The book, written for a general educated public, compares the most important elements of the human nervous system to the corresponding capacities of robots. Crucial are the areas of activities for which the constraints limiting human and robot performances are much different. Those areas offer opportunities for synergies.The book argues that we now understand mechanisms for emotional feelings in the human brain so well that we will be able to program robots to act as though they also have emotion. Written in a clear and open fashion by an expert neuroscientist, the book will appeal to interested lay readers in addition to neuroscientists and computer scientists.

This book focuses on two challenges posed in robot control by the increasing adoption of robots in the everyday human environment: uncertainty and networked communication. Part I of the book describes learning control to address environmental uncertainty. Part II discusses state estimation, active sensing, and complex scenario perception to tackle sensing uncertainty. Part III completes the book with control of networked robots and multi-robot teams. Each chapter features in-depth technical coverage and case studies highlighting the applicability of the techniques, with real robots or in simulation. Platforms include mobile ground, aerial, and underwater robots, as well as humanoid robots and robot arms. Source code and experimental data are available at http://extras.springer.com. The text gathers contributions from academic and industry experts, and offers a valuable resource for researchers or graduate students in robot control and perception. It also benefits researchers in related areas, such as computer vision, nonlinear and learning control, and multi-agent systems.

This book provides state-of-the-art scientific and engineering research findings and developments in the area of mobile robotics and associated support technologies around the theme of assistive robotics. The book contains peer reviewed articles presented at the CLAWAR 2015 conference. The book contains a comprehensive collection of papers on legged locomotion with numbers of legs from two upward to multi-legs, which includes robots cable of climbing walls, poles, or more complex structures such as continuing the distinctive CLAWAR themes. There are also a strong showing of articles covering human assist devices, notably exoskeletal and prosthetic devices, as well as social robots designed to meet the growing challenges of global ageing population.

Over the past decade, industrial developments in the field of robotics have been aimed primarily at manufacturing. Many of the cases considered for automation have involved the processing of well-defined and rigid products within the motor car and aerospace industries. Current literature includes a large number of books covering both the fundamentals and applications of robots, but none of these books deals with food production as a specialist subject. In the recent past, considerable work has been done examining the use of robots for handling and processing food items. The main objective of this book is to provide an overview of specific applications in the meat, fish and poultry industries, thus increasing the awareness and confidence of the food industry in this technology and the opportunities it offers.

This book provides an insightful introduction to the most important field of military innovation for the 21st century-robotic and drone weaponry. For centuries, warring nations have sought to lower the risk to highly vulnerable humans on the battlefield, typically by providing protective armor, making soldiers' positions more difficult to detect, or by striking from locations safe from retaliation. Autonomous weaponry has now reached the point where robotic systems can perform some key tasks that previously required direct human involvement. Military Robots and Drones: A Reference Handbook introduces the lay person to a highly specialized topic, providing the foundation necessary for further study in this field. Appropriate for high school and college-level students, as well as general readers with an interest in the topic, the author explains the many military applications of robotics as well as current limitations and disadvantages. The book also provides a general history of robotic warfare; examines key individuals, agencies, documents, and models; discusses controversies within the field of robotic and drone warfare, such as ethical considerations; and explains how increased reliance on robotics has affected the structure and strategy of the military. A chronology of important events in robotic technology A detailed bibliography on the latest sources related to this innovative technology

This book introduces several observer-based methods, including: * the sliding-mode observer * the adaptive observer * the unknown-input observer and * the descriptor observer method for the problem of fault detection, isolation and estimation, allowing readers to compare and contrast the different approaches. The authors present basic material on Lyapunov stability theory, HY control theory, sliding-mode control theory and linear matrix inequality problems in a self-contained and step-by-step manner. Detailed and rigorous mathematical proofs are provided for all the results developed in the text so that readers can quickly gain a good understanding of the material. MATLAB (R) and Simulink (R) codes for all the examples, which can be downloaded from http://extras.springer.com, enable students to follow the methods and illustrative examples easily. The systems used in the examples make the book highly relevant to real-world problems in industrial control engineering and include a seventh-order aircraft model, a single-link flexible joint robot arm and a satellite controller. To help readers quickly find the information they need and to improve readability, the individual chapters are written so as to be semi-independent of each other. Robust Oberserver-Based Fault Diagnosis for Nonlinear Systems Using MATLAB (R) is of interest to process, aerospace, robotics and control engineers, engineering students and researchers with a control engineering background.

