The book 'BiLBIQ: A biologically inspired Robot with walking and rolling locomotion' deals with implementing a locomotion behavior observed in the biological archetype Cebrennus villosus to a robot prototype whose structural design needs to be developed. The biological sample is investigated as far as possible and compared to other evolutional solutions within the framework of nature's inventions. Current achievements in robotics are examined and evaluated for their relation and relevance to the robot prototype in question. An overview of what is state of the art in actuation ensures the choice of the hardware available and most suitable for this project. Through a constant consideration of the achievement of two fundamentally different ways of locomotion with one and the same structure, a robot design is developed and constructed taking hardware constraints into account. The development of a special leg structure that needs to resemble and replace body elements of the biological archetype is a special challenge to be dealt with. Finally a robot prototype was achieved, which is able to walk and roll - inspired by the spider Cebrennus villosus.

This book is an introduction to the mathematical theory of design for articulated mechanical systems known as linkages. The focus is on sizing mechanical constraints that guide the movement of a work piece, or end-effector, of the system. The function of the device is prescribed as a set of positions to be reachable by the end-effector; and the mechanical constraints are formed by joints that limit relative movement. The goal is to find all the devices that can achieve a specific task. Formulated in this way the design problem is purely geometric in character. Robot manipulators, walking machines, and mechanical hands are examples of articulated mechanical systems that rely on simple mechanical constraints to provide a complex workspace for the end- effector. The principles presented in this book form the foundation for a design theory for these devices. The emphasis, however, is on articulated systems with fewer degrees of freedom than that of the typical robotic system, and therefore, less complexity. This book will be useful to mathematics, engineering and computer science departments teaching courses on mathematical modeling of robotics and other articulated mechanical systems.

This new edition includes research results of the past decade on the synthesis of multi loop planar and spherical linkages, and the use of homotopy methods and Clifford algebras in the synthesis of spatial serial chains. One new chapter on the synthesis of spatial serial chains introduces numerical homotopy and the linear product decomposition of polynomial systems. The second new chapter introduces the Clifford algebra formulation of the kinematics equations of serial chain robots. Examples are use throughout to demonstrate the theory."

This proceedings presents the papers of the 3rd EAI International Conference on Robotic Sensor Networks (ROSENET 2019). The conference explores the integration of networks and robotic technologies, which has become a topic of increasing interest for both researchers and developers from academic fields and industries worldwide. The authors posit that big networks will be the main approach to the next generation of robotic research, The book discusses how the explosive number of network models and increasing computational power of computers significantly extends the number of potential applications for robotic technologies while also bringing new challenges to each network's community. The conference provided a platform for researchers to share up-to-date scientific achievements in this field. The conference took place August 17, 2019, Kitakyushu, Japan. Presents the proceedings of the 3rd EAI International Conference on Robotic Sensor Networks (ROSENET 2019), August 17, 2019, Kitakyushu, Japan Features papers on robotic technologies for healthcare, medicine, military and more Includes perspectives from a multi-disciplinary selection of global researchers, academics, and professionals

Algorithms are a fundamental component of robotic systems. Robot algorithms process inputs from sensors that provide noisy and partial data, build geometric and physical models of the world, plan high-and low-level actions at different time horizons, and execute these actions on actuators with limited precision. The design and analysis of robot algorithms raise a unique combination of questions from many elds, including control theory, computational geometry and topology, geometrical and physical modeling, reasoning under uncertainty, probabilistic algorithms, game theory, and theoretical computer science. The Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR) is a single-track meeting of leading researchers in the eld of robot algorithms. Since its inception in 1994, WAFR has been held every other year, and has provided one of the premiere venues for the publication of some of the eld's most important and lasting contributions. This books contains the proceedings of the tenth WAFR, held on June 13{15 2012 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The 37 papers included in this book cover a broad range of topics, from fundamental theoretical issues in robot motion planning, control, and perception, to novel applications.

