The book reports on advanced topics in the areas of wearable robotics research and practice. It focuses on new technologies, including neural interfaces, soft wearable robots, sensors and actuators technologies, and discusses important regulatory challenges, as well as clinical and ethical issues. Based on the 2nd International Symposium on Wearable Robotics, WeRob2016, held October 18-21, 2016, in Segovia, Spain, the book addresses a large audience of academics and professionals working in government, industry, and medical centers, and end-users alike. It provides them with specialized information and with a source of inspiration for new ideas and collaborations. It discusses exemplary case studies highlighting practical challenges related to the implementation of wearable robots in a number of fields. One of the focus is on clinical applications, which was encouraged by the colocation of WeRob2016 with the International Conference on Neurorehabilitation, INCR2016. Additional topics include space applications and assistive technologies in the industry. The book merges together the engineering, medical, ethical and political perspectives, thus offering a multidisciplinary, timely snapshot of the field of wearable technologies.

This collection of twenty-three timely contributions covers a well-selected repertory of topics within the autonomous systems field. The book discusses a range of design, construction, control, and operation problems along with a multiplicity of well-established and novel solutions.

This is a cornerstone publication in robotic grasping. The authors have developed an internationally recognized expertise in this area. Additionally, they designed and built several prototypes which attracted the attention of the scientific community. The purpose of this book is to summarize years of research and to present, in an attractive format, the expertise developed by the authors on a new technology for grasping which has achieved great success both in theory and in practice.

This book summarizes the application of linear algebra-based controllers (LABC) for trajectory tracking for practitioners and students across a range of engineering disciplines. It clarifies the necessary steps to apply this straight-forward technique to a non-linear multivariable system, dealing with continuous or discrete time models, and outlines the steps to implement such controllers. In this book, the authors present an approach of the trajectory tracking problem in systems with dead time and in the presence of additive uncertainties and environmental disturbances. Examples of applications of LABC to systems in real operating conditions (mobile robots, marine vessels, quadrotor and pvtol aircraft, chemical reactors and First Order Plus Dead Time systems) illustrate the controller design in such a way that the reader attains an understanding of LABC.

- the book provides a short and accessible introduction to AI for learners - it examines seven different educational roles and settings, from AI as a peer to AI as a tutor and AI as textbook, among others - it considers both opportunities and risks: technological developments as well as ethical considerations

This book provides an introduction to Swarm Robotics, which is the application of methods from swarm intelligence to robotics. It goes on to present methods that allow readers to understand how to design large-scale robot systems by going through many example scenarios on topics such as aggregation, coordinated motion (flocking), task allocation, self-assembly, collective construction, and environmental monitoring. The author explains the methodology behind building multiple, simple robots and how the complexity emerges from the multiple interactions between these robots such that they are able to solve difficult tasks. The book can be used as a short textbook for specialized courses or as an introduction to Swarm Robotics for graduate students, researchers, and professionals who want a concise introduction to the field.

This book explores communication between humans and robots. Using a range of communication theories, it highlights how each theory provides a different perspective on the communication that occurs. The analysis of human interactions with a variety of forms of robot suggests new ways to perceive what communication, and being a communicator, entails.

The International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER) is a series of bi-annual meetings which are organized in a rotating fashion around North America, Europe and Asia/Oceania. The goal of ISER is to provide a forum for research in robotics that focuses on the novelty of theoretical contributions validated by experimental results. This unique reference presents the latest advances in robotics, with ideas that are conceived conceptually and have been explored experimentally.

This book presents the cutting edge developments within a broad field related to robotic sailing. The contributions were presented during the 8th International Robotic Sailing Conference, which has taken place as a part of the 2015 World Robotic Sailing Championships in Mariehamn, Aland (Finland), August 31st - September 4th 2015. Since more than a decade, a series of competitions such as the World Robotic Sailing Championship have stimulated a variety of groups to work on research and development around autonomous sailing robots, which involves boat designers, naval architects, electrical engineers and computer scientists. While many of the challenges in building a truly autonomous sailboat are still unsolved, the books presents the state of the art of research and development within platform optimization, route and stability planning, collision avoidance, power management and boat control.

