This book describes active illumination techniques in computer vision. We can classify computer vision techniques into two classes: passive and active techniques. Passive techniques observe the scene statically and analyse it as is. Active techniques give the scene some actions and try to facilitate the analysis. In particular, active illumination techniques project specific light, for which the characteristics are known beforehand, to a target scene to enable stable and accurate analysis of the scene. Traditional passive techniques have a fundamental limitation. The external world surrounding us is three-dimensional; the image projected on a retina or an imaging device is two-dimensional. That is, reduction of one dimension has occurred. Active illumination techniques compensate for the dimensional reduction by actively controlling the illumination. The demand for reliable vision sensors is rapidly increasing in many application areas, such as robotics and medical image analysis. This book explains this new endeavour to explore the augmentation of reduced dimensions in computer vision. This book consists of three parts: basic concepts, techniques, and applications. The first part explains the basic concepts for understanding active illumination techniques. In particular, the basic concepts of optics are explained so that researchers and engineers outside the field can understand the later chapters. The second part explains currently available active illumination techniques, covering many techniques developed by the authors. The final part shows how such active illumination techniques can be applied to various domains, describing the issue to be overcome by active illumination techniques and the advantages of using these techniques. This book is primarily aimed at 4th year undergraduate and 1st year graduate students, and will also help engineers from fields beyond computer vision to use active illumination techniques. Additionally, the book is suitable as course material for technical seminars.

This volume gathers the proceedings of the Joint International Conference of the XIII International Conference on Mechanisms and Mechanical Transmissions (MTM) and the XXIV International Conference on Robotics (Robotics), held in Timisoara, Romania. It addresses the applications of mechanisms and transmissions in several modern technical fields such as mechatronics, biomechanics, machines, micromachines, robotics and apparatus. In doing so, it combines theoretical findings and experimental testing. The book presents peer-reviewed papers written by researchers specialized in mechanism analysis and synthesis, dynamics of mechanisms and machines, mechanical transmissions, biomechanics, precision mechanics, mechatronics, micromechanisms and microactuators, computational and experimental methods, CAD in mechanism and machine design, mechanical design of robot architecture, parallel robots, mobile robots, micro and nano robots, sensors and actuators in robotics, intelligent control systems, biomedical engineering, teleoperation, haptics, and virtual reality.

This book focuses on the design, development, and characterization of a compact magnetic laser scanner for microsurgical applications. In addition, it proposes a laser incision depth controller to be used in soft tissue microsurgeries. The use of laser scanners in soft tissue microsurgery results in high quality ablations with minimal thermal damage to surrounding tissue. However, current scanner technologies for microsurgery are limited to free-beam lasers, which require direct line-of-sight to the surgical site, from outside the patient. Developing compact laser micromanipulation systems is crucial to introducing laser-scanning capabilities in hard-to-reach surgical sites, e.g., vocal cords. In this book, the design and fabrication of a magnetically actuated endoscopic laser scanner have been shown, one that introduces high-speed laser scanning for high quality, non-contact tissue ablations in narrow workspaces. Static and dynamic characterization of the system, its teleoperation through a tablet device, and its control modelling for automated trajectory executions have been shown using a fabricated and assembled prototype. Following this, the book discusses how the laser position and velocity control capabilities of the scanner can be used to design a laser incision depth controller to assist surgeons during operations.

The subject of this book is theory, principles and methods used in radar algorithm development with a special focus on automotive radar signal processing. In the automotive industry, autonomous driving is currently a hot topic that leads to numerous applications for both safety and driving comfort. It is estimated that full autonomous driving will be realized in the next twenty to thirty years and one of the enabling technologies is radar sensing. This book presents both detection and tracking topics specifically for automotive radar processing. It provides illustrations, figures and tables for the reader to quickly grasp the concepts and start working on practical solutions. The complete and comprehensive coverage of the topic provides both professionals and newcomers with all the essential methods and tools required to successfully implement and evaluate automotive radar processing algorithms.

