This book is a delight for academics, researchers and professionals working in evolutionary and swarm computing, computational intelligence, machine learning and engineering design, as well as search and optimization in general. It provides an introduction to the design and development of a number of popular and recent swarm and evolutionary algorithms with a focus on their applications in engineering problems in diverse domains. The topics discussed include particle swarm optimization, the artificial bee colony algorithm, Spider Monkey optimization algorithm, genetic algorithms, constrained multi-objective evolutionary algorithms, genetic programming, and evolutionary fuzzy systems. A friendly and informative treatment of the topics makes this book an ideal reference for beginners and those with experience alike.

This book presents the latest research on mechatronic systems engineering. By bringing together the most important papers from the 2018 Mechatronics Forum Conference 'Reinventing Mechatronics,' it outlines key trends in research and applications that will define mechatronics for the next 50 years. Mechatronics was established as an engineering discipline over 50 years ago, as the integration of electronics and information technology with mechanical design. Given major technological advances and the growth of systems-level concepts such as Cyber-Physical Systems and the Internet of Things, along with Cloud Technologies and Big Data, it's now high time to reconsider the role of mechatronics, particularly within engineering design. Past and ongoing technological changes are impacting how systems are designed and configured in ways that could never have been envisaged when the field of mechatronics was first introduced.

This book presents extensive research on two main problems in robotics: the path planning problem and the multi-robot task allocation problem. It is the first book to provide a comprehensive solution for using these techniques in large-scale environments containing randomly scattered obstacles. The research conducted resulted in tangible results both in theory and in practice. For path planning, new algorithms for large-scale problems are devised and implemented and integrated into the Robot Operating System (ROS). The book also discusses the parallelism advantage of cloud computing techniques to solve the path planning problem, and, for multi-robot task allocation, it addresses the task assignment problem and the multiple traveling salesman problem for mobile robots applications. In addition, four new algorithms have been devised to investigate the cooperation issues with extensive simulations and comparative performance evaluation. The algorithms are implemented and simulated in MATLAB and Webots.

Incorporating intelligence in industrial systems can help to increase productivity, cut-off production costs, and to improve working conditions and safety in industrial environments. This need has resulted in the rapid development of modeling and control methods for industrial systems and robots, of fault detection and isolation methods for the prevention of critical situations in industrial work-cells and production plants, of optimization methods aiming at a more profitable functioning of industrial installations and robotic devices and of machine intelligence methods aiming at reducing human intervention in industrial systems operation. To this end, the book analyzes and extends some main directions of research in modeling and control for industrial systems. These are: (i) industrial robots, (ii) mobile robots and autonomous vehicles, (iii) adaptive and robust control of electromechanical systems, (iv) filtering and stochastic estimation for multisensor fusion and sensorless control of industrial systems (iv) fault detection and isolation in robotic and industrial systems, (v) optimization in industrial automation and robotic systems design, and (vi) machine intelligence for robots autonomy. The book will be a useful companion to engineers and researchers since it covers a wide spectrum of problems in the area of industrial systems. Moreover, the book is addressed to undergraduate and post-graduate students, as an upper-level course supplement of automatic control and robotics courses.

Furthering the aim of reducing human exposure to hazardous environments, this monograph presents a detailed study of the modeling and control of vehicle-manipulator systems. The text shows how complex interactions can be performed at remote locations using systems that combine the manipulability of robotic manipulators with the ability of mobile robots to locomote over large areas. The first part studies the kinematics and dynamics of rigid bodies and standard robotic manipulators and can be used as an introduction to robotics focussing on robust mathematical modeling. The monograph then moves on to study vehicle-manipulator systems in great detail with emphasis on combining two different configuration spaces in a mathematically sound way. Robustness of these systems is extremely important and Modeling and Control of Vehicle-manipulator Systems effectively represents the dynamic equations using a mathematically robust framework. Several tools from Lie theory and differential geometry are used to obtain globally valid representations of the dynamic equations of vehicle-manipulator systems. The specific characteristics of several different types of vehicle-manipulator systems are included and the various application areas of these systems are discussed in detail. For underwater robots buoyancy and gravity, drag forces, added mass properties, and ocean currents are considered. For space robotics the effects of free fall environments and the strong dynamic coupling between the spacecraft and the manipulator are discussed. For wheeled robots wheel kinematics and non-holonomic motion is treated, and finally the inertial forces are included for robots mounted on a forced moving base. Modeling and Control of Vehicle-manipulator Systems will be of interest to researchers and engineers studying and working on many applications of robotics: underwater, space, personal assistance, and mobile manipulation in general, all of which have similarities in the equations required for modeling and control.

