Mobile manipulators combine the advantages of mobile platforms and robotic arms, extending their operational range and functionality to large spaces and remote, demanding, and/or dangerous environments. They also bring complexity and difficulty in dynamic modeling and control system design. However, advances in nonlinear system analysis and control system design offer powerful tools and concepts for the control of mobile manipulator systems. Fundamentals in Modeling and Control of Mobile Manipulators presents a thorough theoretical treatment of several fundamental problems for mobile robotic manipulators. The book integrates fresh concepts and state-of-the-art results to systematically examine kinematics and dynamics, motion generation, feedback control, coordination, and cooperation. From this treatment, the authors form a basic theoretical framework for a mobile robotic manipulator that extends the theory of nonlinear control and applies to more realistic problems. Drawing on their research over the past ten years, the authors propose novel control theory concepts and techniques to tackle key problems. Topics covered include kinematic and dynamic modeling, control of nonholonomic systems, path planning that considers motion and manipulation, hybrid motion/force control and hybrid position/force control where the mobile manipulator is required to interact with environments, and coordination and cooperation strategies for multiple mobile manipulators. The book also includes practical examples of applications in engineering systems. This timely book investigates important scientific and engineering issues for researchers and engineers working with either single or multiple mobile manipulators for larger operational space, better cooperation, and improved productivity.

This book aims at providing algorithms for balance control of legged, torque-controlled humanoid robots. A humanoid robot normally uses the feet for locomotion. This paradigm is extended by addressing the challenge of multi-contact balancing, which allows a humanoid robot to exploit an arbitrary number of contacts for support. Using multiple contacts increases the size of the support polygon, which in turn leads to an increased robustness of the stance and to an increased kinematic workspace of the robot. Both are important features for facilitating a transition of humanoid robots from research laboratories to real-world applications, where they are confronted with multiple challenging scenarios, such as climbing stairs and ladders, traversing debris, handling heavy loads, or working in confined spaces. The distribution of forces and torques among the multiple contacts is a challenging aspect of the problem, which arises from the closed kinematic chain given by the robot and its environment.

Musical robotics is a multi- and trans-disciplinary research area involving a wide range of different domains that contribute to its development, including: computer science, multimodal interfaces and processing, artificial intelligence, electronics, robotics, mechatronics and more. A musical robot requires many different complex systems to work together; integrating musical representation, techniques, expressions, detailed analysis and controls, for both playing and listening. The development of interactive multimodal systems provides advancements which enable enhanced human-machine interaction and novel possibilities for embodied robotic platforms. This volume is focused on this highly exciting interdisciplinary field. This book consists of 14 chapters highlighting different aspects of musical activities and interactions, discussing cutting edge research related to interactive multimodal systems and their integration with robots to further enhance musical understanding, interpretation, performance, education and enjoyment. It is dichotomized into two sections: Section I focuses on understanding elements of musical performance and expression while Section II concentrates on musical robots and automated instruments. Musical Robots and Interactive Multimodal Systems provides an introduction and foundation for researchers, students and practitioners to key achievements and current research trends on interactive multimodal systems and musical robotics.

This book provides state-of-the-art scientific and engineering research findings and developments in the area of mobile robotics and associated support technologies around the theme of cooperative robotics. The book contains peer reviewed articles presented at the CLAWAR 2016 conference. The book contains a strong stream of papers on multi-legged locomotion and cooperative robotics. There is also a strong collection of papers on human assistive devices, notably wearable exoskeletal and prosthetic devices, and personal care robots and mobility assistance devices designed to meet the growing challenges due to the global ageing society. Robot designs based on biological inspirations and ethical concerns and issues related to the design, development and deployment of robots are also strongly featured.

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.

The robotic mechanism and its controller make a complete system. As the robotic mechanism is reconfigured, the control system has to be adapted accordingly. The need for the reconfiguration usually arises from the changing functional requirements. This book will focus on the adaptive control of robotic manipulators to address the changed conditions. The aim of the book is to summarise and introduce the state-of-the-art technologies in the field of adaptive control of robotic manipulators in order to improve the methodologies on the adaptive control of robotic manipulators. Advances made in the past decades are described in the book, including adaptive control theories and design, and application of adaptive control to robotic manipulators.

Neuro-robotics is one of the most multidisciplinary fields of the last decades, fusing information and knowledge from neuroscience, engineering and computer science. This book focuses on the results from the strategic alliance between Neuroscience and Robotics that help the scientific community to better understand the brain as well as design robotic devices and algorithms for interfacing humans and robots. The first part of the book introduces the idea of neuro-robotics, by presenting state-of-the-art bio-inspired devices. The second part of the book focuses on human-machine interfaces for performance augmentation, which can seen as augmentation of abilities of healthy subjects or assistance in case of the mobility impaired. The third part of the book focuses on the inverse problem, i.e. how we can use robotic devices that physically interact with the human body, in order (a) to understand human motor control and (b) to provide therapy to neurologically impaired people or people with disabilities.