This book describes the development of portable, wearable, and highly customizable hand exoskeletons to aid patients suffering from hand disabilities. It presents an original approach for the design of human hand motion assistance devices that relies on (i) an optimization-based kinematic scaling procedure, which guarantees a significant adaptability to the user's hands motion, and (ii) a topology optimization-based design methodology, which allowed the design of a lightweight, comfortable device with a high level of performance. The book covers the whole process of hand exoskeleton development, from establishing a new design strategy, to the construction and testing of hand exoskeleton prototypes, using additive manufacturing techniques. As such, it offers timely information to both researchers and engineers developing human motion assistance systems, especially wearable ones.

This book is a compilation of advanced research and applications on robotic item picking and warehouse automation for e-commerce applications. The works in this book are based on results that came out of the Amazon Robotics Challenge from 2015-2017, which focused on fully automated item picking in a warehouse setting, a topic that has been assumed too complicated to solve or has been reduced to a more tractable form of bin picking or single-item table top picking. The book's contributions reveal some of the top solutions presented from the 50 participant teams. Each solution works to address the time-constraint, accuracy, complexity, and other difficulties that come with warehouse item picking. The book covers topics such as grasping and gripper design, vision and other forms of sensing, actuation and robot design, motion planning, optimization, machine learning and artificial intelligence, software engineering, and system integration, among others. Through this book, the authors describe how robot systems are built from the ground up to do a specific task, in this case, item picking in a warehouse setting. The compiled works come from the best robotics research institutions and companies globally.

This volume of the series ARENA2036 compiles the outcomes of the first Stuttgart Conference on Automotive Production (SCAP2020). It contains peer-reviewed contributions from a theoretical as well as practical vantage point and is topically structured according to the following four sections: It discusses (I) Novel Approaches for Efficient Production and Assembly Planning, (II) Smart Production Systems and Data Services, (III) Advances in Manufacturing Processes and Materials, and (IV) New Concepts for Autonomous, Collaborative Intralogistics. Given the restrictive circumstances of 2020, the conference was held as a fully digital event divided into two parts. It opened with a pre-week, allowing everyone to peruse the scientific contributions at their own pace, followed by a two-day live event that enabled experts from the sciences and the industry to engage in various discussions. The conference has proven itself as an insightful forum that allowed for an expertly exchange regarding the pivotal Advances in Automotive Production and Technology.

This book presents a unified mathematical treatment of diverse problems in the general domain of robotics and associated fields using Clifford or geometric alge- bra. By addressing a wide spectrum of problems in a common language, it offers both fresh insights and new solutions that are useful to scientists and engineers working in areas related with robotics. It introduces non-specialists to Clifford and geometric algebra, and provides ex- amples to help readers learn how to compute using geometric entities and geomet- ric formulations. It also includes an in-depth study of applications of Lie group theory, Lie algebra, spinors and versors and the algebra of incidence using the universal geometric algebra generated by reciprocal null cones. Featuring a detailed study of kinematics, differential kinematics and dynamics using geometric algebra, the book also develops Euler Lagrange and Hamiltoni- ans equations for dynamics using conformal geometric algebra, and the recursive Newton-Euler using screw theory in the motor algebra framework. Further, it comprehensively explores robot modeling and nonlinear controllers, and discusses several applications in computer vision, graphics, neurocomputing, quantum com- puting, robotics and control engineering using the geometric algebra framework. The book also includes over 200 exercises and tips for the development of future computer software packages for extensive calculations in geometric algebra, and a entire section focusing on how to write the subroutines in C++, Matlab and Maple to carry out efficient geometric computations in the geometric algebra framework. Lastly, it shows how program code can be optimized for real-time computations. An essential resource for applied physicists, computer scientists, AI researchers, roboticists and mechanical and electrical engineers, the book clarifies and demon- strates the importance of geometric computing for building autonomous systems to advance cognitive systems research.