This book is devoted to Slime mould Physarum polycephalum, which is a large single cell capable for distributed sensing, concurrent information processing, parallel computation and decentralized actuation. The ease of culturing and experimenting with Physarum makes this slime mould an ideal substrate for real-world implementations of unconventional sensing and computing devices The book is a treatise of theoretical and experimental laboratory studies on sensing and computing properties of slime mould, and on the development of mathematical and logical theories of Physarum behavior. It is shown how to make logical gates and circuits, electronic devices (memristors, diodes, transistors, wires, chemical and tactile sensors) with the slime mould. The book demonstrates how to modify properties of Physarum computing circuits with functional nano-particles and polymers, to interface the slime mould with field-programmable arrays, and to use Physarum as a controller of microbial fuel cells. A unique multi-agent model of slime is shown to serve well as a software slime mould capable for solving problems of computational geometry and graph optimization. The multiagent model is complemented by cellular automata models with parallel accelerations. Presented mathematical models inspired by Physarum include non-quantum implementation of Shor's factorization, structural learning, computation of shortest path tree on dynamic graphs, supply chain network design, p-adic computing and syllogistic reasoning. The book is a unique composition of vibrant and lavishly illustrated essays which will inspire scientists, engineers and artists to exploit natural phenomena in designs of future and emergent computing and sensing devices. It is a 'bible' of experimental computing with spatially extended living substrates, it spanstopics from biology of slime mould, to bio-sensing, to unconventional computing devices and robotics, non-classical logics and music and arts.

An autonomous sailboat robot is a boat that only uses the wind on its sail as propelling force, without remote control or human assistance to achieve its mission. This involves autonomy in energy (using batteries, solar panels, turbines...), sensor data processing (compass, GPS, wind sensor...), actuators control (rudder and sail angle control...) and decision making (embedded computer with adequate algorithms). Although robotic sailing is a relatively new field of research, several applications exist for this type of robots: oceanographic and hydrographic research, maritime environment monitoring, meteorology, harbor safety, assistance and rescue in dangerous areas...
Over the last decade, several events such as the Microtransat challenge, the WRSC/IRSC and SailBot have been set up to stimulate research and development around robotic sailing. These proceedings cover the current and future academic and technology challenges raised by the development of autonomous sailboat robots presented at the WRSC/IRSC (World Robotic Sailing Championship/International Robotic Sailing Conference) 2013, in Brest, France, 2-6 September 2013.

The book written by Dr. Radu B. Rusu presents a detailed description of 3D Semantic Mapping in the context of mobile robot manipulation. As autonomous robotic platforms get more sophisticated manipulation capabilities, they also need more expressive and comprehensive environment models that include the objects present in the world, together with their position, form, and other semantic aspects, as well as interpretations of these objects with respect to the robot tasks.

The book proposes novel 3D feature representations called Point Feature Histograms (PFH), as well as a frameworks for the acquisition and processing of Semantic 3D Object Maps with contributions to robust registration, fast segmentation into regions, and reliable object detection, categorization, and reconstruction. These contributions have been fully implemented and empirically evaluated on different robotic systems, and have been the original kernel to the widely successful open-source project the Point Cloud Library (PCL) -- see http: //pointclouds.org.

In his rich and varied career as a mathematician, computer scientist, and educator, Jacob T. Schwartz wrote seminal works in analysis, mathematical economics, programming languages, algorithmics, and computational geometry. In this volume of essays, his friends, students, and collaborators at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences present recent results in some of the fields that Schwartz explored: quantum theory, the theory and practice of programming, program correctness and decision procedures, dextrous manipulation in Robotics, motion planning, and genomics. In addition to presenting recent results in these fields, these essays illuminate the astonishingly productive trajectory of a brilliant and original scientist and thinker.

In recent years, automation has played a vital role in library systems that handle tasks of acquisition, cataloging, serials, and circulation. The automation of these operations has, in turn, minimised the demand for human interaction. Robots in Academic Libraries: Advancements in Library Automation provides an overview on the current state of library automation, addresses the need for changing personnel to accommodate these changes, and assesses the future for academic libraries as a whole. This book is essential for library leaders, technology experts, and library vendors interested in the future of library automation and its impact on the decline of human interaction in libraries.

In a world suffering from an ageing population and declining birth rate, service robotics and mechatronics have an increasingly vital role to play in maintaining a safe and sustainable environment for everyone. Mechatronics can be used in the reconstruction or restoration of various environments which we rely upon to survive; for example the reconstruction of a city after an earthquake, or the restoration of polluted waters

This collection of papers was originally presented at the 7th International Conference on Machine Automation, 2008, in Awaji, Japan, and covers a variety of new trends in service robotics and mechatronics.

Service Robotics and Mechatronics showcases the latest research in the area to provide researchers and scientists with an up-to-date source of knowledge and basis for further study, as well as offering graduate students valuable reference material.

