The Robotics Primer

The Robotics Primer
Author: Maja J. Mataric
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2007-08-17
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 026263354X

A broadly accessible introduction to robotics that spans the most basic concepts and the most novel applications; for students, teachers, and hobbyists. The Robotics Primer offers a broadly accessible introduction to robotics for students at pre-university and university levels, robot hobbyists, and anyone interested in this burgeoning field. The text takes the reader from the most basic concepts (including perception and movement) to the most novel and sophisticated applications and topics (humanoids, shape-shifting robots, space robotics), with an emphasis on what it takes to create autonomous intelligent robot behavior. The core concepts of robotics are carried through from fundamental definitions to more complex explanations, all presented in an engaging, conversational style that will appeal to readers of different backgrounds. The Robotics Primer covers such topics as the definition of robotics, the history of robotics (“Where do Robots Come From?”), robot components, locomotion, manipulation, sensors, control, control architectures, representation, behavior (“Making Your Robot Behave”), navigation, group robotics, learning, and the future of robotics (and its ethical implications). To encourage further engagement, experimentation, and course and lesson design, The Robotics Primer is accompanied by a free robot programming exercise workbook that implements many of the ideas on the book on iRobot platforms. The Robotics Primer is unique as a principled, pedagogical treatment of the topic that is accessible to a broad audience; the only prerequisites are curiosity and attention. It can be used effectively in an educational setting or more informally for self-instruction. The Robotics Primer is a springboard for readers of all backgrounds—including students taking robotics as an elective outside the major, graduate students preparing to specialize in robotics, and K-12 teachers who bring robotics into their classrooms.

Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots, second edition

Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots, second edition
Author: Roland Siegwart
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 473
Release: 2011-02-18
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262015358

The second edition of a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of mobile robotics, from algorithms to mechanisms. Mobile robots range from the Mars Pathfinder mission's teleoperated Sojourner to the cleaning robots in the Paris Metro. This text offers students and other interested readers an introduction to the fundamentals of mobile robotics, spanning the mechanical, motor, sensory, perceptual, and cognitive layers the field comprises. The text focuses on mobility itself, offering an overview of the mechanisms that allow a mobile robot to move through a real world environment to perform its tasks, including locomotion, sensing, localization, and motion planning. It synthesizes material from such fields as kinematics, control theory, signal analysis, computer vision, information theory, artificial intelligence, and probability theory. The book presents the techniques and technology that enable mobility in a series of interacting modules. Each chapter treats a different aspect of mobility, as the book moves from low-level to high-level details. It covers all aspects of mobile robotics, including software and hardware design considerations, related technologies, and algorithmic techniques. This second edition has been revised and updated throughout, with 130 pages of new material on such topics as locomotion, perception, localization, and planning and navigation. Problem sets have been added at the end of each chapter. Bringing together all aspects of mobile robotics into one volume, Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots can serve as a textbook or a working tool for beginning practitioners. Curriculum developed by Dr. Robert King, Colorado School of Mines, and Dr. James Conrad, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to accompany the National Instruments LabVIEW Robotics Starter Kit, are available. Included are 13 (6 by Dr. King and 7 by Dr. Conrad) laboratory exercises for using the LabVIEW Robotics Starter Kit to teach mobile robotics concepts.

The Developmental Organization of Robot Behavior

The Developmental Organization of Robot Behavior
Author: Roderic A. Grupen
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 403
Release: 2023-03-14
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262363291

A comprehensive introduction to the mathematical foundations of movement and actuation that apply equally to animals and machines. This textbook offers a computational framework for the sensorimotor stage of development as applied to robotics. Much work in developmental robotics is based on ad hoc examples, without a full computational basis. This book's comprehensive and complete treatment fills the gap, drawing on the principal mechanisms of development in the first year of life to introduce what is essentially an operating system for developing robots. The goal is to apply principles of development to robot systems that not only achieve new levels of performance but also provide evidence for scientific theories of human development.