Risk detection and cyber security play a vital role in the use and success of contemporary computing. By utilizing the latest technological advances, more effective prevention techniques can be developed to protect against cyber threats. Detecting and Mitigating Robotic Cyber Security Risks is an essential reference publication for the latest research on new methodologies and applications in the areas of robotic and digital security. Featuring extensive coverage on a broad range of topics, such as authentication techniques, cloud security, and mobile robotics, this book is ideally designed for students, researchers, scientists, and engineers seeking current research on methods, models, and implementations of optimized security in digital contexts.

This is the fourth volume of the successful series Robot Operating Systems: The Complete Reference, providing a comprehensive overview of robot operating systems (ROS), which is currently the main development framework for robotics applications, as well as the latest trends and contributed systems. The book is divided into four parts: Part 1 features two papers on navigation, discussing SLAM and path planning. Part 2 focuses on the integration of ROS into quadcopters and their control. Part 3 then discusses two emerging applications for robotics: cloud robotics, and video stabilization. Part 4 presents tools developed for ROS; the first is a practical alternative to the roslaunch system, and the second is related to penetration testing. This book is a valuable resource for ROS users and wanting to learn more about ROS capabilities and features.

This book is of interest to researchers wanting to know more about the latest topics and methods in the fields of the kinematics, control and design of robotic systems. The papers cover the full range of robotic systems, including serial, parallel and cable-driven manipulators. The systems range from being less than fully mobile, to kinematically redundant, to over-constrained. The book brings together 43 peer-reviewed papers. They report on the latest scientific and applied achievements. The main theme that connects them is the movement of robots in the most diverse areas of application.

This book provides exclusive insight into the development of a new generation of robotic underwater technologies. Deploying and using even the most simple and robust mechanical tools is presenting a challenge, and is often associated with an enormous amount of preparation, continuous monitoring, and maintenance. Therefore, all disciplinary aspects (e.g. system design, communication, machine learning, mapping and coordination, adaptive mission planning) are examined in detail and together this gives an extensive overview on research areas influencing next generation underwater robots. These robotic underwater systems will operate autonomously with the help of the most modern artificial intelligence procedures and perform environmental monitoring as well as inspection and maintenance of underwater structures. The systems are designed as modular and reconfigurable systems for long term autonomy to remain at the site for longer periods of time. New communication methods using AI enable missions of hybrid teams of humans and heterogeneous robots. Thus this volume will be an important reference for scientists on every qualification level in the field of underwater technologies, industrial maritime applications, and maritime science.

This book offers a comprehensive reference guide for modeling humanoid robots using intelligent and fuzzy systems. It provides readers with the necessary intelligent and fuzzy tools for controlling humanoid robots by incomplete, vague, and imprecise information or insufficient data, where classical modeling approaches cannot be applied. The respective chapters, written by prominent researchers, explain a wealth of both basic and advanced concepts including fuzzy control, metaheuristic-based control, neutrosophic control, etc. To foster reader comprehension, all chapters include relevant numerical examples or case studies. Taken together, they form an excellent reference guide for researchers, lecturers, and postgraduate students pursuing research on humanoid robots. Moreover, by extending all the main aspects of humanoid robots to its intelligent and fuzzy counterparts, the book presents a dynamic snapshot of the field that is expected to stimulate new directions, ideas, and developments.

This book shows how a conventional multi-layered approach can be used to control a snake robot on a desired path while moving on a flat surface. To achieve robustness to unknown variations in surface conditions, it explores various adaptive robust control methods. The authors propose a sliding-mode control approach designed to achieve robust maneuvering for bounded uncertainty with a known upper bound. The control is modified by addition of an adaptation law to alleviate the overestimation problem of the switching gain as well as to circumvent the requirement for knowledge regarding the bounds of uncertainty. The book works toward non-conservativeness, achieving efficient tracking in the presence of slowly varying uncertainties with a specially designed framework for time-delayed control. It shows readers how to extract superior performance from their snake robots with an approach that allows robustness toward bounded time-delayed estimation errors. The book also demonstrates how the multi-layered control framework can be simplified by employing differential flatness for such a system. Finally, the mathematical model of a snake robot moving inside a uniform channel using only side-wall contact is discussed. The model has further been employed to demonstrate adaptive robust control design for such a motion. Using numerous illustrations and tables, Adaptive Robust Control for Planar Snake Robots will interest researchers, practicing engineers and postgraduate students working in the field of robotics and control systems.