This book describes the design, mathematical modeling, control system development and experimental validation of a versatile mobile pipe inspection robot. It also discusses a versatile robotic system for pipeline inspection, together with an original, adaptable tracked mobile robot featuring a patented motion unit. Pipeline inspection is a common field of application for mobile robots because the monitoring of inaccessible, long and narrow pipelines is a very difficult task for humans. The main design objective is to minimize the number of robots needed to inspect different types of horizontal and vertical pipelines, with both smooth and rough surfaces. The book includes extensive information on the various design phases, mathematical modeling, simulations and control system development. In closing, the prototype construction process and testing procedures are presented and supplemented with laboratory and field experiments.

As robots are used more and more to perform a variety of tasks in a range of fields, it is imperative to make the robots as reliable and safe as possible. Yet no book currently covers robot reliability and safety within one framework. Robot System Reliability and Safety: A Modern Approach presents up-to-date information on robot reliability, safety, and related areas in a single volume, eliminating the need to consult diverse sources. After introducing historical, mathematical, and introductory aspects, the book presents methods for analyzing robot system reliability and safety. It next focuses on topics related to robot reliability, including classifications of robot failures and their causes and hydraulic and electric robots' reliability analysis. The book then explains the analysis of robot-related safety and accidents, covers key elements of robot maintenance and robotics applications in maintenance and repair, and addresses human factors and safety considerations in robotics workplaces. The book concludes with chapters on robot testing, costing, and failure data as well as six mathematical models for reliability and safety analysis. Written by a well-known expert in reliability engineering, this book will be useful to system, design, reliability, and safety engineers along with other engineering professionals working in the area of robotics. It can also be used in courses on system engineering, reliability engineering, and safety engineering.

Design of Observer-based Compensators facilitates and adds transparency to design in the frequency domain which is not as well-established among control engineers as time domain design. The presentation of the design procedures starts with a review of the time domain results; therefore, the book also provides quick access to state space methods for control system design.

Frequency domain design of observer-based compensators of all orders is covered. The design of decoupling and disturbance rejecting controllers is presented, and solutions are given to the linear quadratic and the model matching problems. The pole assignment design is facilitated by a new parametric approach in the frequency domain. Anti-windup control is also investigated in the framework of the polynomial approach. The discrete-time results for disturbance rejection and linear quadratic control are also presented.

The book contains worked examples that can easily be reproduced by the reader, and the results are illustrated by simulations.

Robot Hands and Multi-Fingered Haptic Interfaces is a monograph focusing on the comparison of human hands with robot hands, the fundamentals behind designing and creating the latter, and robotics' latest advancements in haptic technology.This work discusses the design of robot hands; contact models at grasping; kinematic models of constraint; dynamic models of the multi-fingered hand; the stability theorem of non-linear control systems; robot hand control; design and control of multi-fingered haptic interfaces; application systems using multi-fingered haptic interfaces; and telecontrol of robot hands using a multi-fingered haptic interface.Robot Hands and Multi-Fingered Haptic Interfaces is intended mainly for readers who have a foundation in basic robot arm engineering. To understand robot hand manipulation, readers must study kinematic constraint models of fingers, hand dynamics with constraints, stability theorems of non-linear control, and multi-fingered hand control - this book will benefit readers' understanding of this full range of issues regarding robot hand manipulation.

Interested in cutting costs and improving the quality of your manufacturing processes to stay competitive?

Unsure about what others have done, what s possible or how best to integrate robots into what you do?

