This book reports on the developments of the bipedal walking robot Lucy. Special about it is that the biped is not actuated with the classical electrical drives but with pleated pneumatic artificial muscles. In an antagonistic setup of such muscles both the torque and the compliance are controllable. From human walking there is evidence that joint compliance plays an important role in energy efficient walking and running. Moreover pneumatic artificial muscles have a high power to weight ratio and can be coupled directly without complex gearing mechanism, which can be beneficial towards legged mechanisms. Additionally, they have the capability of absorbing impact shocks and store and release motion energy. This book gives a complete description of Lucy: the hardware, the electronics and the software. A hybrid simulation program, combining the robot dynamics and muscle/valve thermodynamics, has been written to evaluate control strategies before implementing them in the real biped.

The book presents a representative selection of all publications published between 01/2009 and 06/2010 in various books, journals and conference proceedings by the researchers of the institute cluster: IMA - Institute of Information Management in Mechanical Engineering ZLW - Center for Learning and Knowledge Management IfU - Institute for Management Cybernetics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University The contributions address the cluster's five core research fields: suitable processes for knowledge- and technology-intensive organizations, next-generation teaching and learning concepts for universities and the economy, cognitive IT-supported processes for heterogeneous and cooperative systems, target group-adapted user models for innovation and technology development processes, semantic networks and ontologies for complex value chains and virtual environments Innovative fields of application such as cognitive systems, autonomous truck convoys, telemedicine, ontology engineering, knowledge and information management, learning models and technologies, organizational development and management cybernetics are presented. The contributions show the unique potential of the broad and interdisciplinary research approach of the ZLW/IMA and the IfU.

Dexterous and autonomous manipulation is a key technology for the personal and service robots of the future. Advances in Bimanual Manipulation edited by Bruno Siciliano provides the robotics community with the most noticeable results of the four-year European project DEXMART (DEXterous and autonomous dual-arm hand robotic manipulation with sMART sensory-motor skills: A bridge from natural to artificial cognition). The volume covers a host of highly important topics in the field, concerned with modelling and learning of human manipulation skills, algorithms for task planning, human-robot interaction, and grasping, as well as hardware design of dexterous anthropomorphic hands. The results described in this five-chapter collection are believed to pave the way towards the development of robotic systems endowed with dexterous and human-aware dual-arm/hand manipulation skills for objects, operating with a high degree of autonomy in unstructured real-world environments.

While sailing has a long tradition, both as a means of transportation and as a sport, robotic sailing is a fairly new area of research. One of its unique characteristics is the use of wind for propulsion. On the one hand, this allows for long range and long term autonomy. On the other hand, the dependency on changing winds presents a serious challenge for short and long term planning, collision avoidance, and boat control. Moreover, building a robust and seaworthy sailing robot is no simple task, leading to a truly interdisciplinary engineering problem. These proceedings summarize the state of the art as presented at the International Robotic Sailing Conference 2011. Following an overview of the history of autonomous sailing a number of recent boat designs is presented, ranging from small one-design boats to vessels built to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Subsequently, various aspects of system design and validation are discussed, further highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of the field. Finally, methods for collision avoidance, localization and route planning are covered.

This book reports on the latest technological and clinical advances in the field of neurorehabilitation. It is, however, much more than a conventional survey of the state-of-the-art in neurorehabilitation technologies and therapies. It was written on the basis of a week of lively discussions between PhD students and leading research experts during the Summer School on Neurorehabilitation (SSNR2014), held September 15-19 in Baiona, Spain. Its unconventional format makes it a perfect guide for all PhD students, researchers and professionals interested in gaining a multidisciplinary perspective on current and future neurorehabilitation scenarios. The book addresses various aspects of neurorehabilitation research and practice, including a selection of common impairments affecting CNS function, such as stroke and spinal cord injury, as well as cutting-edge rehabilitation and diagnostics technologies, including robotics, neuroprosthetics, brain-machine interfaces and neuromodulation.