This book contains selected papers from SEB-18, the Tenth International Conference on Sustainability in Energy and Buildings, which was organised by KES International and Griffith University and held in Gold Coast, Australia in June 2018. SEB-18 invited contributions on a range of topics related to sustainable buildings and renewable energy, and explored innovative topics regarding intelligent buildings and cities. Applicable areas included the sustainable design and of buildings, neighbourhoods and cities (built and natural environment); optimisation and modelling techniques; smart energy systems for smart cities; green information communications technology; and a broad range of solar, wind, wave and other renewable energy topics. The aim of the conference was to bring together researchers and government and industry professionals to discuss the future of energy in buildings, neighbourhoods and cities from a theoretical, practical, implementation and simulation perspective. In addition, SEB-18 offered an exciting opportunity to present, interact, and learn about the latest research in Sustainability in Energy and Buildings.

Cognitive architectures represent an umbrella term to describe ways in which the flow of thought can be engineered towards cerebral and behavioral outcomes. Cognitive Architectures are meant to provide top-down guidance, a knowledge base, interactive heuristics and concrete or fuzzy policies for which the virtual character can utilize for intelligent interaction with his/her/its situated virtual environment. Integrating Cognitive Architectures into Virtual Character Design presents emerging research on virtual character artificial intelligence systems and procedures and the integration of cognitive architectures. Emphasizing innovative methodologies for intelligent virtual character integration and design, this publication is an ideal reference source for graduate-level students, researchers, and professionals in the fields of artificial intelligence, gaming, and computer science.

This book offers a collection of original peer-reviewed contributions presented at the 3rd International and 18th National Conference on Machines and Mechanisms (iNaCoMM), organized by Division of Remote Handling & Robotics, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India, from December 13th to 15th, 2017 (iNaCoMM 2017). It reports on various theoretical and practical features of machines, mechanisms and robotics; the contributions include carefully selected, novel ideas on and approaches to design, analysis, prototype development, assessment and surveys. Applications in machine and mechanism engineering, serial and parallel manipulators, power reactor engineering, autonomous vehicles, engineering in medicine, image-based data analytics, compliant mechanisms, and safety mechanisms are covered. Further papers provide in-depth analyses of data preparation, isolation and brain segmentation for focused visualization and robot-based neurosurgery, new approaches to parallel mechanism-based Master-Slave manipulators, solutions to forward kinematic problems, and surveys and optimizations based on historical and contemporary compliant mechanism-based design. The spectrum of contributions on theory and practice reveals central trends and newer branches of research in connection with these topics.

This book presents selected papers from The 1st International Conference on Computational Design and Robotic Fabrication (CDRF 2019). Focusing on novel architecture theories, tools, methods, and procedures for digital design and construction in architecture, it promotes dialogs between architecture, engineer, computer science, robotics, and other relevant disciplines to establish a new way of production in the building industry in the digital age. The contents make valuable contributions to academic researchers and engineers in the industry. At the same time, it offers readers new ideas for the application of digital technology.

This book presents the proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region, RAAD 2021, held in Poitiers, France, 21-23 June 2021. It gathers contributions by researchers from several countries on all major areas of robotic research, development and innovation, as well as new applications and current trends. The topics covered include: novel designs and applications of robotic systems, intelligent cooperating and service robots, advanced robot control, human-robot interfaces, robot vision systems, mobile robots, humanoid and walking robots, bio-inspired and swarm robotic systems, aerial, underwater and spatial robots, robots for ambient assisted living, medical robots and bionic prostheses, cognitive robots, cloud robotics, ethical and social issues in robotics, etc. Given its scope, the book offers a source of information and inspiration for researchers seeking to improve their work and gather new ideas for future developments.

