Multiple Heterogeneous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Aerial robots can be considered as an evolution of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). This book provides a quite complete overview of issues related to aerial robotics, addressing problems ranging from flight control to terrain perception and mission planning and execution. The major challenges and potentials of heterogeneous UAVs are comprehensively explored. It builds on the results of the European project COMETS, and highlights a number of key research topics in the area of UAV development, including communication, perception, teleoperation and decision making. The monograph emphasizes the current state of technology, the existing problems and potentialities of systems consisting of multiple UAVs which are heterogeneous in view of the different characteristics of the aerial vehicles, the different on-board payloads, and the different on-board information processing capabilities. The book also examines potential applications of UAVs and details a relevant application case: forest fire detection and monitoring.
Multiple Abstraction Hierachies for Mobile Robot Operation in Large Environments
This book focuses on the efficient performance of mobile robots through the use of multi-hierarchical symbolic representations of the environment. A mobile robot intended to perform deliberative actions must possess some symbolic representation of its workspace, but such representations of real environments usually become so large that should be conveniently arranged in order to facilitate and, in some cases, make possible their use. This book addresses all these issues considering symbolic multi-hierarchical structures. Such structures, based on the concept of abstraction, allow a robot to speed up its operation in large environments. Practical solutions tested on real robots (for instance, a robotic wheelchair for elder people) are provided.
Multi-body Dynamic Modeling of Multi-legged Robots
This book describes the development of an integrated approach for generating the path and gait of realistic hexapod robotic systems. It discusses in detail locomation with straight-ahead, crab and turning motion capabilities in varying terrains, like sloping surfaces, staircases, and various user-defined rough terrains. It also presents computer simulations and validation using Virtual Prototyping (VP) tools and real-world experiments.
Multi-Arm Cooperating Robots : Dynamics and Control
This book will be useful to a wide audience of engineers, ranging from undergraduate and graduate students, new and advanced academic researchers, to practitioners (mechanical and electrical engineers, computer and system scientists). It is intended for readers whose work involves manufacturing, industrial, robotics, automation, computer and control engineering, and who wish to find out about this important new technology and its potential advantages for control engineering applications.
Motion Planning in Medicine : Optimization and Simulation Algorithms for Image-Guided Procedures
The monograph written by Ron Alterovitz and Ken Goldberg combines ideas from robotics, physically-based modeling, and operations research to develop new motion planning and optimization algorithms for image-guided medical procedures. A challenge clinicians commonly face is compensating for errors caused by soft tissue deformations that occur when imaging devices or surgical tools physically contact soft tissue. A number of methods are presented which can be applied to a variety of medical procedures, from biopsies to anaesthesia injections to radiation cancer treatment. They can also be extended to address problems outside the context of medical robotics, including nonholonomic motion planning for mobile robots in field or manufacturing environments.
Modeling Communication with Robots and Virtual Humans ; Second ZiF Research Group International Workshop on Embodied Communication in Humans and Machines, Bielefeld, Germany, April 5-8, 2006, Revised Selected Papers
The 17 articles in this state-of-the-art survey address artificial intelligence research on communicative agents and also provide an interdisciplinary perspective from linguistics, behavioral research, theoretical biology, philosophy, communication psychology, and computational neuroscience. The topics include studies on human multimodal communication; the modeling of feedback signals, facial expression, eye contact, and deception; the recognition and comprehension of hand gestures and head movements; communication interfaces for humanoid robots; the evolution of cognition and language; emotion and social appraisal in nonverbal communication; dialogue models and methodologies; theory of mind and intentionality; complex systems, dynamic field theory, and connectionist modeling.
Model Abstraction in Dynamical Systems : Application to Mobile Robot Control
The subject of this book is model abstraction of dynamical systems. The p- mary goal of the work embodied in this book is to design a controller for the mobile robotic car using abstraction. Abstraction provides a means to rep- sent the dynamics of a system using a simpler model while retaining important characteristics of the original system. A second goal of this work is to study the propagation of uncertain initial conditions in the framework of abstraction. The summation of this work is presented in this book.
Mobile Robots : The Evolutionary Approach
The design and control of autonomous intelligent mobile robotic systems operating in unstructured changing environments includes many objective difficulties. There are several studies about the ways in which, robots exhibiting some degree of autonomy, adapt themselves to fit in their environments. The application and use of bio-inspired and intelligent techniques such as reinforcement learning, artificial neural networks, evolutionary computation and so forth in the design and improvement of robot designs is an emergent research topic. Researchers have obtained robots that display an amazing slew of behaviours and perform a multitude of tasks. These include perception of environment, planning and navigation in rough terrain, pushing boxes, negotiating an obstacle course, etc.