Worried about making costly errors in trying to implement new technology?

Based on the author s wide-ranging experience as a robot user, supplier and consultant, Implementation of Robot Systems will enable you to approach the use of robots in your plant or facility armed with the right base knowledge and awareness of critical factors to take into account.

Written to assist engineers and managers across various industries in applying robot solutions to real-world manufacturing problems, the book starts with the basics of typical applications and robot capabilities before covering all stages of successful robot integration. Potential problems and pitfalls are flagged and worked through so that you can learn from others mistakes and plan proactively with possible issues in mind.

Taking in content from the author s graduate level teaching of automation and robotics for engineering in business and his consultancy as part of a UK Government program to help companies advance their technologies and practices in the area, Implementation of Robot Systems blends technical information with critical financial and business considerations to help you stay ahead of the competition.
Introduces the key technologies in use and their benefits, focusing on the knowledge needed to enable application to your manufacturing problems

Includes case studies of typical robot capabilities and use across a range of industries, with real-world installation examples and problems encountered

Provides step-by-step coverage of the various stages required to achieve successful implementation, including system design, financial justification, working with suppliers and project management

Offers no-nonsense advice on the pitfalls and issues to anticipate, along with guidance on how to avoid or resolve them for a cost- and time-effective solution "

Telexistence is a fundamental concept which refers to the general technology that enables a human being to have the real-time sensation of being at a place other than where he or she actually exists, while being able to interact with the remote environment, which may be real, virtual, or a combination of both. It also refers to an advanced type of teleoperation system that enables an operator at the control to perform remote tasks dexterously with the feeling of existing in a surrogate robot working in a remote environment. Telexistence in the real remote environment through a virtual environment is also possible.This book is the second edition of the original Telexistence; new contents cover recent advancements of the technology in areas such as human augmentation, autostereoscopy, tangible visuo-haptic 3D display, face-to-face communication, and haptic sensations and technologies. Case studies of the mobile mutual telexistence system TELESAR IV and haptic telexistence avatar system TELESAR V are also included. Written by the inventor of the concept of this emerging technology, it introduces the concept of telexistence, explains how this concept can be realized, illustrates precisely real examples of the realization of the concept, and determines its future advancement. Readers will be inspired by the concept, and acquire appropriate knowledge on this emerging technology and the fundamental skills to contribute in further development of telexistence.

This book reveals that the way we perceive sex robots is how we perceive ourselves, overcoming the false human/non-human binary. From Greek myths, to the film Ex Machina, to Japanese technology, non-human sexuality has been at the heart of culture. In Sex Robots, the history of this culture is explored. This text sheds new light on what the sex robot represents and signifies, examining its philosophical implications within the context of today's society. This volume will be of interest to scholars of technology, cultural studies, the social sciences and philosophy.

The demand for safety in modern industrial processes has come to involve an increasing demand for teleoperated devices in order to avoid the exposure of humans to hazardous conditions during the operation, maintenance under normal or abnormal conditions and decommissioning of equipment after its useful lifetime has terminated. An important for teleoperations has been reached in the 1990s as the first commercial nuclear power stations reach the end of their useful life. Simultaneously, progress in the work on controlled thermonuclear fusion demonstrates the importance of teleoperation in the assembly of future reactors as well as in their maintenance and decommissioning. "Teleoperation: Numerical Simulation and Experimental Validation" presents the fundamentals and the advances in simulation and experimentation in the teleoperations field, dealing with such matters as path planning, calibration, autonomy, safety, and radiation hardening. The book addresses users working in the field of engineering R&D and plant operation management. Students in schools of engineeering, too, should find the book of value, as it addresses topics of acute practical interest in an area that can only grow in importance.

This is a comprehensive volume on robot teams that will be the standard reference on multi-robot systems. The volume provides not only the essentials of multi-agent robotics theory but also descriptions of exemplary implemented systems demonstrating the key concepts of multi-robot research. Information is presented in a descriptive manner and augmented with detailed mathematical formulations, photos, diagrams, and source code examples.