In this book, a generic model in as far as possible mathematical closed-formis developed that predicts the behavior of large self-organizing robot groups (robot swarms) based on their control algorithm. In addition, an extensive subsumption of the relatively young and distinctive interdisciplinary research field of swarm robotics is emphasized. The connection to many related fields is highlighted and the concepts and methods borrowed from these fields are described shortly.

The present book includes a set of selected extended papers from the 11th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO 2014), held in Vienna, Austria, from 1 to 3 September 2014. The conference brought together researchers, engineers and practitioners interested in the application of informatics to Control, Automation and Robotics. Four simultaneous tracks will be held, covering Intelligent Control Systems, Optimization, Robotics, Automation, Signal Processing, Sensors, Systems Modelling and Control, and Industrial Engineering, Production and Management. Informatics applications are pervasive in many areas of Control, Automation and Robotics. ICINCO 2014 received 301 submissions, from 49 countries, in all continents. After a double blind paper review performed by the Program Committee, 20% were accepted as full papers and thus selected for oral presentation. Additional papers were accepted as short papers and posters. A further selection was made after the Conference, based also on the assessment of presentation quality and audience interest, so that this book includes the extended and revised versions of the very best papers of ICINCO 2014. Commitment to high quality standards is a major concern of ICINCO that will be maintained in the next editions, considering not only the stringent paper acceptance ratios but also the quality of the program committee, keynote lectures, participation level and logistics.

This book is devoted to the state-of-the-art in all aspects of fireworks algorithm (FWA), with particular emphasis on the efficient improved versions of FWA. It describes the most substantial theoretical analysis including basic principle and implementation of FWA and modeling and theoretical analysis of FWA. It covers exhaustively the key recent significant research into the improvements of FWA so far. In addition, the book describes a few advanced topics in the research of FWA, including multi-objective optimization (MOO), discrete FWA (DFWA) for combinatorial optimization, and GPU-based FWA for parallel implementation. In sequels, several successful applications of FWA on non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), text clustering, pattern recognition, and seismic inversion problem, and swarm robotics, are illustrated in details, which might shed new light on more real-world applications in future. Addressing a multidisciplinary topic, it will appeal to researchers and professionals in the areas of metahuristics, swarm intelligence, evolutionary computation, complex optimization solving, etc.

Many computer scientists, engineers, applied mathematicians, and physicists use geometry theory and geometric computing methods in the design of perception-action systems, intelligent autonomous systems, and man-machine interfaces. This handbook brings together the most recent advances in the application of geometric computing for building such systems, with contributions from leading experts in the important fields of neuroscience, neural networks, image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision, uncertainty in geometric computations, conformal computational geometry, computer graphics and visualization, medical imagery, geometry and robotics, and reaching and motion planning. For the first time, the various methods are presented in a comprehensive, unified manner.

This handbook is highly recommended for postgraduate students and researchers working on applications such as automated learning; geometric and fuzzy reasoning; human-like artificial vision; tele-operation; space maneuvering; haptics; rescue robots; man-machine interfaces; tele-immersion; computer- and robotics-aided neurosurgery or orthopedics; the assembly and design of humanoids; and systems for metalevel reasoning.