A spherical actuator is a novel electric device that can achieve 2/3-DOF rotational motions in a single joint with electric power input. It has advantages such as compact structure, low mass/moment of inertia, fast response and non-singularities within the workspace. It has promising applications in robotics, automobile, manufacturing, medicine and aerospace industry. This is the first monograph that introduces the research on spherical actuators systematically. It broadens the scope of actuators from conventional single-axis to multi-axis, which will help both beginners and researchers to enhance their knowledge on electromagnetic actuators. Generic analytic modeling methods for magnetic field and torque output are developed, which can be applied to the development of other electromagnetic actuators. A parametric design methodology that allows fast analysis and design of spherical actuators for various applications is proposed. A novel non-contact high-precision 3-DOF spherical motion sensing methodology is developed and evaluated with experiments, which shows that it can achieve one order of magnitude higher precision than conventional methods. The technologies of nondimensionalization and normalization are introduced into magnetic field analysis the first time, and a benchmark database is established for the reference of other researches on spherical actuators.

Advances in Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots I provides a selection of key papers presented in The Second ASME/IFToMM International Conference on Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots (ReMAR 2012) held on 9th -11th July 2012 in Tianjin, China. This ongoing series of conferences will be covered in this ongoing collection of books. A total of seventy-eight papers are divided into seven parts to cover the topology, kinematics and design of reconfigurable mechanisms with the reconfiguration theory, analysis and synthesis, and present the current research and development in the field of reconfigurable mechanisms including reconfigurable parallel mechanisms. In this aspect, the recent study and development of reconfigurable robots are further presented with the analysis and design and with their control and development. The bio-inspired mechanisms and subsequent reconfiguration are explored in the challenging fields of rehabilitation and minimally invasive surgery. Advances in Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots I further extends the study to deployable mechanisms and foldable devices and introduces applications of reconfigurable mechanisms and robots. The rich-content of Advances in Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots I brings together new developments in reconfigurable mechanisms and robots and presents a new horizon for future development in the field of reconfigurable mechanisms and robots.

This book provides a thorough background to the emerging field of medical robotics. It covers the mathematics needed to understand the use of robotic devices in medicine, including but not limited to robot kinematics, hand-eye and robot-world calibration, reconstruction, registration, motion planning, motion prediction, motion correlation, motion replication and motion learning. Additionally, basic methods behind state-of-the art robots like the DaVinci system, the CyberKnife, motorized C-arms and operating microscopes as well as stereotactic frames are presented. The book is a text book for undergraduates in computer science and engineering. The main idea of the book is to motivate the methods in robotics in medical applications rather than industrial applications. The book then follows the standard path for a robotics textbook. It is thus suitable for a first course in robotics for undergraduates. It is the first textbook on medical robotics.

This book reports on the latest developments in sliding mode overhead crane control, presenting novel research ideas and findings on sliding mode control (SMC), hierarchical SMC and compensator design-based hierarchical sliding mode. The results, which were previously scattered across various journals and conference proceedings, are now presented in a systematic and unified form. The book will be of interest to researchers, engineers and graduate students in control engineering and mechanical engineering who want to learn the methods and applications of SMC.

The human hand and its dexterity in grasping and manipulating objects are some of the hallmarks of the human species. For years, anatomic and biomechanical studies have deepened the understanding of the human hand's functioning and, in parallel, the robotics community has been working on the design of robotic hands capable of manipulating objects with a performance similar to that of the human hand. However, although many researchers have partially studied various aspects, to date there has been no comprehensive characterization of the human hand's function for grasping and manipulation of everyday life objects. This monograph explores the hypothesis that the confluence of both scientific fields, the biomechanical study of the human hand and the analysis of robotic manipulation of objects, would greatly benefit and advance both disciplines through simulation. Therefore, in this book, the current knowledge of robotics and biomechanics guides the design and implementation of a simulation framework focused on manipulation interactions that allows the study of the grasp through simulation. As a result, a valuable framework for the study of the grasp, with relevant applications in several fields such as robotics, biomechanics, ergonomics, rehabilitation and medicine, has been made available to these communities.

Proceedings of the FISITA 2012 World Automotive Congress are selected from nearly 2,000 papers submitted to the 34th FISITA World Automotive Congress, which is held by Society of Automotive Engineers of China (SAE-China ) and the International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies (FISITA). This proceedings focus on solutions for sustainable mobility in all areas of passenger car, truck and bus transportation. Volume 12: Intelligent Transport System (ITS)& Internet of Vehicles focuses on: *Driver Assistance System *V2X Communication Technology *Telematics and Navigation Systems *Eco Driving Technology *Harmonization and Regulation of ITS Systems Above all researchers, professional engineers and graduates in fields of automotive engineering, mechanical engineering and electronic engineering will benefit from this book. SAE-China is a national academic organization composed of enterprises and professionals who focus on research, design and education in the fields of automotive and related industries. FISITA is the umbrella organization for the national automotive societies in 37 countries around the world. It was founded in Paris in 1948 with the purpose of bringing engineers from around the world together in a spirit of cooperation to share ideas and advance the technological development of the automobile.