The international conference on Automation and Robotics-ICAR2011 is held during December 12-13, 2011 in Dubai, UAE. The proceedings of ICAR2011 have been published by Springer Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, which include 163 excellent papers selected from more than 400 submitted papers.

The conference is intended to bring together the researchers and engineers/technologists working in different aspects of intelligent control systems and optimization, robotics and automation, signal processing, sensors, systems modeling and control, industrial engineering, production and management.

This part of proceedings includes 82 papers contributed by many researchers in relevant topic areas covered at ICAR2011 from various countries such as France, Japan, USA, Korea and China etc.

The session topic of this proceeding is signal processing and industrial engineering, production and management, which includes papers about signal reconstruction, mechanical sensors, real-time systems control system identification, change detection problems, business process modeling, production planning, scheduling and control, computer-based manufacturing technologies, systems modeling and simulation, facilities planning and management, quality control and management, precision engineering, intelligent design and manufacturing.

The papers in this proceedings focus on industry engineering to promote efficiency and affect for the world, which typically showed their advanced research work recently in their various field. I am sure that discussing with many colleagues will give much more creative idea for each other on ICAR2011.

All of papers with powerful evidence and detail demonstration involved the authors' numerous time and energy will be proved valuable by their unexhausted exploring sprit. Sincere thanks to the committee and all the authors, in additionally, including anonymous reviewers from many fields and organizations. They pointed out us direction to go on research work for the world.

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This book presents solutions to control problems in a number of robotic systems and provides a wealth of worked-out examples with full analytical and numerical details, graphically illustrated to aid in reader comprehension. It also presents relevant studies on and applications of robotic system control approaches, as well as the latest findings from interdisciplinary theoretical studies. Featuring chapters on advanced control (fuzzy, neural, backstepping, sliding mode, adaptive, predictive, diagnosis, and fault-tolerant control), the book will equip readers to easily tailor the techniques to their own applications. Accordingly, it offers a valuable resource for researchers, engineers, and students in the field of robotic systems.

Quantum machine learning investigates how quantum computers can be used for data-driven prediction and decision making. The books summarises and conceptualises ideas of this relatively young discipline for an audience of computer scientists and physicists from a graduate level upwards. It aims at providing a starting point for those new to the field, showcasing a toy example of a quantum machine learning algorithm and providing a detailed introduction of the two parent disciplines. For more advanced readers, the book discusses topics such as data encoding into quantum states, quantum algorithms and routines for inference and optimisation, as well as the construction and analysis of genuine ``quantum learning models''. A special focus lies on supervised learning, and applications for near-term quantum devices.

Classical optimization methodologies fall short in very large and complex domains. In this book is suggested a different approach to optimization, an approach which is based on the 'blind' and heuristic mechanisms of evolution and population genetics. The genetic approach to optimization introduces a new philosophy to optimization in general, but particularly to engineering. By introducing the 'genetic' approach to robot trajectory generation, much can be learned about the adaptive mechanisms of evolution and how these mechanisms can solve real world problems. It is suggested further that optimization at large may benefit greatly from the adaptive optimization exhibited by natural systems when attempting to solve complex optimization problems, and that the determinism of classical optimization models may sometimes be an obstacle in nonlinear systems.This book is unique in that it reports in detail on an application of genetic algorithms to a real world problem, and explains the considerations taken during the development work. Futhermore, it addresses robotics in two new aspects: the optimization of the trajectory specification which has so far been done by human operators and has not received much attention for both automation and optimization, and the introduction of a heuristic strategy to a field predominated by deterministic strategies.

This monograph is framed within the context of off-road mobile robotics. In particular, it discusses issues related to modelling, localization, and motion control of tracked mobile robots working in planar slippery conditions. Tracked locomotion constitutes a well-known solution for mobile platforms operating over diverse challenging terrains, for that reason, tracked robotics constitutes an important research field with many applications (e.g. agriculture, mining, search and rescue operations, military activities). The specific topics of this monograph are: historical perspective of tracked vehicles and tracked robots; trajectory-tracking model taking into account slip effect; visual-odometry-based localization strategies; and advanced slip-compensation motion controllers ensuring efficient real-time execution. Physical experiments with a real tracked robot are presented showing the better performance of the suggested novel approaches to known techniques.