The book investigates fundamental issues in flexible manipulator systems, including distributed parameter modeling and boundary controller design. It presents theoretical explorations of several fundamental problems concerning the dynamics and control of these systems. By integrating fresh concepts and results to form a systematic approach to control, it also provides a basic theoretical framework. In turn, the book offers a comprehensive treatment of flexible manipulator systems, addressing topics ranging from related distributed parameter modeling and advanced boundary controller design for these systems with input constraint, to active control with output constraint. In brief, the book addresses dynamical analysis and control design for flexible manipulator systems. Though primarily intended for researchers and engineers in the control system and mechanical engineering community, it can also serve as supplemental reading on the modeling and control of flexible manipulator systems at the postgraduate level.

This book gathers papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing (SDM-18), held in Gold Coast, Australia in June 2018. The conference covered a wide range of topics, including: sustainable product design and service innovation, sustainable processes and technology for the manufacturing of sustainable products, sustainable manufacturing systems and enterprises, decision support for sustainability, and the study of the societal impact of sustainability including research on the circular economy. The corresponding application areas are wide and varied. The aim of cutting-edge research into sustainable design and manufacturing is to enable the manufacturing industry to grow by adopting more advanced technologies, and at the same time improve its sustainability by reducing its environmental impact. With these goals in mind, the book provides an excellent overview of the latest research and development in the area of Sustainable Design and Manufacturing.

A classic in underwater robotics. One of the first volumes in the "Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics" series, it has been a bestseller through the previous three editions. Fifteen years after the publication of the first edition, the fourth edition comes to print. The book addresses the main control aspects in underwater manipulation tasks. With respect to the third edition, it has been revised, extended and some concepts better clustered. The mathematical model with significant impact on the control strategy is discussed. The problem of controlling a 6-degrees-of-freedoms autonomous underwater vehicle is investigated and a survey of fault detection/tolerant strategies for unmanned underwater vehicles is provided. Inverse kinematics, dynamic and interaction control for underwater vehicle-manipulator systems are then discussed. The code used to generate most of the numerical simulations is made available and briefly discussed.

The book presents research from Rob|Arch 2018, the fourth international conference on robotic fabrication in architecture, art, and design. In capturing the myriad of scientific advances in robotics fabrication that are currently underway - such as collaborative design tools, computerised materials, adaptive sensing and actuation, advanced construction, on-site and cooperative robotics, machine-learning, human-machine interaction, large-scale fabrication and networked workflows, to name but a few - this compendium reveals how robotic fabrication is becoming a driver of scientific innovation, cross-disciplinary fertilization and creative capacity of an unprecedented kind.

This is the fifth volume of a sub series on Road Vehicle Automation published within the Lecture Notes in Mobility. Like in previous editions, scholars, engineers and analysts from all around the world have contributed chapters covering human factors, ethical, legal, energy and technology aspects related to automated vehicles, as well as transportation infrastructure and public planning. The book is based on the Automated Vehicles Symposium which was hosted by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) in San Francisco, California (USA) in July 2017.

Providing an in-depth introduction to fundamental classical and non-classical logics, this textbook offers a comprehensive survey of logics for computer scientists. Logics for Computer Science contains intuitive introductory chapters explaining the need for logical investigations, motivations for different types of logics and some of their history. They are followed by strict formal approach chapters. All chapters contain many detailed examples explaining each of the introduced notions and definitions, well chosen sets of exercises with carefully written solutions, and sets of homework. While many logic books are available, they were written by logicians for logicians, not for computer scientists. They usually choose one particular way of presenting the material and use a specialized language. Logics for Computer Science discusses Gentzen as well as Hilbert formalizations, first order theories, the Hilbert Program, Godel's first and second incompleteness theorems and their proofs. It also introduces and discusses some many valued logics, modal logics and introduces algebraic models for classical, intuitionistic, and modal S4 and S5 logics. The theory of computation is based on concepts defined by logicians and mathematicians. Logic plays a fundamental role in computer science, and this book explains the basic theorems, as well as different techniques of proving them in classical and some non-classical logics. Important applications derived from concepts of logic for computer technology include Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering. In addition to Computer Science, this book may also find an audience in mathematics and philosophy courses, and some of the chapters are also useful for a course in Artificial Intelligence.