By the dawn of the new millennium, robotics has undergone a major transformation in scope and dimensions. This expansion has been brought about by the maturity of the field and the advances in its related technologies. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the challenges of the human world. The new generation of robots is expected to safely and dependably co-habitat with humans in homes, workplaces, and communities, providing support in services, entertainment, education, healthcare, manufacturing, and assistance. Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has produced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across diverse research areas and scientific disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neuros- ences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are proving an abundant source of stimulation and insights for the field of robotics. It is indeed at the intersection of disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The goal of the series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) 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 developments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this rapidly growing field.

After two succesful conferences held in Innsbruck (Prof. Manfred Husty) in 2006 and Cassino in 2008 (Prof Marco Ceccarelli) with the participation of the most important well-known scientists from the European Mechanism Science Community, a further conference was held in Cluj Napoca, Romania, in 2010 (Prof. Doina Pisla) to discuss new developments in the field.

This book presents the most recent research advances in Mechanism Science with different applications. Amongst the topics treated are papers on Theoretical kinematics, Computational kinematics, Mechanism design, Mechanical transmissions, Linkages and manipulators, Mechanisms for biomechanics, Micro-mechanisms, Experimental mechanics, Mechanics of robots, Dynamics of multi-body systems, Dynamics of machinery, Control issues of mechanical systems, Novel designs, History of mechanism science etc.

In this book, the capability map, a novel general representation of the kinematic capabilities of a robot arm, is introduced. The capability map allows to determine how well regions of the workspace are reachable for the end effector in different orientations. It is a representation that can be machine processed as well as intuitively visualized for the human. The capability map and the derived algorithms are a valuable source of information for high- and low-level planning processes. The versatile applicability of the capability map is shown by examples from several distinct application domains. In human-robot interaction, a bi-manual interface for tele-operation is objectively evaluated. In low-level geometric planning, more human-like motion is planned for a humanoid robot while also reducing the computation time. And in high-level task reasoning, the suitability of a robot for a task is evaluated.

Introducing mobile humanoid robots into human environments requires the systems to physically interact and execute multiple concurrent tasks. The monograph at hand presents a whole-body torque controller for dexterous and safe robotic manipulation. This control approach enables a mobile humanoid robot to simultaneously meet several control objectives with different pre-defined levels of priority, while providing the skills for compliant physical contacts with humans and the environment. After a general introduction into the topic of whole-body control, several essential reactive tasks are developed to extend the repertoire of robotic control objectives. Additionally, the classical Cartesian impedance is extended to the case of mobile robots. All of these tasks are then combined and integrated into an overall, priority-based control law. Besides the experimental validation of the approach, the formal proof of asymptotic stability for this hierarchical controller is presented. By interconnecting the whole-body controller with an artificial intelligence, the immense potential of the integrated approach for complex real-world applications is shown. Several typical household chores, such as autonomously wiping a window or sweeping the floor with a broom, are successfully performed on the mobile humanoid robot Rollin' Justin of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The results suggest the presented controller for a large variety of fields of application such as service robotics, human-robot cooperation in industry, telepresence in medical applications, space robotics scenarios, and the operation of mobile robots in dangerous and hazardous environments.

This book provides an essential overview of the authors' work in the field of cable-suspended parallel robots, focusing on innovative design, mechanics, control, development and applications. It presents and analyzes several typical mechanical architectures of cable-suspended parallel robots in practical applications, including the feed cable-suspended structure for super antennae, hybrid-driven-based cable-suspended parallel robots, and cooperative cable parallel manipulators for multiple mobile cranes. It also addresses the fundamental mechanics of cable-suspended parallel robots on the basis of their typical applications, including the kinematics, dynamics and trajectory tracking control of the feed cable-suspended structure for super antennae. In addition it proposes a novel hybrid-driven-based cable-suspended parallel robot that uses integrated mechanism design methods to improve the performance of traditional cable-suspended parallel robots. A comparative study on error and performance indices of hybrid-driven based and traditional cable-suspended parallel robots rounds out the coverage. This book addresses the needs of researchers, engineers and post-graduates in the field of cable-suspended parallel robots and related areas.

This book gathers the latest advances, innovations and applications in the field of robotics and mechatronics, as presented by leading international researchers and engineers at the 6th IFToMM International Symposium on Robotics and Mechatronics (ISRM), held in Taipei, Taiwan, on October 28-30, 2019. It covers highly diverse topics, including mechanism synthesis, analysis, and design, kinematics and dynamics of multibody systems, modelling and simulation, sensors and actuators, novel robotic systems, industrial- and service-related robotics and mechatronics, medical robotics, and historical developments in robotics and mechatronics. The contributions, which were selected through a rigorous international peer-review process, share exciting ideas that spur novel research directions and foster new, multidisciplinary collaborations.