How and why to write a movement? Who is the writer? Who is the reader? They may be choreographers working with dancers. They may be roboticists programming robots. They may be artists designing cartoons in computer animation. In all such fields the purpose is to express an intention about a dance, a specific motion or an action to perform, in terms of intelligible sequences of elementary movements, as a music score that would be devoted to motion representation. Unfortunately there is no universal language to write a motion. Motion languages live together in a Babel tower populated by biomechanists, dance notators, neuroscientists, computer scientists, choreographers, roboticists. Each community handles its own concepts and speaks its own language. The book accounts for this diversity. Its origin is a unique workshop held at LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse in 2014. Worldwide representatives of various communities met there. Their challenge was to reach a mutual understanding allowing a choreographer to access robotics concepts, or a computer scientist to understand the subtleties of dance notation. The liveliness of this multidisciplinary meeting is reflected by the book thank to the willingness of authors to share their own experiences with others.

This book presents an intelligent, integrated, problem-independent method for multiresponse process optimization. In contrast to traditional approaches, the idea of this method is to provide a unique model for the optimization of various processes, without imposition of assumptions relating to the type of process, the type and number of process parameters and responses, or interdependences among them. The presented method for experimental design of processes with multiple correlated responses is composed of three modules: an expert system that selects the experimental plan based on the orthogonal arrays; the factor effects approach, which performs processing of experimental data based on Taguchi's quality loss function and multivariate statistical methods; and process modeling and optimization based on artificial neural networks and metaheuristic optimization algorithms. The implementation is demonstrated using four case studies relating to high-tech industries and advanced, non-conventional processes.

The book offers a thorough introduction to machine vision. It is organized in two parts. The first part covers the image acquisition, which is the crucial component of most automated visual inspection systems. All important methods are described in great detail and are presented with a reasoned structure. The second part deals with the modeling and processing of image signals and pays particular regard to methods, which are relevant for automated visual inspection.

This unique book provides a bridge between digital control theory and vehicle guidance and control practice. It presents practical techniques of digital redesign and direct discrete-time design suitable for a real-time implementation of controllers and guidance laws at multiple rates and with and computational techniques. The theory of digital control is given as theorems, lemmas, and propositions. The design of the digital guidance and control systems is illustrated by means of step-by-step procedures, algorithms, and case studies. The systems proposed are applied to realistic models of unmanned systems and missiles, and digital implementation.

Robotics for Cell Manipulation and Characterization provides fundamental principles underpinning robotic cell manipulation and characterization, state-of-the-art technical advances in micro/nano robotics, new discoveries of cell biology enabled by robotic systems, and their applications in clinical diagnosis and treatment. This book covers several areas, including robotics, control, computer vision, biomedical engineering and life sciences using understandable figures and tables to enhance readers' comprehension and pinpoint challenges and opportunities for biological and biomedical research.

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.

Build a voice-controlled virtual assistant using speech-to-text engines, text-to-speech engines, and conversation modules. This book shows you how to program the virtual assistant to gather data from the internet (weather data, data from Wikipedia, data mining); play music; and take notes. Each chapter covers building a mini project/module to make the virtual assistant better. You'll develop the software on Linux or OS X before transferring it to your Raspberry Pi, ready for deploying in your own home-automation or Internet of Things applications. Building a Virtual Assistant for Raspberry Pi walks you through various STTs and TTSs and the implementation of these components with the help of Python. After that you will start implementing logic for handling user queries and commands, so that the user can have conversations with Melissa. You will then work to improve logic handling to detect what the user wants Melissa to do. You will also work on building some useful applications/modules for Melissa, which will allow you to gain interesting information from Melissa such as the time, weather information, and data from Wikipedia. You will develop a music playing application as well as a note taking application for Melissa, laying the foundations for how Melissa can be further extended. Finally, you will learn how to deploy this software to your Raspberry Pi and how you can further scale Melissa to make her more intelligent, interactive and how you can use her in other projects such as home automation as well. What You'll Learn Design the workflow and discover the concepts of building a voice controlled assistant Develop modules for having conversations with the assistant Enable the assistant to retrieve information from the internet Build utilities like a music player and a note taking application for the virtual assistant Integrate this software with a Raspberry Pi Who This Book Is For Anyone who has built a home automation project with Raspberry Pi and now want to enhance it by making it voice-controlled. The book would also interest students from computer science or related disciplines.

