The papers in this volume provide a vision of the evolution of the robotics disciplines and indicate new directions in which these disciplines are foreseen to develop. Paper topics include, but are not limited to, novel robot design and robot modules/components, service, education, medical, space, welfare and rescue robots, humanoid robots, bio-robotics, multi-robot, embodied multi-agent systems, challenges in control, modeling, kinematical and dynamical analysis of robotic systems, innovations in sensor systems for robots and perception, and recent advances in robotics. In particular, many contributions on humanoid robots from leading Japanese researchers are included.

During the last decades completely new technologies for high speed railway vehicles have been developed. The primary goals have been to increase traction, axle load, and travelling speed, and to guarantee the safety of the passengers. However, new developments have revealed new limitations: settlement and destruction of the ballast and the subgrade lead to deterioration of the track; irregular wear of the wheels causes an increase in overall load and deterioration in passenger comfort; and damage of the running surfaces of the rail and the wheel is becoming more frequent. These problems have been investigated in the Priority Programme SPP 1015 supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), with the goal of better understanding of the dynamic interaction of vehicle and track, and the long-term behavior of the components of the system. The book contains the scientific results of the programme as presented at the concluding colloquium held at University of Stuttgart, Germany, 2002.

The German Research Council (DFG) decided 1987 to establish a nationwide five year research project devoted to dynamics of multibody systems. In this project universities and research centers cooperated with the goal to develop a general pur pose multibody system software package. This concept provides the opportunity to use a modular structure of the software, i.e. different multibody formalisms may be combined with different simulation programmes via standardized interfaces. For the DFG project the database RSYST was chosen using standard FORTRAN 77 and an object oriented multibody system datamodel was defined. The project included * research on the fundamentals of the method of multibody systems, * concepts for new formalisms of dynamical analysis, * development of efficient numerical algorithms and * realization of a powerful software package of multibody systems. These goals required an interdisciplinary cooperation between mathematics, compu ter science, mechanics, and control theory. ix X After a rigorous reviewing process the following research institutions participated in the project (under the responsibility of leading scientists): Technical University of Aachen (Prof. G. Sedlacek) Technical University of Darmstadt (Prof. P. Hagedorn) University of Duisburg M. Hiller) (Prof.

Applied Dynamics is an important branch of engineering mechanics widely applied to mechanical and automotive engineering, aerospace and biomechanics as well as control engineering and mechatronics. The computational methods presented are based on common fundamentals. For this purpose analytical mechanics turns out to be very useful where D Alembert s principle in the Lagrangian formulation proves to be most efficient. The method of multibody systems, finite element systems and continuous systems are treated consistently. Thus, students get a much better understanding of dynamical phenomena, and engineers in design and development departments using computer codes may check the results more easily by choosing models of different complexity for vibration and stress analysis."

The coupling of models from different physical domains and the efficient and reliable simulation of multidisciplinary problems in engineering applications are important topics for various fields of engineering, in simulation technology and in the development and analysis of numerical solvers.

The volume presents advanced modelling and simulation techniques for the dynamical analysis of coupled engineering systems consisting of mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and biological components as well as control devices often based on computer hardware and software. The book starts with some basics in multibody dynamics and in port-based modelling and focuses on the modelling and simulation of heterogeneous systems with special emphasis on robust and efficient numerical solution techniques and on a variety of applied problems including case studies of co-simulation in industrial applications, methods and problems of model based controller design and real-time application.

Ground Vehicle Dynamics is devoted to the mathematical modelling and dynamical analysis of ground vehicle systems composed of the vehicle body, the guidance and suspension devices and the corresponding guideway. Automobiles on uneven roads and railways on flexible tracks are prominent representatives of ground vehicle systems. All these different kinds of systems are treated in a common way by means of analytical dynamics and control theory. In addition to a detailed modelling of vehicles as multibody systems, the contact theory for rolling wheels and the modelling of guideways by finite element systems as well as stochastic processes are presented. As a particular result of this integrated approach the state equations of the global systems are obtained including the complete interactions between the subsystems considered as independent modules. The fundamentals of vehicle dynamics for longitudinal, lateral and vertical motions and vibrations of automobiles and railways are discussed in detail.