This book focuses on the development and methodologies of trajectory control of differential-drive wheeled nonholonomic mobile robots. The methodologies are based on kinematic models (posture and configuration) and dynamic models, both subject to uncertainties and/or disturbances. The control designs are developed in rectangular coordinates obtained from the first-order sliding mode control in combination with the use of soft computing techniques, such as fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks. Control laws, as well as online learning and adaptation laws, are obtained using the stability analysis for both the developed kinematic and dynamic controllers, based on Lyapunov's stability theory. An extension to the formation control with multiple differential-drive wheeled nonholonomic mobile robots in trajectory tracking tasks is also provided. Results of simulations and experiments are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategies for trajectory tracking situations, considering the parameters of an industrial and a research differential-drive wheeled nonholonomic mobile robot, the PowerBot. Supplementary materials such as source codes and scripts for simulation and visualization of results are made available with the book.

Why AI does not include gender in its agenda? The role of gender in AI, both as part of the community of agents creating such technologies, as well as part of the contents processed by such technologies is, by far, conflictive. Women have been, again, obliterated by this fundamental revolution of our century. Highly innovative and the first step in a series of future studies in this field, this book covers several voices, topics, and perspectives that allow the reader to understand the necessity to include into the AI research agenda such points of view and also to attract more women to this field. The multi-disciplinarity of the contributors, which uses plain language to show the current situation in this field, is a fundamental aspect of the value of this book. Any reader with a genuine interest in the present and future of AI should read it.

This book presents the latest scientific research related to the field of Robotics. It involves different topics such as biomedicine, energy efficiency and home automationand robotics.

The book is written bytechnical experts and researchers from academia and industry working on robotics applications. The book could be used as supplementary material for courses related to Robotics and Domotics. "

This book introduces a comprehensive and mathematically rigorous controller design for families of nonlinear systems with time-varying parameters and unstructured uncertainties. Although the presented methodology is general, the specific family of systems considered is the latest, NextGen, unconventional fixed-wing unmanned aircraft with circulation control or morphing wings, or a combination of both. The approach considers various sources of model and parameter uncertainty, while the controller design depends not on a nominal plant model, but instead on a family of admissible plants. In contrast to existing controller designs that consider multiple models and multiple controllers, the proposed approach is based on the 'one controller fits all models' within the unstructured uncertainty interval. The book presents a modeling-based analysis and synthesis approach with additive uncertainty weighting functions for accurate realization of the candidate systems. This differs significantly from existing designs in that it is capable of handling time-varying characteristics. This research monograph is suitable for scientists, engineers, researchers and graduate students with a background in control system theory who are interested in complex engineering nonlinear systems.

The book, written for a general educated public, compares the most important elements of the human nervous system to the corresponding capacities of robots. Crucial are the areas of activities for which the constraints limiting human and robot performances are much different. Those areas offer opportunities for synergies.The book argues that we now understand mechanisms for emotional feelings in the human brain so well that we will be able to program robots to act as though they also have emotion. Written in a clear and open fashion by an expert neuroscientist, the book will appeal to interested lay readers in addition to neuroscientists and computer scientists.

The book, written for a general educated public, compares the most important elements of the human nervous system to the corresponding capacities of robots. Crucial are the areas of activities for which the constraints limiting human and robot performances are much different. Those areas offer opportunities for synergies.The book argues that we now understand mechanisms for emotional feelings in the human brain so well that we will be able to program robots to act as though they also have emotion. Written in a clear and open fashion by an expert neuroscientist, the book will appeal to interested lay readers in addition to neuroscientists and computer scientists.

This book provides state-of-the-art scientific and engineering research findings and developments in the area of mobile robotics and associated support technologies around the theme of assistive robotics. The book contains peer reviewed articles presented at the CLAWAR 2015 conference. The book contains a comprehensive collection of papers on legged locomotion with numbers of legs from two upward to multi-legs, which includes robots cable of climbing walls, poles, or more complex structures such as continuing the distinctive CLAWAR themes. There are also a strong showing of articles covering human assist devices, notably exoskeletal and prosthetic devices, as well as social robots designed to meet the growing challenges of global ageing population.

