Service robots serve a wide range of people in residential, commercial, industrial, military, and many more applied fields. Service Robots and Robotics: Design and Application offers the latest research within the field, combining a mixture of case studies, research, and future directions. Staying abreast of the latest research within the field not only affords practitioners and academics the foot forward they need, it allows for a comprehensive look into the latest advances in a burgeoning field of technology. From tasks no humans can do to everyday tasks for the disabled and elderly, service robots are an enormously important facet of modern technology, and this volume offers a current look into their state of the art.

Studies on robotics applications have grown substantially in recent years, with swarm robotics being a relatively new area of research. Inspired by studies in swarm intelligence and robotics, swarm robotics facilitates interactions between robots as well as their interactions with the environment. The Handbook of Research on Design, Control, and Modeling of Swarm Robotics is a collection of the most important research achievements in swarm robotics thus far, covering the growing areas of design, control, and modeling of swarm robotics. This handbook serves as an essential resource for researchers, engineers, graduates, and senior undergraduates with interests in swarm robotics and its applications.

A comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible reference for disaster robotics that covers theory, specific deployments, and ground, air, and marine modalities. This book offers the definitive guide to the theory and practice of disaster robotics. It can serve as an introduction for researchers and technologists, a reference for emergency managers, and a textbook in field robotics. Written by a pioneering researcher in the field who has herself participated in fifteen deployments of robots in disaster response and recovery, the book covers theory and practice, the history of the field, and specific missions. After a broad overview of rescue robotics in the context of emergency informatics, the book provides a chronological summary and formal analysis of the thirty-four documented deployments of robots to disasters that include the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and numerous mining accidents. It then examines disaster robotics in the typical robot modalities of ground, air, and marine, addressing such topics as robot types, missions and tasks, and selection heuristics for each modality. Finally, the book discusses types of fieldwork, providing practical advice on matters that include collecting data and collaborating with emergency professionals. The field of disaster robotics has lacked a comprehensive overview. This book by a leader in the field, offering a unique combination of the theoretical and the practical, fills the gap.

The social sciences, especially economics, management, and organizational science, are experiencing a tremendous renewed interest for their epistemological and methodological statutes, as witnessed by the many books and specialized journals established during the last two decades. Relational Methodologies and Epistemology in the Economics and Management Sciences identifies and presents the four main network-based methodologies including network analysis, Boolean network simulation modeling, artificial neural network simulation modeling, and agent-based simulation modeling in addition to their conceptual-epistemological implications and concrete applications within the social and natural sciences. Featuring a critical assessment of relational methodologies and their practical applications, this timely publication is ideal for use by corporate R&D departments, researchers, theorists, and graduate-level students.

The World of Robotics offers an in-depth look into the history of robotic technology. Learn how the imagination of Science Fiction authors and filmmakers, along with the incredible genius of scientists and engineers, has given rise to some invaluable creations of technology that are saving lives and allowing mankind to explore distant worlds.

Space robotics and autonomous systems (Space RAS) play a critical role in the current and future development of mission-defined machines that can survive in space while performing exploration, assembly, construction, maintenance and servicing tasks. They represent a multi-disciplinary emerging field at the intersection of space engineering, terrestrial robotics, computer science and materials. The field is essential to humankind's ability to explore or operate in space; providing greater access beyond human spaceflight limitations in the harsh environment of space, and offering greater operational handling that extends astronauts' capabilities. Space RAS covers all types of robotics for the exploration of planet surfaces as well as robotics used in orbit around the Earth and the sensors needed by the platform for navigation or control. Written by a team of International experts on space RAS, this book covers advanced research, technologies and applications including: sensing and perception to provide situational awareness for space robotic agents, explorers and assistants; mobility to reach and operate at sites of scientific interest on extra-terrestrial surfaces or free space environments using locomotion; manipulations to make intentional changes in the environment or objects using locomotion such as placing, assembling, digging, trenching, drilling, sampling, grappling and berthing; high-level autonomy for system and sub-systems to provide robust and safe autonomous navigation, rendezvous and docking capabilities and to enable extended-duration operations without human interventions to improve overall performance of human and robotic missions; human-robot interaction and multi-modal interaction; system engineering to provide a framework for understanding and coordinating the complex interactions of robots and achieving the desired system requirements; verification and validation of complex adaptive systems; modelling and simulation; and safety and trust.