This book contains an edited versIOn of lectures presented at the NATO ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE on VIRTUAL NONLINEAR MUL TIBODY SYSTEMS which was held in Prague, Czech Republic, from 23 June to 3 July 2002. It was organized by the Department of Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, in cooperation with the Institute B of Mechanics, University of Stuttgart, Germany. The ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE addressed the state of the art in multibody dynamics placing special emphasis on nonlinear systems, virtual reality, and control design as required in mechatronics and its corresponding applications. Eighty-six participants from twenty-two countries representing academia, industry, government and research institutions attended the meeting. The high qualification of the participants contributed greatly to the success of the ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE in that it promoted the exchange of experience between leading scientists and young scholars, and encouraged discussions to generate new ideas and to define directions of research and future developments. The full program of the ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE included also contributed presentations made by participants where different topics were explored, among them: Such topics include: nonholonomic systems; flexible multibody systems; contact, impact and collision; numerical methods of differential-algebraical equations; simulation approaches; virtual modelling; mechatronic design; control; biomechanics; space structures and vehicle dynamics. These presentations have been reviewed and a selection will be published in this volume, and in special issues of the journals Multibody System Dynamics and Mechanics of Structures and Machines.

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.

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.

Applied Dynamics is an important branch of engineering mechanics widely applied to mechanical and automotive engineering, aerospace and biomechanics as well as control engineering and mechatronics. The computational methods presented are based on common fundamentals. For this purpose analytical mechanics turns out to be very useful where D’Alembert’s principle in the Lagrangian formulation proves to be most efficient. The method of multibody systems, finite element systems and continuous systems are treated consistently. Thus, students get a much better understanding of dynamical phenomena, and engineers in design and development departments using computer codes may check the results more easily by choosing models of different complexity for vibration and stress analysis.

Ground Vehicle Dynamics is devoted to the mathematical modelling and dynamical analysis of ground vehicle systems composed of the vehicle body, the guidance and suspension devices and the corresponding guideway. Automobiles on uneven roads and railways on flexible tracks are prominent representatives of ground vehicle systems. All these different kinds of systems are treated in a common way by means of analytical dynamics and control theory. In addition to a detailed modelling of vehicles as multibody systems, the contact theory for rolling wheels and the modelling of guideways by finite element systems as well as stochastic processes are presented. As a particular result of this integrated approach the state equations of the global systems are obtained including the complete interactions between the subsystems considered as independent modules. The fundamentals of vehicle dynamics for longitudinal, lateral and vertical motions and vibrations of automobiles and railways are discussed in detail.

In the last decade the development in vibration analysis was char acterized by increasing demands on precision and by the growing use of electronic computers. At present, improvements in precision are obtained by a more accurate modelling of technical systems. Thus, for instance, a system with one degree of freedom is often not accepted, as it used to be, as a model for vibration analysis in mechanical engineering. As a rule, vehicles and machines have to be modelled as systems with many degrees of freedom such as multibody systems, finite element systems or con tinua. The mathematical description of multi-degree-of-freedom systems leads to matrix representations of the corresponding equations. These are then conveniently analyzed by means of electronic computers, that is, by the analog computer and especially by the digital machine. Hence there exists a mutually stimulating interaction between the growing require ments and the increasing computational facilities. The present book deals with linear vibration analysis of technical systems with many degrees of freedom in a form allowing the use of computers for finding solutions. Part I begins with the classification of vibrating systems. The main characteristics here are the kind of differential equation, the time depen dence of the coefficients and the attributes of the exciting process. Next it is shown by giving examples involving mechanical vibrating systems how to set up equations of motion and how to transform these into state equations."

Dynamics of multibody systems is of great importance in the fields of robotics, biomechanics, spacecraft control, road and rail vehicle design, and dynamics of machinery. Many research problems have been solved and a considerable number of computer codes based on multibody formalisms is now available. With the present book it is intended to collect software systems for multibody system dynamics which are well established and have found acceptance in the users community. The Handbook will aid the reader in selecting the software system which is most appropriate to his needs. Altogether 17 research groups contributed to the Handbook. A compact summary of important capabilities of these software systems is presented in tabular form. All authors dealt with two typical test examples, a planar mechanism and a spatial robot. Thus, it is very easy to compare the results and to identify more clearly the advantages of one or the other formalism.

A first Symposium on Dynamics of Multibody Systems was held August 29 September 3, 1977 , under the chairmanship of - Prof. Dr. K. Magnus in Munich, FRG. Since that -time considerable progress has been made in the dynamics of multibody systems, a discipline renderin~ essential services to the fields of robotics, biomechanics, spacecraft control, road and rail vehicle design, and dynamics of machinery. Therefore, the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) has initiated and sponsored, in cooperation with the International 'c Federation for Theory of Machines and Mechanisms (IFToMM), a Symposium on Dynamics of Multibody Systems, held at the International Centre of Mechanical Sciences (CISM) in Udine, Italy, ~eptember 16-20, 1985. The aims of the symposium were to generate knowledge, to stimulate research, to disseminate new ideas, and to acquaint the scientific community in general with the work currently in progress in the area of multibody dynamics. A Scientific Committee has been appointed consisting of G. Bianch~ (Co-Chairman), Italy; T.R. Kane, USA; R. Kawai, Japan; D.M. Klimov, USSR; K. Magnus, FRG; F. Niordson, Denmark; A.D. de Pater, The Netherlands; B. Roth, U~A; W. Schiehlen (Co-Chairman), FRG; J. Wittenburg, FRG.