The Computational Biomechanics for Medicine titles provide an opportunity for specialists in computational biomechanics to present their latest methodologies and advancements. This volume comprises eighteen of the newest approaches and applications of computational biomechanics, from researchers in Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK, Switzerland, Scotland, France and Russia. Some of the interesting topics discussed are: tailored computational models; traumatic brain injury; soft-tissue mechanics; medical image analysis; and clinically-relevant simulations. One of the greatest challenges facing the computational engineering community is to extend the success of computational mechanics to fields outside traditional engineering, in particular to biology, the biomedical sciences, and medicine. We hope the research presented within this book series will contribute to overcoming this grand challenge.

The book showcases cutting-edge concepts and methods, and presents the principle of imprecise-information processing. It also proposes a new theory and technology for imprecise-information processing that differs from fuzzy technology, thus providing a platform for related applications and laying the theoretical basis for further research. Imprecise-information processing - a type of processing based on flexible linguistic values and quantifiable rigid linguistic values - is an important component of intelligence science and technology. This book offers an easy-to-understand overview of the basic principles and methods of imprecise-information processing, allowing readers to develop related applications or pursue further research.

This book covers all aspects of robot intelligence from perception at sensor level and reasoning at cognitive level to behavior planning at execution level for each low level segment of the machine. It also presents the technologies for cognitive reasoning, social interaction with humans, behavior generation, ability to cooperate with other robots, ambience awareness, and an artificial genome that can be passed on to other robots. These technologies are to materialize cognitive intelligence, social intelligence, behavioral intelligence, collective intelligence, ambient intelligence and genetic intelligence. The book aims at serving researchers and practitioners with a timely dissemination of the recent progress on robot intelligence technology and its applications, based on a collection of papers presented at the 4th International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications (RiTA), held in Bucheon, Korea, December 14 - 16, 2015. For better readability, this edition has the total of 49 articles grouped into 3 chapters: Chapter I: Ambient, Behavioral, Cognitive, Collective, and Social Robot Intelligence, Chapter II: Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Design for Advanced Robotics, Chapter III: Applications of Robot Intelligence Technology .

This book focuses on the importance of human factors in the development of reliable and safe unmanned systems. It discusses current challenges such as how to improve perceptual and cognitive abilities of robots, develop suitable synthetic vision systems, cope with degraded reliability of unmanned systems, predict robotic behavior in case of a loss of communication, the vision for future soldier-robot teams, human-agent teaming, real-world implications for human-robot interaction, and approaches to standardize both display and control of technologies across unmanned systems. Based on the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Human Factors in Robots and Unmanned Systems, held on July 27-31, 2016, in Walt Disney World (R), Florida, USA, this book is expected to foster new discussion and stimulate new ideas towards the development of more reliable, safer, and functional devices for carrying out automated and concurrent tasks.

This edited book comprises papers about the impacts, benefits and challenges of connected and automated cars. It is the third volume of the LNMOB series dealing with Road Vehicle Automation. The book comprises contributions from researchers, industry practitioners and policy makers, covering perspectives from the U.S., Europe and Japan. It is based on the Automated Vehicles Symposium 2015 which was jointly organized by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in July 2015. The topical spectrum includes, but is not limited to, public sector activities, human factors, ethical and business aspects, energy and technological perspectives, vehicle systems and transportation infrastructure. This book is an indispensable source of information for academic researchers, industrial engineers and policy makers interested in the topic of road vehicle automation.

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

This proceedings volume contains papers that have been selected after review for oral presentation at ROMANSY 2016, the 21th CISM-IFToMM Symposium on Theory and Practice of Robots and Manipulators. These papers cover advances on several aspects of the wide field of Robotics as concerning Theory and Practice of Robots and Manipulators. ROMANSY 2016 is the 21st event in a series that started in 1973 as one of the first conference activities in the world on Robotics. The first event was held at CISM (International Centre for Mechanical Science) in Udine, Italy on 5-8 September 1973. It was also the first topic conference of IFToMM (International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science) and it was directed not only to the IFToMM community.