Keywords: longitudinal slip, visual odometry, slip-compensation control, robust predictive control, trajectory tracking.

Related subjects: Robotics Mechanical Engineering Mechanics Computer Science Artificial Intelligence - Applications

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- the author is in the BIMA Hall of Fame and is Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at Ernst & Young - the book explains the current state of AI and how it is governed, as well as detailing five potential futures involving AI and providing a clear Roadmap to manage the future of AI - easy and fun to read

Signal Measurement and Estimation Techniques for Micro and Nanotechnology discusses micro, nano and robotic cells and gives a state-of-the-art presentation of the different techniques and solutions to measure and estimate signals at the micro and nano scale. New technologies and applications such as micromanipulation (artificial components, biological objects), micro-assembly (MEMS, MOEMS, NEMS) and material and surface force characterization are covered. The importance of sensing at the micro and nano scale is presented as a key issue in control systems, as well as for understanding the physical phenomena of these systems. The book also:
Explains issues that make signal measurement and estimation techniques difficult at the micro-nano-scale and offers solutions
Discusses automated micro-assembly, and control of micro-nano roboticdevices
Presents and links signal measurement and estimation techniques for micro-nano scale systems with microfabrication methods, sensors integration and control schemes
Signal Measurement and Estimation Techniques for Micro and Nanotechnology is a must-read for researchers and engineers working in MEMS and control systems."

This book focuses on solving different types of time-varying problems. It presents various Zhang dynamics (ZD) models by defining various Zhang functions (ZFs) in real and complex domains. It then provides theoretical analyses of such ZD models and illustrates their results. It also uses simulations to substantiate their efficacy and show the feasibility of the presented ZD approach (i.e., different ZFs leading to different ZD models), which is further applied to the repetitive motion planning (RMP) of redundant robots, showing its application potential.

The primary aim of this volume is to provide researchers and engineers from both academic and industry with up-to-date coverage of new results in the field of robotic welding, intelligent systems and automation. The book is mainly based on papers selected from the 2019 International Workshop on Intelligentized Welding Manufacturing (IWIWM'2019) in USA. The articles show that the intelligentized welding manufacturing (IWM) is becoming an inevitable trend with the intelligentized robotic welding as the key technology. The volume is divided into four logical parts: Intelligent Techniques for Robotic Welding, Sensing of Arc Welding Processing, Modeling and Intelligent Control of Welding Processing, as well as Intelligent Control and its Applications in Engineering.

Efficient Dynamic Simulation of Robotic Mechanisms presents computationally efficient algorithms for the dynamic simulation of closed-chain robotic systems. In particular, the simulation of single closed chains and simple closed-chain mechanisms is investigated in detail. Single closed chains are common in many applications, including industrial assembly operations, hazardous remediation, and space exploration. Simple closed-chain mechanisms include such familiar configurations as multiple manipulators moving a common load, dexterous hands, and multi-legged vehicles. The efficient dynamics simulation of these systems is often required for testing an advanced control scheme prior to its implementation, to aid a human operator during remote teleoperation, or to improve system performance. In conjunction with the dynamic simulation algorithms, efficient algorithms are also derived for the computation of the joint space and operational space inertia matrices of a manipulator. The manipulator inertia matrix is a significant component of any robot dynamics formulation and plays an important role in both simulation and control. The efficient computation of the inertia matrix is highly desirable for real-time implementation of robot dynamics algorithms. Several alternate formulations are provided for each inertia matrix. Computational efficiency in the algorithm is achieved by several means, including the development of recursive formulations and the use of efficient spatial transformations and mathematics. All algorithms are derived and presented in a convenient tabular format using a modified form of spatial notation, a six-dimensional vector notation which greatly simplifies the presentation and analysis of multibody dynamics. Basic definitions and fundamental principles required to use and understand this notation are provided. The implementation of the efficient spatial transformations is also discussed in some detail. As a means of evaluating efficiency, the number of scalar operations (multiplications and additions) required for each algorithm is tabulated after its derivation. Specification of the computational complexity of each algorithm in this manner makes comparison with other algorithms both easy and convenient. The algorithms presented in Efficient Dynamic Simulation of Robotic Mechanisms are among the most efficient robot dynamics algorithms available at this time. In addition to computational efficiency, special emphasis is also placed on retaining as much physical insight as possible during algorithm derivation. The algorithms are easy to follow and understand, whether the reader is a robotics novice or a seasoned specialist.