The International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) initiated and sponsored an International Symposium on Nonlinear Dynamics in Engineering Systems held in 1989 in Stuttgart, FRG. The Symposium was intended to bring together scientists working in different fields of dynamics to exchange ideas and to discuss new trends with special emphasis on nonlinear dynamics in engineering systems. A Scientific Committee was appointed by the Bureau of IUTAM with the following members: S. Arimoto (Japan), F.L. Chernousko (USSR), P.J. Holmes (USA), C.S. Hsu (USA), G. looss (France), F.C. Moon (USA), W. Schiehlen (FRG), Chairman, G. Schmidt (GDR), W. Szemplinska-Stupnicka (Poland), J.M.T. Thompson (UK), H. Troger (Austria). This committee selected the participants to be invited and the papers to be presented at the Symposium. As a result of this procedure 78 active scientific participants from 22 countries followed the invitation, and 44 papers were presented in lecture and poster sessions. They are collected in this volume. At the Symposium an exhibition with experiments took place and the movie "An Introduction to the Analysis of Chaotic Dynamics" by E.J. Kreuzer et.al. was presented. The scientific lectures were devoted to the following topics: o Dynamic Structural Engineering Problems, o Analysis of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems, o Bifurcation Problems, o Chaotic Dynamics and Control Problems, o Miscellaneous Problems, o Experimental and Theoretical Investigations, o Chaotic Oscillations of Engineering Systems, o Characterization of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems, o Nonlinear Stochastic Systems.

The International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) initiated and supported an International Symposium on Dynamical Problems for Rigid-elastic Systems and Structures held in 1990 in Moscow, USSR. The Symposium was intended to bring together scientists working in the fields of multibody system dynamics and finite element systems with special emphasis to modeling, simulation, optimization and control. A Scientific Committee was appointed by the Bureau of IUTAM with following members: N.V. Banichuk (USSR). E.J. Haug (USA). Y. Hori (Japan). S. Kaliszky (Hungary), D.M. Klimov (USSR). Chairman, L. Lilov (Bulgaria), F. Niordson (Denmark), B. Roth (USA), W. Schiehlen (Germany), G. Schmidt (Germany), J. Wittenburg (Germany). The chairman invited the participants on recommendation by the Scientific Committee. As a result 48 active scientific participants from 11 countries followed the invitation, and 32 papers were presented in lecture sessions. The available manuscripts were reviewed by the Scientific Committee after the Symposium, and 24 of them are collected in this volume. At the Symposium a tour to the Institute for Problems of Mechanics, USSR Academy of Sciences, was arranged. The scientific lectures were devoted to the following topics: o Modeling and Optimization, o Dynamics of Systems with Elastic Constraints, o Vibrations, o Multibody Systems.

The International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) initiated and sponsored an International Symposium on Optimization of Mechanical Systems held in 1995 in Stuttgart, Germany. The Symposium was intended to bring together scientists working in different fields of optimization to exchange ideas and to discuss new trends with special emphasis on multi body systems. A Scientific Committee was appointed by the Bureau of IUTAM with the following members: S. Arimoto (Japan) EL. Chernousko (Russia) M. Geradin (Belgium) E.J. Haug (U.S.A.) C.A.M. Soares (Portugal) N. Olhoff (Denmark) W.O. Schiehlen (Germany, Chairman) K. Schittkowski (Germany) R.S. Sharp (U.K.) W. Stadler (U.S.A.) H.-B. Zhao (China) This committee selected the participants to be invited and the papers to be presented at the Symposium. As a result of this procedure, 90 active scientific participants from 20 countries followed the invitation, and 49 papers were presented in lecture and poster sessions.