Micro-, Meso- and Macro-Dynamics of the Brain
This book brings together leading investigators who represent various aspects of brain dynamics with the goal of presenting state-of-the-art current progress and address future developments. The topics cover the most fascinating facets of neuroscience from elementary computation of neurons, mesoscopic network oscillations, internally generated assembly sequences in the service of cognition, large-scale neuronal interactions within and across systems, the impact of sleep on cognition, memory and mental illness, brain controlled robots, motor-sensory integration, spatial navigation, large-scale computation and consciousness. Overall, this volume offers an integrated view of the challenges and opportunities in deciphering brain circuits in health and disease.
Introduction to robotics : Analysis, control, applications
Offers a guide to the fundamentals of robotics, robot components and subsystems and applications. The author—a noted expert on the topic—covers the mechanics and kinematics of serial and parallel robots, both with the Denavit-Hartenberg approach as well as screw-based mechanics. In addition, the text contains information on microprocessor applications, control systems, vision systems, sensors, and actuators.
Intelligent Mobile Robot Navigation
the book spans across different domains ranging from mobile robots to intelligent transportation systems, from automatic control to artificial intelligence.
Innovations in Intelligent Machines - 1
This book includes a collection of chapters on the state of art in the area of intelligent machines. This research would provide a sound basis to make autonomous systems human-like. The contributions include: An introduction to intelligent machines / Supervisory control of multiple UAVs / Intelligent autonomous UAV task allocation / UAV path planning / Dynamic path planning / Routing in UAVS State estimation of micro air vehicles / Architecture for soccer playing robots / Robot perception / Application engineers scientists and researchers will find this book useful.
Information Storage : A Multidisciplinary Perspective
Examines some of the underlying processes behind different forms of information management, including how we store information in our brains, the impact of new technologies such as computers and robots on our efficiency in storing information, and how information is stored in families and in society.
Industrial Robots Programming : Building Applications for the Factories of the Future
Industrial Robots Programming focuses on designing and building robotic manufacturing cells, and explores the capabilities of today’s industrial equipment as well as the latest computer and software technologies. Special attention is given to the input devices and systems that create efficient human-machine interfaces, and how they help non-technical personnel perform necessary programming, control, and supervision tasks.
Hybrid Estimation of Complex Systems
This monograph provides a tool-set for hybrid estimation that can successfully monitor the behavior of complex artifacts with a large number of possible operational and failure modes such as production plants, automotive or aeronautic systems, and autonomous robots.
Group Coordination and Cooperative Control
Group coordination and cooperative control are topics currently receiving a lot of interest. Coordinating the motion of a group of relatively simple and inexpensive agents can cover a larger operational area and achieve complex tasks exceeding the abilities of a single agent. This enables applications such as teams of robots for de-mining operations, aerospace formation flying for survey, fleets of AUVs for oceanographic mapping, and ships doing coordinated towing operations. This volume contains the contributions of the workshop. The book covers a wide range of subjects within the area of group coordination and cooperative control, and forms a valuable and up-to-date text on the newer trends in group coordination and cooperative control.
Grippers in Motion : The Fascination of Automated Handling Tasks
This book shows you how to ensure process reliability on the basis of combining the right components with advanced application know-how. By explaining basic preconditions of the gripping process and highlighting the milestones of automation history, we guide you all the way through to the center of the handling process – the workpiece. Its ambient conditions and setup are clearly defined as well as the process of setting grippers in motion. Starting with simple linear movements up to multi-axis kinematics, you are provided with the details for practical solutions.
Graph-based representations in pattern recognition ; 6th IAPR-TC-15 International Workshop, GbRPR 2007, Alicante, Spain, June 11-13, 2007, Proceedings
Constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th IAPR-TC-15 International Workshop on Graph-Based Representations in Pattern Recognition, GbRPR 2007, held in Alicante, Spain in June 2007.
Genetic Systems Programming : Theory and Experiences
This book is devoted to reporting innovative and significant progress about the contribution of genetic programming in systems programming. The contributions of this book clearly demonstrate that genetic programming is very effective in solving hard and yet-open problems in systems programming. Followed by an introductory chapter, in the remaining contributed chapters, the reader can easily learn about systems where genetic programming can be applied successfully. These include but are not limited to, information security systems, compilers, data mining systems, stock market prediction systems, robots and automatic programming.
Fundamentals of Robotic Mechanical Systems : Theory, Methods, and Algorithms
Fundamentals of Robotic Mechanical Systems, Third Edition addresses robots at large - such as multi-fingered hands, walking machines, flight simulators, and machine tools - that rely on mechanical systems to perform their tasks. The author establishes the foundations on which the design, control, and implementation of the underlying mechanical subsystems are based. The treatment assumes familiarity with some calculus, linear algebra, and elementary mechanics; however, the elements of rigid-body mechanics and linear transformations are reviewed in the first chapters, making the presentation self-contained.



