The book deals with intelligent control of mobile robots, presenting the state-of-the-art in the field, and introducing new control algorithms developed and tested by the authors. It also discusses the use of artificial intelligent methods like neural networks and neuraldynamic programming, including globalised dual-heuristic dynamic programming, for controlling wheeled robots and robotic manipulators,and compares them to classical control methods.

Recently, research in robot kinematics has attracted researchers with different theoretical profiles and backgrounds, such as mechanical and electrica! engineering, computer science, and mathematics. It includes topics and problems that are typical for this area and cannot easily be met elsewhere. As a result, a specialised scientific community has developed concentrating its interest in a broad class of problems in this area and representing a conglomeration of disciplines including mechanics, theory of systems, algebra, and others. Usually, kinematics is referred to as the branch of mechanics which treats motion of a body without regard to the forces and moments that cause it. In robotics, kinematics studies the motion of robots for programming, control and design purposes. It deals with the spatial positions, orientations, velocities and accelerations of the robotic mechanisms and objects to be manipulated in a robot workspace. The objective is to find the most effective mathematical forms for mapping between various types of coordinate systems, methods to minimise the numerical complexity of algorithms for real-time control schemes, and to discover and visualise analytical tools for understanding and evaluation of motion properties ofvarious mechanisms used in a robotic system.

Robot manipulation is a great challenge; it encompasses versatility -adaptation to different situations-, autonomy -independent robot operation-, and dependability -for success under modeling or sensing errors. A complete manipulation task involves, first, a suitable grasp or contact configuration, and the subsequent motion required by the task. This monograph presents a unified framework by introducing task-related aspects into the knowledge-based grasp concept, leading to task-oriented grasps. Similarly, grasp-related issues are also considered during the execution of a task, leading to grasp-oriented tasks which is called framework for physical interaction (FPI). The book presents the theoretical framework for the versatile specification of physical interaction tasks, as well as the problem of autonomous planning of these tasks. A further focus is on sensor-based dependable execution combining three different types of sensors: force, vision and tactile. The FPI approach allows to perform a wide range of robot manipulation tasks. All contributions are validated with several experiments using different real robots placed on household environments; for instance, a high-DoF humanoid robot can successfully operate unmodeled mechanisms with widely varying structure in a general way with natural motions. This research was recipient of the European Georges Giralt Award and the Robotdalen Scientific Award Honorary Mention.

This book is for researchers, engineers, and students who are willing to understand how humanoid robots move and be controlled. The book starts with an overview of the humanoid robotics research history and state of the art. Then it explains the required mathematics and physics such as kinematics of multi-body system, Zero-Moment Point (ZMP) and its relationship with body motion. Biped walking control is discussed in depth, since it is one of the main interests of humanoid robotics. Various topics of the whole body motion generation are also discussed. Finally multi-body dynamics is presented to simulate the complete dynamic behavior of a humanoid robot. Throughout the book, Matlab codes are shown to test the algorithms and to help the readers understanding.

This monograph by Florian Rohrbein, Germano Veiga and Ciro Natale is an edited collection of 15 authoritative contributions in the area of robot technology transfer between academia and industry. It comprises three parts on "Future Industrial Robotics," "Robotic Grasping" as well as "Human-Centered Robots." The book chapters cover almost all the topics nowadays considered hot within the robotics community, from reliable object recognition to dexterous grasping, from speech recognition to intuitive robot programming, from mobile robot navigation to aerial robotics, from safe physical human-robot interaction to body extenders. All contributions stem from the results of ECHORD the European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development, a large-scale integrating project funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme from 2009 to 2013. ECHORD s two main pillars were the so-called experiments, 51 small-sized industry-driven research projects and the structured dialog a powerful interaction instrument between the stakeholders. The results described in this volume are expected to shed new light on innovation and technology transfer from academia to industry in the field of robotics."