During the last decades completely new technologies for high speed railway vehicles have been developed. The primary goals have been to increase traction, axle load, and travelling speed, and to guarantee the safety of the passengers. However, new developments have revealed new limitations: settlement and destruction of the ballast and the subgrade lead to deterioration of the track; irregular wear of the wheels causes an increase in overall load and deterioration in passenger comfort; and damage of the running surfaces of the rail and the wheel is becoming more frequent. These problems have been investigated in the Priority Programme SPP 1015 supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), with the goal of better understanding of the dynamic interaction of vehicle and track, and the long-term behavior of the components of the system. The book contains the scientific results of the programme as presented at the concluding colloquium held at University of Stuttgart, Germany, 2002.

The coupling of models from different physical domains and the efficient and reliable simulation of multidisciplinary problems in engineering applications are important topics for various fields of engineering, in simulation technology and in the development and analysis of numerical solvers.

The volume presents advanced modelling and simulation techniques for the dynamical analysis of coupled engineering systems consisting of mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and biological components as well as control devices often based on computer hardware and software. The book starts with some basics in multibody dynamics and in port-based modelling and focuses on the modelling and simulation of heterogeneous systems with special emphasis on robust and efficient numerical solution techniques and on a variety of applied problems including case studies of co-simulation in industrial applications, methods and problems of model based controller design and real-time application.

The German Research Council (DFG) decided 1987 to establish a nationwide five year research project devoted to dynamics of multibody systems. In this project universities and research centers cooperated with the goal to develop a general pur pose multibody system software package. This concept provides the opportunity to use a modular structure of the software, i.e. different multibody formalisms may be combined with different simulation programmes via standardized interfaces. For the DFG project the database RSYST was chosen using standard FORTRAN 77 and an object oriented multibody system datamodel was defined. The project included * research on the fundamentals of the method of multibody systems, * concepts for new formalisms of dynamical analysis, * development of efficient numerical algorithms and * realization of a powerful software package of multibody systems. These goals required an interdisciplinary cooperation between mathematics, compu ter science, mechanics, and control theory. ix X After a rigorous reviewing process the following research institutions participated in the project (under the responsibility of leading scientists): Technical University of Aachen (Prof. G. Sedlacek) Technical University of Darmstadt (Prof. P. Hagedorn) University of Duisburg M. Hiller) (Prof.

This book contains an edited versIOn of lectures presented at the NATO ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE on VIRTUAL NONLINEAR MUL TIBODY SYSTEMS which was held in Prague, Czech Republic, from 23 June to 3 July 2002. It was organized by the Department of Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, in cooperation with the Institute B of Mechanics, University of Stuttgart, Germany. The ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE addressed the state of the art in multibody dynamics placing special emphasis on nonlinear systems, virtual reality, and control design as required in mechatronics and its corresponding applications. Eighty-six participants from twenty-two countries representing academia, industry, government and research institutions attended the meeting. The high qualification of the participants contributed greatly to the success of the ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE in that it promoted the exchange of experience between leading scientists and young scholars, and encouraged discussions to generate new ideas and to define directions of research and future developments. The full program of the ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE included also contributed presentations made by participants where different topics were explored, among them: Such topics include: nonholonomic systems; flexible multibody systems; contact, impact and collision; numerical methods of differential-algebraical equations; simulation approaches; virtual modelling; mechatronic design; control; biomechanics; space structures and vehicle dynamics. These presentations have been reviewed and a selection will be published in this volume, and in special issues of the journals Multibody System Dynamics and Mechanics of Structures and Machines.

This book summarizes the developments in stochastic analysis and estimation. It presents novel applications to practical problems in mechanical systems. The main aspects of the course are random vibrations of discrete and continuous systems, analysis of nonlinear and parametric systems, stochastic modelling of fatigue damage, parameter estimation and identification with applications to vehicle road systems and process simulations by means of autoregressive models. The contributions will be of interest to engineers and research workers in industries and universities who want first hand information on present trends and problems in this topical field of engineering dynamics.

In diesem Lehrbuch werden die heute gebrauchlichen Berechnungsmethoden auf einer gemeinsamen Basis dargestellt. So lassen sich die Methoden der Mehrkoerpersysteme, der Finiten Elemente und der kontinuierlichen Systeme in einheitlicher Weise behandeln. Dies vermittelt den Studierenden ein tieferes Verstandnis und ermoeglicht den Ingenieurinnen und Ingenieuren eine sichere Beurteilung der Berechnungsergebnisse. Die Technische Dynamik, ein Fachgebiet der Technischen Mechanik, ist eine weit verzweigte Wissenschaft mit Anwendungen im Maschinen- und Fahrzeugbau, in der Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik und der Regelungstechnik bis hin zur biomedizinischen Technik. Die aktuelle Auflage wurde uberarbeitet und das Literatur- und Sachwortverzeichnis erweitert.