from 200 submissions) in the Technical Program. This consisted of 33 sessions disposed in 3 parallel tracks and brought together contributions from 298 leading researchers.
The papers covered a range of topics relevant to the field of robot control, including modelling and identification, force and compliance control, robot control techniques, vision control, grasp control, flexible robots, non holonomic robotic systems, walking robots, control design and architectures, teleoperation, and underwater robots.
The Symposium featured three invited plenary speakers: Professor Steven Dubowsky, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology presented a lecture entitled 'A perspective of the advancement of robotic systems during the past 15 years'; Professor Shanakr Sastry, from the University of California, presented a lecture entitled 'Air Traffic Management Systems: at the intersection of Control Theory and Robotics'; and Professor Friedrich Pfeiffer, from the Technical University of Munchen, presented a lecture entitled 'Robots with unilateral constraints'.

Artificial intelligence is smarter than humans. It can process information at lightning speed and remain focused on specific tasks without distraction. AI can see into the future, predict outcomes and even use sensors to see around physical and virtual corners. So why does AI frequently get it so wrong and cause harm?

The answer is us: the human beings who write the code and teach AI to mimic our behaviour. Scary Smart explains how to fix the current trajectory now, to make sure that the AI of the future can preserve our species. This book offers a blueprint, pointing the way to what we can do to safeguard ourselves, those we love and the planet itself.

Tourism and hospitality are increasingly becoming more complex, having grown exponentially over the last decade. As the industry becomes more complex, new demands arise regarding its overall organization and operations, which call for not only more experienced and specialized staff, but also advanced technological solutions that support new paradigms and expectations. The Handbook of Research on Innovation, Differentiation, and New Technologies in Tourism, Hotels, and Food Service discusses the current changes and challenges in tourism and hospitality. Covering key topics such as entrepreneurship, local development, and technology, this major reference work is ideal for managers, entrepreneurs, business owners, industry professionals, researchers, academicians, scholars, practitioners, instructors, and students.

Autonomous Mobile Robots: Planning, Navigation, and Simulation presents detailed coverage of the domain of robotics in motion planning and associated topics in navigation. This book covers numerous base planning methods from diverse schools of learning, including deliberative planning methods, reactive planning methods, task planning methods, fusion of different methods, and cognitive architectures. It is a good resource for doing initial project work in robotics, providing an overview, methods and simulation software in one resource. For more advanced readers, it presents a variety of planning algorithms to choose from, presenting the tradeoffs between the algorithms to ascertain a good choice. Finally, the book presents fusion mechanisms to design hybrid algorithms.

Robotics for Cell Manipulation and Characterization provides fundamental principles underpinning robotic cell manipulation and characterization, state-of-the-art technical advances in micro/nano robotics, new discoveries of cell biology enabled by robotic systems, and their applications in clinical diagnosis and treatment. This book covers several areas, including robotics, control, computer vision, biomedical engineering and life sciences using understandable figures and tables to enhance readers' comprehension and pinpoint challenges and opportunities for biological and biomedical research.

Studies on integer optimization in emergency management have attracted engineers and scientists from various disciplines such as management, mathematics, computer science, and other fields. Although there are a large number of literature reports on integer planning and emergency events, few books systematically explain the combination of the two. Researchers need a clear and thorough presentation of the theory and application of integer programming methods for emergency management. Integer Optimization and its Computation in Emergency Management investigates the computation theory of integer optimization, developing integer programming methods for emergency management and explores related practical applications. Pursuing a holistic approach, this book establishes a fundamental framework for this topic, intended for graduate students who are interested in operations research and optimization, researchers investigating emergency management, and algorithm design engineers working on integer programming or other optimization applications.

Robotics plays a pivotal role in many domains such as industry and medicine. Robots allow for increased safety, production rates, accuracy, and quality; however, robots must be well designed and controlled to achieve the required performance. The design and control of robotics involve many varying disciplines, such as mechanical engineering, electronics, and automation, and must be further studied to ensure the technology is utilized appropriately. Design and Control Advances in Robotics considers the most recent applications and design advances in robotics and highlights the latest developments and applications within the field of robotics. Covering key topics such as deep learning, machine learning, programming, automation, and control advances, this reference work is ideal for engineers, computer scientists, industry professionals, academicians, practitioners, scholars, researchers, instructors, and students.

5G IoT and Edge Computing for Smart Healthcare addresses the importance of a 5G IoT and Edge-Cognitive-Computing-based system for the successful implementation and realization of a smart-healthcare system. The book provides insights on 5G technologies, along with intelligent processing algorithms/processors that have been adopted for processing the medical data that would assist in addressing the challenges in computer-aided diagnosis and clinical risk analysis on a real-time basis. Each chapter is self-sufficient, solving real-time problems through novel approaches that help the audience acquire the right knowledge. With the progressive development of medical and communication - computer technologies, the healthcare system has seen a tremendous opportunity to support the demand of today's new requirements.

The book comprises three parts. The first part provides the state-of-the-art of robots for endoscopy (endorobots), including devices already available in the market and those that are still at the R&D stage. The second part focusses on the engineering design; it includes the use of polymers for soft robotics, comparing their advantages and limitations with those of their more rigid counterparts. The third part includes the project management of a multidisciplinary team, the health cost of current technology, and how a cost-effective device can have a substantial impact on the market. It also includes information on data governance, ethical and legal frameworks, and all steps needed to make this new technology available.