Incorporating papers from the 12th International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER), December 2010, this book examines the latest advances across the various fields of robotics. Offers insights on both theoretical concepts and experimental results.

The integrated and advanced science research topic man-machine-environment system engineering (MMESE) was first established in China by Professor Shengzhao Long in 1981, with direct support from one of the greatest modern Chinese scientists, Xuesen Qian. In a letter to Shengzhao Long from October 22nd, 1993, Xuesen Qian wrote: "You have created a very important modern science and technology in China!" MMESE primarily focuses on the relationship between man, machines and the environment, studying the optimum combination of man-machine-environment systems. In this system, "man" refers to people in the workplace (e.g. operators, decision-makers); " machine" is the general name for any object controlled by man (including tools, machinery, computers, systems and technologies), and "environment" describes the specific working conditions under which man and machine interact (e.g. temperature, noise, vibration, hazardous gases etc.). The three goals of optimization of man-machine-environment systems are to ensure safety, efficiency and economy. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Man-Machine-Environment System Engineering are an academic showcase of the best papers selected from more than 400 submissions, introducing readers to the top research topics and the latest developmental trends in the theory and application of MMESE. These proceedings are interdisciplinary studies on the concepts and methods of physiology, psychology, system engineering, computer science, environment science, management, education, and other related disciplines. Researchers and professionals working in these interdisciplinary fields and researchers on MMESE related topics will benefit from these proceedings.

Proceedings of the 2015 Chinese Intelligent Automation Conference presents selected research papers from the CIAC'15, held in Fuzhou, China. The topics include adaptive control, fuzzy control, neural network based control, knowledge based control, hybrid intelligent control, learning control, evolutionary mechanism based control, multi-sensor integration, failure diagnosis, reconfigurable control, etc. Engineers and researchers from academia, industry and the government can gain valuable insights into interdisciplinary solutions in the field of intelligent automation.

By the dawn of the new millennium, robotics has undergone a major transformation in scope and dimensions. This expansion has been brought about by the maturity of the field and the advances in its related technologies. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the challenges of the human world. The new generation of robots is expected to safely and dependably co-habitat with humans in homes, workplaces, and communities, providing support in services, entertainment, education, healthcare, manufacturing, and assistance. Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has produced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across diverse research areas and scientific disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neurosciences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are proving an abundant source of stimulation and insights for the field of robotics. It is indeed at the intersection of disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The goal of the series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) 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 developments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this rapidly growing field.

This important text/reference presents state-of-the-art research on intelligent vehicles, covering not only topics of object/obstacle detection and recognition, but also aspects of vehicle motion control. With an emphasis on both high-level concepts, and practical detail, the text links theory, algorithms, and issues of hardware and software implementation in intelligent vehicle research. Topics and features: presents a thorough introduction to the development and latest progress in intelligent vehicle research, and proposes a basic framework; provides detection and tracking algorithms for structured and unstructured roads, as well as on-road vehicle detection and tracking algorithms using boosted Gabor features; discusses an approach for multiple sensor-based multiple-object tracking, in addition to an integrated DGPS/IMU positioning approach; examines a vehicle navigation approach using global views; introduces algorithms for lateral and longitudinal vehicle motion control.

Although parallel robots are known to offer many advantages with respect to accuracy, dynamics, and stiffness, major breakthroughs in industrial applications have not yet taken place. This is due to a knowledge gap preventing fast and precise execution of industrial handling and assembly tasks. This book focuses on the design, modeling, and control of innovative parallel structures as well as the integration of novel machine elements. Special attention is paid to the integration of active components into lightweight links and passive joints. In addition, new control concepts are introduced to minimize structural vibrations. Although the optimization of robot systems itself allows a reduction of cycle times, these can be further decreased by improved path planning, robot programming, and automated assembly planning concepts described by 25 contributions within this book. The content of this volume is subdivided into four main parts dealing with Modeling and Design, System Implementation, Control and Programming as well as Adaptronics and Components. This book is aimed at researchers and postgraduates working in the field of parallel robots as well as practicing engineers dealing with industrial robot development and robotic applications.