1 Grundlagen der Dynamik regelungstechnischer Systeme.- 1.1 Allgemeine Zielsetzung der Regelungstechnik.- 1.2 Regelkreis.- 1.3 Voraussetzungen fur Blockorientierung und Regelkreisbildung.- 1.4 Aufgaben der Regelungstechnik.- 1.5 UEbertragungsfunktion und Regelungssystemtheorie.- 1.6 Anfangsbedingungen und Nullstellen der UEbertragungsfunktion.- 1.7 Ausgangssignal Xa(s) bei x a(k)(0?)=0.- 1.8 Nichtverschwindende Vorgeschichte xa(k)(0?)?0.- 1.9 Analyse im Spektralbereich. Verknupfung mehrerer Elemente.- 1.10 Regelstrecke und Stoergroessen.- 1.11 Einschleifiger Standardregelkreis.- 1.12 Sensitivitat.- 1.13 Differentielle Sensitivitat fur den Standardregelkreis.- 1.14 Linearisierung.- 1.15 Regelkreis im Signalflussdiagramm.- 1.16 Spezielle Elemente regelungstechnischer Systeme.- 1.16.1 Rationale UEbertragungselemente.- 1.16.2 Totzeit-Elemente.- 1.16.3 Allpass-Elemente.- 1.16.4 Laufzeitelemente.- 2 Regelkreisanalyse im Zeitbereich.- 2.1 Regelkreis-Reaktion auf einfache Signale.- 2.2 Mehrfache Polstellen von Xa(s).- 2.3 Naherung fur kleine Zeitwerte.- 2.4 Naherung fur grosse Zeitwerte.- 2.5 Faltungsintegral und Naherung durch Faltungssumme.- 2.6 Regelungen mit Totzeitelementen.- 3 Formulierung kontinuierlicher Regelungssysteme im Zustandsraum.- 3.1 Grundlagen.- 3.2 Transitionsmatrix (Fundamentalmatrix).- 3.3 Potenzreihenentwicklung der Transitionsmatrix.- 3.4 Zustandsregler. Fuhrungs- und Stoerungsverhalten.- 3.5 Vorfilterbemessung.- 4 Analyseverfahren im Frequenzbereich.- 4.1 Frequenzgang.- 4.2 Ortskurven des Frequenzgangs.- 4.3 Ortskurven von typischen stabilen Regelkreis-Element en.- 4.4 Ortskurven instabiler Regelkreiselemente.- 4.5 Frequenzgangsortskurve des Regelkreises.- 4.6 Ermittlung von Zeitbereichssignalen aus dem Frequenzbereich.- 4.7 Ermittlung des Frequenzganges aus der gemessenen Systemantwort.- 4.8 Bode-Diagramm.- 4.9 Phasenminimum-Beziehungen.- 4.10 Knickstellen der Regelschleife und des Regelkreises.- 4.11 H?-Norm einer UEbertragungsfunktion.- 5 Regelstrecken im Regelkreis.- 5.1 Antriebe. Allgemeines.- 5.2 Stromrichtergespeiste Gleichstromantriebe.- 5.3 Stromleitverfahren.- 5.4 Begrenzungsregelung.- 5.5 Kupplungselastizitat.- 5.6 Umrichtergespeiste Asynchronmaschine.- 5.7 Thermische Regelstrecken.- 5.7.1 Durchlauferhitzer, Warmetauscher.- 5.7.2 Kessel und Turbine.- 5.8 Hydraulische Regelstrecken.- 5.9 Pneumatische Regelstrecke.- 5.10 Mechanische Positionsregelstrecken.- 5.10.1 Einfache Fahrzeuglenkung.- 5.10.2 Balancierung.- 5.10.3 Passagierflugzeug.- 5.10.4 Raketenantrieb.- 5.11 Verfahrenstechnische Regelstrecken.- 5.12 Elektronische und nachrichtentechnische Regelstrecken.- 5.12.1 Verstarkungsausgleich.- 5.12.2 Scharfabstimmung.- 5.12.3 Zeilensynchronisierung.- 5.12.4 Rauschunterdruckung.- 5.13 Phase-Locked Loops (PLL).- 5.13.1 Phase-Locked Loop in analoger Ersatzrechnung.- 5.13.2 Regelungen an einem CD-Player.- 5.14 Schaltzeichen (Sinnbilder) fur technische Regelstrecken.- 5.15 Volkswirtschaftliche Regelungen.- 5.16 Physiologische und psychische Regelkreise.- 5.17 Soziologische Regelungen.- 6 Stellglieder und Verstarker.- 6.1 Stromrichterstellglieder.- 6.2 Umrichter fur Drehfeldmaschinen.- 6.3 Stellmotoren fur mechanische Positionierung.- 6.4 Stellglieder fur Flussigkeits-, Gasstroeme u. koernige Stoffe.- 6.5 Schaltzeichen fur Stellglieder und Verstarker.- 7 Regelungstechnischer Einsatz von Sensoren und Messumformern.- 7.1 Anforderungen.- 7.2 Messrauschen.- 7.3 Leistung eines Rauschsignales.- 8 Identifikationsverfahren.- 8.1 Auswertung der Sprungantwort von PDT1-Elementen.- 8.2 Auswertung der Sprungantwort von PT2-Elementen.- 8.3 Wendetangentenmethode bei PT2-Elementen.- 8.4 Auswertung der Sprungantwort von IT1-Elementen.- 8.5 Momentenmethode an der Gewichtsfunktion.- 8.6 Identifikation mit Hilfsregler.- 8.7 Identifikation mit fiktivem Serienelement.- 8.8 Regressionsanalyse. Quadratische Ausgleichsrechnung.- 9 Regler. Ausfuhrung und Dimensionierung.- 9.1 Operationsverstarker.- 9.2 Elektr