For Fans of Mary Roach, a Sweetly Nostalgic and Enlightening Exploration of Futures Past, Present, and Still to Come Generation Robot covers a century of science fiction, fact, and speculation-from the 1950 publication of Isaac Asimov's seminal robot masterpiece, I, Robot, to the 2050 Singularity when artificial and human intelligence are predicted to merge. Beginning with a childhood informed by pop-culture robots in movies, in comic books, and on TV in the 1960s, to adulthood where the possibilities of self-driving cars and virtual reality are daily conversation, Terri Favro offers a unique perspective on how our relationship with robotics and futuristic technologies has shifted over time. Peppered with pop-culture fun-facts about Superman's kryptonite, the human-machine relationships in the cult TV show Firefly, and the sexual and moral implications of the film Ex Machina, Generation Robot explores how the techno-triumphs and resulting anxieties of reality bleed into the fantasies of our collective culture. Clever and accessible, Generation Robot isn't just for the serious, scientific reader-it's for everyone interested in robotics and technology since their science-fiction origins. By looking back at the future she once imagined, analyzing the plugged-in present, and speculating on what is on the horizon, Terri Favro allows readers the chance to consider what was, what is, and what could be. This is a captivating book that looks at the pop-culture of our society to explain how the world works-now and tomorrow.

The great majority of books on artificial intelligence are written by AI experts who understandably focus on its achievements and potential transformative effects on society. In contrast, AI vs Humans is written by two psychologists (Michael and Christine Eysenck) whose perspective on AI (including robotics) is based on their knowledge and understanding of human cognition. This book evaluates the strengths and limitations of people and AI. The authors' expertise equips them well to consider this by seeing how well (or badly) AI compares to human intelligence. They accept that AI matches or exceeds human ability in many spheres such as mathematical calculations, complex games (e.g., chess, Go, and poker), diagnosis from medical images, and robotic surgery. However, the human tendency to anthropomorphise has led many people to claim mistakenly that AI systems can think, infer, reason, and understand while engaging in information processing. In fact, such systems lack all those cognitive skills and are also deficient in the quintessentially human abilities of flexibility of thinking and general intelligence. At a time when human commitment to AI appears unstoppable, this up-to-date book advocates a symbiotic and co-operative relationship between humans and AI. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in AI and human cognition.

Interest in control of climbing and walking robots has remarkably increased over the years. Novel solutions of complex mechanical systems such as climbing, walking, flying and running robots with different kinds of locomotion and the technologies that support them and their applications are the evidence of significant progress in the area of robotics. Supporting technologies include the means by which robots use to sense, model, and navigate through their environments and, of course, actuation and control technologies. Human interaction including exoskeletons, prostheses and orthoses, as well as service robots, are increasingly active important pertinent areas of research. In addition, legged machines and tracked platforms with software architecture seem to be currently the research idea of most interest to the robotics community.

This volume of the SPAR series brings the proceedings of the fourteen edition of the DARS symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems, whose proceedings have been published within SPAR since the past edition. This symposium took place in Boulder, CO from October 15th to 17th, 2018. The volume edited by Nikolaus Correll and Mac Schwager contains 36 scientific contributions cutting across planning, control, design, perception, networking, and optimization, all united through the common thread of distributed robotic systems.

This book presents a study on the novel concept of "event-triggered control of nonlinear systems subject to disturbances", discussing the theory and practical applications. Richly illustrated, it is a valuable resource for researchers, engineers and graduate students in automation engineering who wish to learn the theories, technologies, and applications of event-triggered control of nonlinear systems.