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.

Control Applications for Biomedical Engineering Systems presents different control engineering and modeling applications in the biomedical field. It is intended for senior undergraduate or graduate students in both control engineering and biomedical engineering programs. For control engineering students, it presents the application of various techniques already learned in theoretical lectures in the biomedical arena. For biomedical engineering students, it presents solutions to various problems in the field using methods commonly used by control engineers.

Robotics is an ever-expanding field and intelligent planning continues to play a major role. Given that the intention of mobile robots is to carry out tasks independent from human aid, robot intelligence is needed to make and plan out decisions based on various sensors. Planning is the fundamental activity that implements this intelligence into the mobile robots to complete such tasks. Understanding problems, challenges, and solutions to path planning and how it fits in is important to the realm of robotics. Intelligent Planning for Mobile Robotics: Algorithmic Approaches presents content coverage on the basics of artificial intelligence, search problems, and soft computing approaches. This collection of research provides insight on both robotics and basic algorithms and could serve as a reference book for courses related to robotics, special topics in AI, planning, applied soft computing, applied AI, and applied evolutionary computing. It is an ideal choice for research students, scholars, and professors alike.

As a segment of the broader science of automation, robotics has achieved tremendous progress in recent decades due to the advances in supporting technologies such as computers, control systems, cameras and electronic vision, as well as micro and nanotechnology. Prototyping a design helps in determining system parameters, ranges, and in structuring an overall better system. Robotics is one of the industrial design fields in which prototyping is crucial for improved functionality. Prototyping of Robotic Systems: Applications of Design and Implementation provides a framework for conceptual, theoretical, and applied research in robotic prototyping and its applications. Covering the prototyping of various robotic systems including the complicated industrial robots, the tiny and delicate nanorobots, medical robots for disease diagnosis and treatment, as well as the simple robots for educational purposes, this book is a useful tool for those in the field of robotics prototyping and as a general reference tool for those in related fields.

Knowledge Management makes the management of information and resources within a commercial organization more effective. The contributions of this book investigate the applications of Knowledge Management in the upcoming era of Semantic Web, or Web 3.0, and the opportunities for reshaping and redesigning business strategies for more effective outcomes.

In this practical reference, popular author Lewin Edwards shows how to develop robust, dependable real-time systems for robotics and other control applications, using open-source tools. It demonstrates efficient and low-cost embedded hardware and software design techniques, based on Linux as the development platform and operating system and the Atmel AVR as the primary microcontroller. The book provides comprehensive examples of sensor, actuator and control applications and circuits, along with source code for a number of projects. It walks the reader through the process of setting up the Linux-based controller, from creating a custom kernel to customizing the BIOS, to implementing graphical control interfaces.
Including detailed design information on:
-ESBUS PC-host interface
-Host-module communications protocol
-A speed-controlled DC motor with tach feedback and thermal cut-off
-A stepper motor controller
-A two-axis attitude sensor using a MEMS accelerometer
-Infrared remote control in Linux using LIRC
-Machine vision using Video4Linux
The Accompanying CD-ROM contains a wealth of design materials, including:
-Full schematics and source code for the projects described
-Ready-made disk images for the miniature Linux distribution uses as the basis for the PC-side software
-Distribution archives of source code for all GNU software used, along with application-specific patches where appropriate
-A free version of the schematic capture and PCB CAD software used
-Atmel AVR Studio
* The first-ever book on using open source technology for robotics design!
* Immensely valuable source code and design tools provided on the CD-ROM
* Covershot topics such as GPS navigation, 3-D sensing, and machine vision, all using a Linux platform!

Robotic systems consist of object or scene recognition, vision-based motion control, vision-based mapping, and dense range sensing, and are used for identification and navigation. As these computer vision and robotic connections continue to develop, the benefits of vision technology including savings, improved quality, reliability, safety, and productivity are revealed. Robotic Vision: Technologies for Machine Learning and Vision Applications is a comprehensive collection which highlights a solid framework for understanding existing work and planning future research. This book includes current research on the fields of robotics, machine vision, image processing and pattern recognition that is important to applying machine vision methods in the real world.

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 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.

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.

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.