This book covers all topics relevant for the design of haptic interfaces and teleoperation systems. The book provides the basic knowledge required for understanding more complex approaches and more importantly it introduces all issues that must be considered for designing efficient and safe haptic interfaces. Topics covered in this book provide insight into all relevant components of a haptic system.
The reader is guided from understanding the virtual reality concept to the final goal of being able to design haptic interfaces for specific tasks such as nanomanipulation.

The introduction chapter positions the haptic interfaces within the virtual reality context. In order to design haptic interfaces that will comply with human capabilities at least basic understanding of human sensors-motor system is required. An overview of this topic is provided in the chapter related to human haptics. The book does not try to introduce the state-of-the-art haptic interface solutions because these tend to change quickly. Only a careful selection of different kinematic configurations is shown to introduce the reader into this field.
Mathematical models of virtual environment, collision detection and force rendering topics are strongly interrelated and are described in the next two chapters. The interaction with the virtual environment is simulated with a haptic interface. Impedance and admittance based approaches to haptic robot control are presented. Stability issues of haptic interaction are analyzed in details and solutions are proposed for guaranteeing stable and safe operation. Finally, haptic interaction is extended to teleoperation systems. Virtual fixtures which improve the teleoperation and human-robot cooperation in complex environments are covered next and the last chapter presents nanomanipulation as one specific example of teleoperation.

As virtual reality expands from the imaginary worlds of science fiction and pervades every corner of everyday life, it is becoming increasingly important for students and professionals alike to understand the diverse aspects of this technology. This book aims to provide a comprehensive guide to the theoretical and practical elements of virtual reality, from the mathematical and technological foundations of virtual worlds to the human factors and the applications that enrich our lives: in the fields of medicine, entertainment, education and others. After providing a brief introduction to the topic, the book describes the kinematic and dynamic mathematical models of virtual worlds. It explores the many ways a computer can track and interpret human movement, then progresses through the modalities that make up a virtual world: visual, acoustic and haptic. It explores the interaction between the actual and virtual environments, as well as design principles of the latter. The book closes with an examination of different applications, focusing on augmented reality as a special case. Though the content is primarily VR-related, it is also relevant for many other fields.

The word "robot" does not originate from a science or engineering vocabulary. It was rst used in the Czech drama R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) written by Karel Capek and was rst played in Prague in 1921 (the word itself was invented by his brother Josef). In the drama the "robot" is an arti cial human being which is a brilliant worker, deprived of all unnecessary qualities: feelings, creativity and capacity for feeling pain. In the prologue of the drama the following "de nition" of robots is given: Robots are not people (Roboti nejsou lide). They are mecha- cally more perfect than we are, they have an astounding intellectual capacity, but they have no soul. The creation of an engineer is technically more re ned than the product of nature. The textbook "Robotics" evolved through more than 10 years of teaching robotics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The way of presenting the rather demanding subject was successfully tested with several generations of undergraduatestudents."

This book covers all topics relevant for the design of haptic interfaces and teleoperation systems. The book provides the basic knowledge required for understanding more complex approaches and more importantly it introduces all issues that must be considered for designing efficient and safe haptic interfaces. Topics covered in this book provide insight into all relevant components of a haptic system. The reader is guided from understanding the virtual reality concept to the final goal of being able to design haptic interfaces for specific tasks such as nanomanipulation. The introduction chapter positions the haptic interfaces within the virtual reality context. In order to design haptic interfaces that will comply with human capabilities at least basic understanding of human sensors-motor system is required. An overview of this topic is provided in the chapter related to human haptics. The book does not try to introduce the state-of-the-art haptic interface solutions because these tend to change quickly. Only a careful selection of different kinematic configurations is shown to introduce the reader into this field. Mathematical models of virtual environment, collision detection and force rendering topics are strongly interrelated and are described in the next two chapters. The interaction with the virtual environment is simulated with a haptic interface. Impedance and admittance based approaches to haptic robot control are presented. Stability issues of haptic interaction are analyzed in details and solutions are proposed for guaranteeing stable and safe operation. Finally, haptic interaction is extended to teleoperation systems. Virtual fixtures which improve the teleoperation and human-robot cooperation in complex environments are covered next and the last chapter presents nanomanipulation as one specific example of teleoperation.

This book is focused on geometrical models of robot mechanisms. Rotation and orientation of an object are described by Rodrigues's formula, rotation matrix and quaternions. Pose and displacement of an object are mathematically dealt with homogenous transformation matrices. The geometrical robot model is based on Denavit Hartenberg parameters. Direct and inverse model of six degrees of freedom anthropomorphic industrial robots are also presented.

The word "robot" does not originate from a science or engineering vocabulary. It was rst used in the Czech drama R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) written by Karel Capek and was rst played in Prague in 1921 (the word itself was invented by his brother Josef). In the drama the "robot" is an arti cial human being which is a brilliant worker, deprived of all unnecessary qualities: feelings, creativity and capacity for feeling pain. In the prologue of the drama the following "de nition" of robots is given: Robots are not people (Roboti nejsou lide). They are mecha- cally more perfect than we are, they have an astounding intellectual capacity, but they have no soul. The creation of an engineer is technically more re ned than the product of nature. The textbook "Robotics" evolved through more than 10 years of teaching robotics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The way of presenting the rather demanding subject was successfully tested with several generations of undergraduatestudents."