Over the past decade, industrial developments in the field of robotics have been aimed primarily at manufacturing. Many of the cases considered for automation have involved the processing of well-defined and rigid products within the motor car and aerospace industries. Current literature includes a large number of books covering both the fundamentals and applications of robots, but none of these books deals with food production as a specialist subject. In the recent past, considerable work has been done examining the use of robots for handling and processing food items. The main objective of this book is to provide an overview of specific applications in the meat, fish and poultry industries, thus increasing the awareness and confidence of the food industry in this technology and the opportunities it offers.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel are some of the most highly trained people in the military, with a job description that spans defusing unexploded ordnance to protecting VIP's and state dignitaries. EOD are also one of the first military groups to work with robots every day. These robots have become an increasingly important tool in EOD work, enabling people to work at safer distances in many dangerous situations. Based on exploratory research investigating interactions between EOD personnel and the robots they use, this study richly describes the nuances of these reciprocal influences, especially those related to operator emotion associated with the robots. In particular, this book examines the activities, processes and contexts that influence or constrain everyday EOD human-robot interactions, what human factors are shaping the (robotic) technology and how people and culture are being changed by using it. The findings from this research have implications for future personnel training, and the refinement of robot design considerations for many fields that rely on critical small group communication and decision-making skills.

Social robotics is a cutting edge research area gathering researchers and stakeholders from various disciplines and organizations. The transformational potential that these machines, in the form of, for example, caregiving, entertainment or partner robots, pose to our societies and to us as individuals seems to be limited by our technical limitations and phantasy alone. This collection contributes to the field of social robotics by exploring its boundaries from a philosophically informed standpoint. It constructively outlines central potentials and challenges and thereby also provides a stable fundament for further research of empirical, qualitative or methodological nature.

An exponentially growing industry, human robot interaction (HRI) research has drawn predominantly upon psychologists' descriptions of mechanisms of face-to-face dyadic interactions. This book considers how social robotics is beginning unwittingly to confront an impasse that has been a perennial dilemma for psychology, associated with the historical 'science vs. art' debate. Raya Jones examines these paradigmatic tensions, and, in tandem, considers ways in which the technology-centred discourse both reflects and impacts upon understanding our relational nature. Chapters in the book explore not only how the technology-centred discourse constructs machines as us, but also how humans feature in this discourse. Focusing on how the social interaction is conceptualised when the human-robot interaction is discussed, this book addresses issues such as the long-term impact on persons and society, authenticity of relationships, and challenges to notions of personhood. By leaving aside terminological issues, Jones attempts to transcend ritual of pitching theories against each other in order to comprehensively analyse terms such as subjectivity, self and personhood and their fluid interplay in the world that we inhabit. Personhood and Social Robotics will be a key text for postgraduate students, researchers and scholars interested in the connection between technology and human psychology, including psychologists, science and technology studies scholars, media studies scholars and humanists. The book will also be of interest to roboticists and HRI researchers, as well as those studying or working in areas of artificial intelligence and interactive technologies more generally.

This book introduces several observer-based methods, including: * the sliding-mode observer * the adaptive observer * the unknown-input observer and * the descriptor observer method for the problem of fault detection, isolation and estimation, allowing readers to compare and contrast the different approaches. The authors present basic material on Lyapunov stability theory, HY control theory, sliding-mode control theory and linear matrix inequality problems in a self-contained and step-by-step manner. Detailed and rigorous mathematical proofs are provided for all the results developed in the text so that readers can quickly gain a good understanding of the material. MATLAB (R) and Simulink (R) codes for all the examples, which can be downloaded from http://extras.springer.com, enable students to follow the methods and illustrative examples easily. The systems used in the examples make the book highly relevant to real-world problems in industrial control engineering and include a seventh-order aircraft model, a single-link flexible joint robot arm and a satellite controller. To help readers quickly find the information they need and to improve readability, the individual chapters are written so as to be semi-independent of each other. Robust Oberserver-Based Fault Diagnosis for Nonlinear Systems Using MATLAB (R) is of interest to process, aerospace, robotics and control engineers, engineering students and researchers with a control engineering background.

This book describes the design, mathematical modeling, control system development and experimental validation of a versatile mobile pipe inspection robot. It also discusses a versatile robotic system for pipeline inspection, together with an original, adaptable tracked mobile robot featuring a patented motion unit. Pipeline inspection is a common field of application for mobile robots because the monitoring of inaccessible, long and narrow pipelines is a very difficult task for humans. The main design objective is to minimize the number of robots needed to inspect different types of horizontal and vertical pipelines, with both smooth and rough surfaces. The book includes extensive information on the various design phases, mathematical modeling, simulations and control system development. In closing, the prototype construction process and testing procedures are presented and supplemented with laboratory and field experiments.

