The field of robotic vision has advanced dramatically recently with the development of new range sensors. Tremendous progress has been made resulting in significant impact on areas such as robotic navigation, scene/environment understanding, and visual learning. This edited book provides a solid and diversified reference source for some of the most recent important advancements in the field of robotic vision. The book starts with articles that describe new techniques to understand scenes from 2D/3D data such as estimation of planar structures, recognition of multiple objects in the scene using different kinds of features as well as their spatial and semantic relationships, generation of 3D object models, approach to recognize partially occluded objects, etc. Novel techniques are introduced to improve 3D perception accuracy with other sensors such as a gyroscope, positioning accuracy with a visual servoing based alignment strategy for microassembly, and increasing object recognition reliability using related manipulation motion models. For autonomous robot navigation, different vision-based localization and tracking strategies and algorithms are discussed. New approaches using probabilistic analysis for robot navigation, online learning of vision-based robot control, and 3D motion estimation via intensity differences from a monocular camera are described. This collection will be beneficial to graduate students, researchers, and professionals working in the area of robotic vision.

Recent advancements in Lyapunov-based design and analysis techniques have applications to a broad class of engineering systems, including mechanical, electrical, robotic, aerospace, and underactuated systems. This book provides a practical yet rigorous development of nonlinear, Lyapunov-based tools and their use in the solution of control-theoretic problems. Rich in motivating examples and new design techniques, the text balances theoretical foundations and real-world implementation.

Features include:

* Control designs for a broad class of engineering systems

* Presentation of adaptive and learning control methods for uncertain nonlinear systems

* Experimental testbed descriptions and results that guide the reader toward techniques for further research

* Development of necessary mathematical background in each chapter; additional mathematical prerequisites contained in two appendices

Intended for readers who have some knowledge of undergraduate systems theory, the book includes a wide range of applications making it suitable for an extensive audience. Graduate students and researchers in control systems, robotics, and applied mathematics, as well as professional engineers will appreciate the work s combination of theoretical underpinnings and current and emerging engineering applications."

Lyapunov-Based Control of Robotic Systems describes nonlinear control design solutions for problems that arise from robots required to interact with and manipulate their environments. Since most practical scenarios require the design of nonlinear controllers to work around uncertainty and measurement-related issues, the authors use Lyapunov's direct method as an effective tool to design and analyze controllers for robotic systems. After describing the evolution of real-time control design systems and the associated operating environments and hardware platforms, the book presents a host of standard control design tools for robotic systems using a common Lyapunov-based framework. It then discusses several problems in visual servoing control, including the design of homography-based visual servo control methods and the classic structure from motion problem. The book also deals with the issues of path planning and control for manipulator arms and wheeled mobile robots. With a focus on the emerging research area of human machine interaction, the final chapter illustrates the design of control schemes based on passivity such that the machine is a net energy sink. Including much of the authors' own research work in controls and robotics, this book facilitates an understanding of the application of Lyapunov-based control design techniques to up-and-coming problems in robotics.

The field of robotic vision has advanced dramatically recently with the development of new range sensors. Tremendous progress has been made resulting in significant impact on areas such as robotic navigation, scene/environment understanding, and visual learning. This edited book provides a solid and diversified reference source for some of the most recent important advancements in the field of robotic vision. The book starts with articles that describe new techniques to understand scenes from 2D/3D data such as estimation of planar structures, recognition of multiple objects in the scene using different kinds of features as well as their spatial and semantic relationships, generation of 3D object models, approach to recognize partially occluded objects, etc. Novel techniques are introduced to improve 3D perception accuracy with other sensors such as a gyroscope, positioning accuracy with a visual servoing based alignment strategy for microassembly, and increasing object recognition reliability using related manipulation motion models. For autonomous robot navigation, different vision-based localization and tracking strategies and algorithms are discussed. New approaches using probabilistic analysis for robot navigation, online learning of vision-based robot control, and 3D motion estimation via intensity differences from a monocular camera are described. This collection will be beneficial to graduate students, researchers, and professionals working in the area of robotic vision.  

This practical yet rigorous book provides a development of nonlinear, Lyapunov-based tools and their use in the solution of control-theoretic problems. Rich in motivating examples and new design techniques, the text balances theoretical foundations and real-world implementation.

This book examines the control problem for wheeled mobile robots. Several novel control strategies are developed and the stability of each controller is examined utilizing Lyapunov techniques. The performance of each controller is either illustrated through simulation results or experimental results. The final chapter describes how the control techniques developed for wheeled mobile robots can be applied to solve other problems with similar governing differential equations (e.g., twin rotor helicopters, surface vessels). Several appendices are included to provide the reader with the mathematical background utilized in the control development and stability analysis. Two appendices are also included that provide specific details with regard to the modifications that were done to commercially available mobile robots (e.g., a K2A manufactured by Cybermotion Inc. and a Pioneer II manufactured by Activemedia) to experimentally demonstrate the performance of the torque input controllers.

Lyapunov-Based Control of Robotic Systems describes nonlinear control design solutions for problems that arise from robots required to interact with and manipulate their environments. Since most practical scenarios require the design of nonlinear controllers to work around uncertainty and measurement-related issues, the authors use Lyapunov's direct method as an effective tool to design and analyze controllers for robotic systems. After describing the evolution of real-time control design systems and the associated operating environments and hardware platforms, the book presents a host of standard control design tools for robotic systems using a common Lyapunov-based framework. It then discusses several problems in visual servoing control, including the design of homography-based visual servo control methods and the classic structure from motion problem. The book also deals with the issues of path planning and control for manipulator arms and wheeled mobile robots. With a focus on the emerging research area of human machine interaction, the final chapter illustrates the design of control schemes based on passivity such that the machine is a net energy sink. Including much of the authors' own research work in controls and robotics, this book facilitates an understanding of the application of Lyapunov-based control design techniques to up-and-coming problems in robotics.