Tactile Sensing, Skill Learning and Robotic Dexterous Manipulation focuses on cross-disciplinary lines of research and groundbreaking research ideas in three research lines: tactile sensing, skill learning and dexterous control. The book introduces recent work about human dexterous skill representation and learning, along with discussions of tactile sensing and its applications on unknown objects' property recognition and reconstruction. Sections also introduce the adaptive control schema and its learning by imitation and exploration. Other chapters describe the fundamental part of relevant research, paying attention to the connection among different fields and showing the state-of-the-art in related branches. The book summarizes the different approaches and discusses the pros and cons of each. Chapters not only describe the research but also include basic knowledge that can help readers understand the proposed work, making it an excellent resource for researchers and professionals who work in the robotics industry, haptics and in machine learning.

Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in Environmental Sensing provides state-of-the-art information on the inexpensive mass-produced sensors that are used as inputs to artificial intelligence systems. The book discusses the advances of AI and Machine Learning technologies in material design for environmental areas. It is an excellent resource for researchers and professionals who work in the field of data processing, artificial intelligence sensors and environmental applications.

Cyber-Physical Systems: AI and COVID-19 highlights original research which addresses current data challenges in terms of the development of mathematical models, cyber-physical systems-based tools and techniques, and the design and development of algorithmic solutions, etc. It reviews the technical concepts of gathering, processing and analyzing data from cyber-physical systems (CPS) and reviews tools and techniques that can be used. This book will act as a resource to guide COVID researchers as they move forward with clinical and epidemiological studies on this outbreak, including the technical concepts of gathering, processing and analyzing data from cyber-physical systems (CPS). The major problem in the identification of COVID-19 is detection and diagnosis due to non-availability of medicine. In this situation, only one method, Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) has been widely adopted and used for diagnosis. With the evolution of COVID-19, the global research community has implemented many machine learning and deep learning-based approaches with incremental datasets. However, finding more accurate identification and prediction methods are crucial at this juncture.

Advanced Methods and Deep Learning in Computer Vision presents advanced computer vision methods, emphasizing machine and deep learning techniques that have emerged during the past 5-10 years. The book provides clear explanations of principles and algorithms supported with applications. Topics covered include machine learning, deep learning networks, generative adversarial networks, deep reinforcement learning, self-supervised learning, extraction of robust features, object detection, semantic segmentation, linguistic descriptions of images, visual search, visual tracking, 3D shape retrieval, image inpainting, novelty and anomaly detection. This book provides easy learning for researchers and practitioners of advanced computer vision methods, but it is also suitable as a textbook for a second course on computer vision and deep learning for advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

Mem-elements for Neuromorphic Circuits with Artificial Intelligence Applications illustrates recent advances in the field of mem-elements (memristor, memcapacitor, meminductor) and their applications in nonlinear dynamical systems, computer science, analog and digital systems, and in neuromorphic circuits and artificial intelligence. The book is mainly devoted to recent results, critical aspects and perspectives of ongoing research on relevant topics, all involving networks of mem-elements devices in diverse applications. Sections contribute to the discussion of memristive materials and transport mechanisms, presenting various types of physical structures that can be fabricated to realize mem-elements in integrated circuits and device modeling. As the last decade has seen an increasing interest in recent advances in mem-elements and their applications in neuromorphic circuits and artificial intelligence, this book will attract researchers in various fields.

Artificial Intelligence for Future Generation Robotics offers a vision for potential future robotics applications for AI technologies. Each chapter includes theory and mathematics to stimulate novel research directions based on the state-of-the-art in AI and smart robotics. Organized by application into ten chapters, this book offers a practical tool for researchers and engineers looking for new avenues and use-cases that combine AI with smart robotics. As we witness exponential growth in automation and the rapid advancement of underpinning technologies, such as ubiquitous computing, sensing, intelligent data processing, mobile computing and context aware applications, this book is an ideal resource for future innovation.

Cognitive Computing for Human-Robot Interaction: Principles and Practices explores the efforts that should ultimately enable society to take advantage of the often-heralded potential of robots to provide economical and sustainable computing applications. This book discusses each of these applications, presents working implementations, and combines coherent and original deliberative architecture for human-robot interactions (HRI). Supported by experimental results, it shows how explicit knowledge management promises to be instrumental in building richer and more natural HRI, by pushing for pervasive, human-level semantics within the robot's deliberative system for sustainable computing applications. This book will be of special interest to academics, postgraduate students, and researchers working in the area of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Key features: Introduces several new contributions to the representation and management of humans in autonomous robotic systems; Explores the potential of cognitive computing, robots, and HRI to generate a deeper understanding and to provide a better contribution from robots to society; Engages with the potential repercussions of cognitive computing and HRI in the real world.

Soft Robotics in Rehabilitation explores the specific branch of robotics dealing with developing robots from compliant and flexible materials. Unlike robots built from rigid materials, soft robots behave the way in which living organs move and adapt to their surroundings and allow for increased flexibility and adaptability for the user. This book is a comprehensive reference discussing the application of soft robotics for rehabilitation of upper and lower extremities separated by various limbs. The book examines various techniques applied in soft robotics, including the development of soft actuators, rigid actuators with soft behavior, intrinsically soft actuators, and soft sensors. This book is perfect for graduate students, researchers, and professional engineers in robotics, control, mechanical, and electrical engineering who are interested in soft robotics, artificial intelligence, rehabilitation therapy, and medical and rehabilitation device design and manufacturing.

Mathematical Modelling of Swimming Soft Microrobots presents a theoretical framework for modelling of soft microrobotic systems based on resistive-force theory. Microorganisms are highly efficient at swimming regardless of the rheological and physical properties of the background fluids. This efficiency has inspired researchers and Engineers to develop microrobots that resemble the morphology and swimming strategies of microorganisms. The ultimate goal of this book is threefold: first, to relate resistive-force theory to externally and internally actuated microrobotic systems; second, to enable the readers to develop numerical models of a wide range of microrobotic systems; third, to enable the reader to optimize the design of the microrobot to enhance its swimming efficiency.