This book focuses on two challenges posed in robot control by the increasing adoption of robots in the everyday human environment: uncertainty and networked communication. Part I of the book describes learning control to address environmental uncertainty. Part II discusses state estimation, active sensing, and complex scenario perception to tackle sensing uncertainty. Part III completes the book with control of networked robots and multi-robot teams. Each chapter features in-depth technical coverage and case studies highlighting the applicability of the techniques, with real robots or in simulation. Platforms include mobile ground, aerial, and underwater robots, as well as humanoid robots and robot arms. Source code and experimental data are available at http://extras.springer.com. The text gathers contributions from academic and industry experts, and offers a valuable resource for researchers or graduate students in robot control and perception. It also benefits researchers in related areas, such as computer vision, nonlinear and learning control, and multi-agent systems.

This reference text provides the theoretical foundations, the emergence, and the application areas of Blockchain in an easy-to-understand manner that would be highly helpful for the researchers, academicians, and industry professionals to understand the disruptive potentials of Blockchain. It explains Blockchain concepts related to Industry 4.0, Smart Healthcare, and the Internet of Things (IoT) and explores Smart Contracts and Consensus algorithms. This book will serve as an ideal reference text for graduate students and academic researchers in electrical engineering, electronics and communication engineering, computer engineering, and information technology. This book * Discusses applications of blockchain technology in diverse sectors such as industry 4.0, education, finance, and supply chain. * Provides theoretical concepts, applications, and research advancements in the field of blockchain. * Covers industry 4.0 digitization platform and blockchain for data management in industry 4.0 in a comprehensive manner. * Emphasizes analysis and design of consensus algorithms, fault tolerance, and strategy to choose the correct consensus algorithm. * Introduces security issues in the industrial internet of things, internet of things, blockchain integration, and blockchain-based applications. The text presents in-depth coverage of theoretical concepts, applications and advances in the field of blockchain technology. This book will be an ideal reference for graduate students and academic researchers in diverse engineering fields such as electrical, electronics and communication, computer, and information technology.

Design of Observer-based Compensators facilitates and adds transparency to design in the frequency domain which is not as well-established among control engineers as time domain design. The presentation of the design procedures starts with a review of the time domain results; therefore, the book also provides quick access to state space methods for control system design.

Frequency domain design of observer-based compensators of all orders is covered. The design of decoupling and disturbance rejecting controllers is presented, and solutions are given to the linear quadratic and the model matching problems. The pole assignment design is facilitated by a new parametric approach in the frequency domain. Anti-windup control is also investigated in the framework of the polynomial approach. The discrete-time results for disturbance rejection and linear quadratic control are also presented.

The book contains worked examples that can easily be reproduced by the reader, and the results are illustrated by simulations.

Robot Hands and Multi-Fingered Haptic Interfaces is a monograph focusing on the comparison of human hands with robot hands, the fundamentals behind designing and creating the latter, and robotics' latest advancements in haptic technology.This work discusses the design of robot hands; contact models at grasping; kinematic models of constraint; dynamic models of the multi-fingered hand; the stability theorem of non-linear control systems; robot hand control; design and control of multi-fingered haptic interfaces; application systems using multi-fingered haptic interfaces; and telecontrol of robot hands using a multi-fingered haptic interface.Robot Hands and Multi-Fingered Haptic Interfaces is intended mainly for readers who have a foundation in basic robot arm engineering. To understand robot hand manipulation, readers must study kinematic constraint models of fingers, hand dynamics with constraints, stability theorems of non-linear control, and multi-fingered hand control - this book will benefit readers' understanding of this full range of issues regarding robot hand manipulation.

Interested in cutting costs and improving the quality of your manufacturing processes to stay competitive?

Unsure about what others have done, what s possible or how best to integrate robots into what you do?

Worried about making costly errors in trying to implement new technology?

Based on the author s wide-ranging experience as a robot user, supplier and consultant, Implementation of Robot Systems will enable you to approach the use of robots in your plant or facility armed with the right base knowledge and awareness of critical factors to take into account.

Written to assist engineers and managers across various industries in applying robot solutions to real-world manufacturing problems, the book starts with the basics of typical applications and robot capabilities before covering all stages of successful robot integration. Potential problems and pitfalls are flagged and worked through so that you can learn from others mistakes and plan proactively with possible issues in mind.

Taking in content from the author s graduate level teaching of automation and robotics for engineering in business and his consultancy as part of a UK Government program to help companies advance their technologies and practices in the area, Implementation of Robot Systems blends technical information with critical financial and business considerations to help you stay ahead of the competition.
Introduces the key technologies in use and their benefits, focusing on the knowledge needed to enable application to your manufacturing problems

Includes case studies of typical robot capabilities and use across a range of industries, with real-world installation examples and problems encountered

Provides step-by-step coverage of the various stages required to achieve successful implementation, including system design, financial justification, working with suppliers and project management

Offers no-nonsense advice on the pitfalls and issues to anticipate, along with guidance on how to avoid or resolve them for a cost- and time-effective solution "