Optimization is an integral part to science and engineering. Most real-world applications involve complex optimization processes, which are di?cult to solve without advanced computational tools. With the increasing challenges of ful?lling optimization goals of current applications there is a strong drive to advancethe developmentofe?cientoptimizers. The challengesintroduced by emerging problems include: * objective functions which are prohibitively expensive to evaluate, so ty- callysoonlyasmallnumber ofobjectivefunctionevaluationscanbemade during the entire search, * objective functions which are highly multimodal or discontinuous, and * non-stationary problems which may change in time (dynamic). Classical optimizers may perform poorly or even may fail to produce any improvement over the starting vector in the face of such challenges. This has motivated researchers to explore the use computational intelligence (CI) to augment classical methods in tackling such challenging problems. Such methods include population-based search methods such as: a) evolutionary algorithms and particle swarm optimization and b) non-linear mapping and knowledgeembedding approachessuchasarti?cialneuralnetworksandfuzzy logic, to name a few. Such approaches have been shown to perform well in challenging settings. Speci?cally, CI are powerful tools which o?er several potential bene?ts such as: a) robustness (impose little or no requirements on the objective function) b) versatility (handle highly non-linear mappings) c) self-adaptionto improveperformance and d) operationin parallel(making it easy to decompose complex tasks). However, the successful application of CI methods to real-world problems is not straightforward and requires both expert knowledge and trial-and-error experiments.

This monograph is devoted to the theory and development of autonomous navigation of mobile robots using computer vision based sensing mechanism. The conventional robot navigation systems, utilizing traditional sensors like ultrasonic, IR, GPS, laser sensors etc., suffer several drawbacks related to either the physical limitations of the sensor or incur high cost. Vision sensing has emerged as a popular alternative where cameras can be used to reduce the overall cost, maintaining high degree of intelligence, flexibility and robustness.

This book includes a detailed description of several new approaches for real life vision based autonomous navigation algorithms and SLAM. It presents the concept of how subgoal based goal-driven navigation can be carried out using vision sensing. The development concept of vision based robots for path/line tracking using fuzzy logic is presented, as well as how a low-cost robot can be indigenously developed in the laboratory with microcontroller based sensor systems. The book describes successful implementation of integration of low-cost, external peripherals, with off-the-shelf procured robots. An important highlight of the book is that it presents a detailed, step-by-step sample demonstration of how vision-based navigation modules can be actually implemented in real life, under 32-bit Windows environment. The book also discusses the concept of implementing vision based SLAM employing a two camera based system.

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This book discusses the principles, methodologies, and challenges of robotic musicianship through an in-depth review of the work conducted at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology (GTCMT), where the concept was first developed. Robotic musicianship is a relatively new research field that focuses on the design and development of intelligent music-making machines. The motivation behind the field is to develop robots that not only generate music, but also collaborate with humans by listening and responding in an expressive and creative manner. This combination of human and machine creativity has the potential to surprise and inspire us to play, listen, compose, and think about music in new ways. The book provides an in-depth view of the robotic platforms designed at the GTCMT Robotic Musicianship Group, including the improvisational robotic percussionists Haile and Shimon, the personal robotic companion Shimi, and a number of wearable robots, such as the Robotic Drumming Prosthesis, The Third Drumming Arm, and the Skywalker Piano Hand. The book discusses numerous research studies based on these platforms in the context of five main principles: Listen like a Human, Play Like a Machine, Be Social, Watch and Learn, and Wear It.

Mechanics and Control of Soft-fingered Manipulation introduces a new approach to the modeling of fingertips that have a soft pad and a hard back plate, similar to human fingers. Starting from the observation of soft-fingered grasping and manipulation, the book provides a parallel distributed model that takes into account tangential deformation of the fingertips. The model is supported with many experimental verifications and simulation results. Statics and dynamics in soft-fingered grasping and manipulation are also formulated based on this new model. The book uniquely investigates how soft fingertips with hard back plates enhance dexterity in grasping and manipulation, theoretically and experimentally, revealing the differences between soft-fingered and rigid-fingered manipulation. Researchers involved in object manipulation by robotic hands, as well as in human dexterity in object manipulation, will find this text enlightening.

This volume gathers the latest fundamental research contributions, innovations, and applications in the field of design and analysis of complex robotic mechanical systems, machines, and mechanisms, as presented by leading international researchers at the 1st USCToMM Symposium on Mechanical Systems and Robotics (USCToMM MSR 2020), held in Rapid City, South Dakota, USA on May 14-16, 2020. It covers highly diverse topics, including soft, wearable and origami robotic systems; applications to walking, flying, climbing, underground, swimming and space systems; human rehabilitation and performance augmentation; design and analysis of mechanisms and machines; human-robot collaborative systems; service robotics; mechanical systems and robotics education; and the commercialization of mechanical systems and robotics. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting and impactful research results that will inspire novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary research collaborations among researchers from around the globe.

Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) now provide mature optimization tools that have successfully been applied to many problems, from designing antennas to complete robots, and provided many human-competitive results. In robotics, the integration of EAs within the engineer's toolbox made tremendous progress in the last 20 years and proposes new methods to address challenging problems in various setups: modular robotics, swarm robotics, robotics with non-conventional mechanics (e.g. high redundancy, dynamic motion, multi-modality), etc. This book takes its roots in the workshop on "New Horizons in Evolutionary Design of Robots" that brought together researchers from Computer Science and Robotics during the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS-2009) in Saint Louis (USA). This book features extended contributions from the workshop, thus providing various examples of current problems and applications, with a special emphasis on the link between Computer Science and Robotics. It also provides a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to Evolutionary Robotics after 20 years of maturation as well as thoughts and considerations from several major actors in the field. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the current trends and challenges in Evolutionary Robotics for the next decade.

This is the sixth volume of a sub series on Road Vehicle Automation published within the Lecture Notes in Mobility. The contents have been provided by researchers, engineers and analysts from all around the world. Topics covered include public sector activities, human factors and challenges, ethical, legal, energy and technology perspectives, vehicle systems development, as well as transportation infrastructure and planning. The book is based on the Automated Vehicles Symposium held on July 9-12, 2018 in San Francisco, CA (USA).

Grasping in Robotics contains original contributions in the field of grasping in robotics with a broad multidisciplinary approach. This gives the possibility of addressing all the major issues related to robotized grasping, including milestones in grasping through the centuries, mechanical design issues, control issues, modelling achievements and issues, formulations and software for simulation purposes, sensors and vision integration, applications in industrial field and non-conventional applications (including service robotics and agriculture). The contributors to this book are experts in their own diverse and wide ranging fields. This multidisciplinary approach can help make Grasping in Robotics of interest to a very wide audience. In particular, it can be a useful reference book for researchers, students and users in the wide field of grasping in robotics from many different disciplines including mechanical design, hardware design, control design, user interfaces, modelling, simulation, sensors and humanoid robotics. It could even be adopted as a reference textbook in specific PhD courses.

Recently, there has been considerable research interest in neural network control of robots, and satisfactory results have been obtained in solving some of the special issues associated with the problems of robot control in an "on-and-off" fashion. This book is dedicated to issues on adaptive control of robots based on neural networks. The text has been carefully tailored to (i) give a comprehensive study of robot dynamics, (ii) present structured network models for robots, and (iii) provide systematic approaches for neural network based adaptive controller design for rigid robots, flexible joint robots, and robots in constraint motion. Rigorous proof of the stability properties of adaptive neural network controllers is provided. Simulation examples are also presented to verify the effectiveness of the controllers, and practical implementation issues associated with the controllers are also discussed.

This book presents a selection of conference contributions from CARO'13 (Conference on Aerospace Robotics), which was held in Warsaw from July 1 to 3, 2013. It presents the most important and crucial problems of space automation in context of future exploration programs. These programs could involve such issues as space situational awareness program, planetary protection, exploitation of minerals, assembly, manufacturing, and search for new habitable location for next human generations. The future exploration of Space and related activities will involve robots. In particular, new autonomous robots need to be developed with high degree of intelligence. Such robots would make space exploration possible but also they would make space automation an important factor in variety of activities related to Space.

Robotic Sailing 2017. This book contains the peer-reviewed papers presented at the 10th International Robotic Sailing Conference which was organized in conjunction with the 10th World Robotic Sailing Championship held in Horten, Norway the 4th-9th of September 2017. The seven papers cover topics of interest for autonomous robotic sailing which represents some of the most challenging research and development areas. The book is divided into two parts. The first part contains papers which focus on the design of sails and software for the assessment and predication of sailboat performance as well as software platforms and middleware for sailboat competition and research. The second part includes algorithms and strategies for navigation and collision avoidance on local, mid- and long range. The differences in approach in the included papers show that robotic sailing is still an emerging cross-disciplinary science. The multitude of suggestions to the specific problems of prediction and simulation of sailboats as well as the challenges of route planning, anti-grounding and collision avoidance are good indicators of science in its infancy. Hence, we may expect the future to hold great advances for robotic sailing.