This book includes extended and revised versions of a set of selected papers from the Ninth International Conference on Informatics in Control Automation and Robotics (ICINCO 2012), held in Rome, Italy, from 28 to 31 July 2012. The conference was organized in four simultaneous tracks: Intelligent Control Systems and Optimization, Robotics and Automation, Systems Modeling, Signal Processing and Control and Industrial Engineering, Production and Management. ICINCO 2012 received 360 paper submissions, from 58 countries in all continents. From these, after a blind review process, only 40 were accepted as full papers, of which 20 were selected for inclusion in this book, based on the classifications provided by the Program Committee. The selected papers reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the conference as well as the logic equilibrium between the four abovementioned tracks. The diversity of topics is an important feature of this conference, enabling an overall perception of several important scientific and technological trends.

This book explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI), by leading to an increase in the autonomy of machines and robots, is offering opportunities for an expanded but uncertain impact on society by humans, machines, and robots. To help readers better understand the relationships between AI, autonomy, humans and machines that will help society reduce human errors in the use of advanced technologies (e.g., airplanes, trains, cars), this edited volume presents a wide selection of the underlying theories, computational models, experimental methods, and field applications. While other literature deals with these topics individually, this book unifies the fields of autonomy and AI, framing them in the broader context of effective integration for human-autonomous machine and robotic systems. The contributions, written by world-class researchers and scientists, elaborate on key research topics at the heart of effective human-machine-robot-systems integration. These topics include, for example, computational support for intelligence analyses; the challenge of verifying today's and future autonomous systems; comparisons between today's machines and autism; implications of human information interaction on artificial intelligence and errors; systems that reason; the autonomy of machines, robots, buildings; and hybrid teams, where hybrid reflects arbitrary combinations of humans, machines and robots. The contributors span the field of autonomous systems research, ranging from industry and academia to government. Given the broad diversity of the research in this book, the editors strove to thoroughly examine the challenges and trends of systems that implement and exhibit AI; the social implications of present and future systems made autonomous with AI; systems with AI seeking to develop trusted relationships among humans, machines, and robots; and the effective human systems integration that must result for trust in these new systems and their applications to increase and to be sustained.

The proceedings provide state-of-the-art scientific and engineering research findings and developments in the area of mobile robotics and assistive technologies. The proceedings collected together peer reviewed articles presented at the CLAWAR 2013 conference. It contains a strong showing of articles on legged locomotion with numbers of legs from two onwards. There is also a good collection of articles on systems that walls climbing, poles balancing, and other more complex structures following the traditional of CLAWAR themes. In addition, the proceedings also cover the subject of robot-human interaction, which focus on a more "human" way of communicating with humanoid robots. As for human assistive devices, proceedings also cover exoskeletal and prosthetic devices, robots for personal and nursing cares to address the issues of ageing population in our society. Finally, the issue of the deployment of robots in society, it social and ethically consideration are also addressed in the proceedings.

This book addresses the major challenges in realizing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in IoT-based Smart Cities. The challenges tackled vary from cost and energy efficiency to availability and service quality. The aim of this book is to focus on both the design and implementation aspects of the UAV-based approaches in IoT-enabled smart cities' applications that are enabled and supported by wireless sensor networks, 5G, and beyond. The contributors mainly focus on data delivery approaches and their performability aspects. This book is meant for readers of varying disciplines who are interested in implementing the smart planet/environments vision via wireless/wired enabling technologies. Involves the most up to date unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) assessment and evaluation approaches Includes innovative operational ideas in agriculture, surveillance, rescue, etc. Pertains researchers, scientists, engineers and practitioners in the field of smart cities, IoT, and communications Fadi Al-Turjman received his Ph.D. from Queen's University, Canada. He is a full professor and a research center director at Near East University, Nicosia. He is a leading authority in the area of IoT and intelligent systems. His publication history spans over 250 publications in addition to his editorialship in top journals such as the IEEE Communication Surveys and Tutorials, and the Elsevier Sustaibable Cities and Society.

This volume gathers together cutting-edge research from the Third Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics and gives a solid overview of the state of the art in robot algorithms. The papers cover core problems in robotics, such as motion planning, sensor-based planning, manipulation, and assembly planning. They also examine the application of robotic algorithms in domains like molecular modeling, geometric modeling, and computer-assisted surgery.