Cognitive Robotics

Cognitive Robotics
Author: Angelo Cangelosi
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2022-05-17
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0262046830

The current state of the art in cognitive robotics, covering the challenges of building AI-powered intelligent robots inspired by natural cognitive systems. A novel approach to building AI-powered intelligent robots takes inspiration from the way natural cognitive systems—in humans, animals, and biological systems—develop intelligence by exploiting the full power of interactions between body and brain, the physical and social environment in which they live, and phylogenetic, developmental, and learning dynamics. This volume reports on the current state of the art in cognitive robotics, offering the first comprehensive coverage of building robots inspired by natural cognitive systems. Contributors first provide a systematic definition of cognitive robotics and a history of developments in the field. They describe in detail five main approaches: developmental, neuro, evolutionary, swarm, and soft robotics. They go on to consider methodologies and concepts, treating topics that include commonly used cognitive robotics platforms and robot simulators, biomimetic skin as an example of a hardware-based approach, machine-learning methods, and cognitive architecture. Finally, they cover the behavioral and cognitive capabilities of a variety of models, experiments, and applications, looking at issues that range from intrinsic motivation and perception to robot consciousness. Cognitive Robotics is aimed at an interdisciplinary audience, balancing technical details and examples for the computational reader with theoretical and experimental findings for the empirical scientist.

Probabilistic Robotics

Probabilistic Robotics
Author: Sebastian Thrun
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 668
Release: 2005-08-19
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0262201623

An introduction to the techniques and algorithms of the newest field in robotics. Probabilistic robotics is a new and growing area in robotics, concerned with perception and control in the face of uncertainty. Building on the field of mathematical statistics, probabilistic robotics endows robots with a new level of robustness in real-world situations. This book introduces the reader to a wealth of techniques and algorithms in the field. All algorithms are based on a single overarching mathematical foundation. Each chapter provides example implementations in pseudo code, detailed mathematical derivations, discussions from a practitioner's perspective, and extensive lists of exercises and class projects. The book's Web site, www.probabilistic-robotics.org, has additional material. The book is relevant for anyone involved in robotic software development and scientific research. It will also be of interest to applied statisticians and engineers dealing with real-world sensor data.

Intelligent Robotics and Applications

Intelligent Robotics and Applications
Author: Honghai Liu
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 801
Release: 2022-08-03
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3031138449

The 4-volume set LNAI 13455 - 13458 constitutes the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications, ICIRA 2022, which took place in Harbin China, during August 2022. The 284 papers included in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 442 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: Robotics, Mechatronics, Applications, Robotic Machining, Medical Engineering, Soft and Hybrid Robots, Human-robot Collaboration, Machine Intelligence, and Human Robot Interaction.

Intelligent Robotics and Applications

Intelligent Robotics and Applications
Author: Jeschke Sabina
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 645
Release: 2011-11-29
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3642254888

The two volume set LNAI 7101 and 7102 constitute the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications, ICIRA 2011, held in Aachen, Germany, in November 2011. The 122 revised full papers presented were thoroughly reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. They are organized in topical sections on progress in indoor UAV, robotics intelligence, industrial robots, rehabilitation robotics, mechanisms and their applications, multi robot systems, robot mechanism and design, parallel kinematics, parallel kinematics machines and parallel robotics, handling and manipulation, tangibility in human-machine interaction, navigation and localization of mobile robot, a body for the brain: embodied intelligence in bio-inspired robotics, intelligent visual systems, self-optimising production systems, computational intelligence, robot control systems, human-robot interaction, manipulators and applications, stability, dynamics and interpolation, evolutionary robotics, bio-inspired robotics, and image-processing applications.

Developmental Robotics

Developmental Robotics
Author: Angelo Cangelosi
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 427
Release: 2015-01-09
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0262028018

A comprehensive overview of an interdisciplinary approach to robotics that takes direct inspiration from the developmental and learning phenomena observed in children's cognitive development. Developmental robotics is a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to robotics that is directly inspired by the developmental principles and mechanisms observed in children's cognitive development. It builds on the idea that the robot, using a set of intrinsic developmental principles regulating the real-time interaction of its body, brain, and environment, can autonomously acquire an increasingly complex set of sensorimotor and mental capabilities. This volume, drawing on insights from psychology, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, and robotics, offers the first comprehensive overview of a rapidly growing field. After providing some essential background information on robotics and developmental psychology, the book looks in detail at how developmental robotics models and experiments have attempted to realize a range of behavioral and cognitive capabilities. The examples in these chapters were chosen because of their direct correspondence with specific issues in child psychology research; each chapter begins with a concise and accessible overview of relevant empirical and theoretical findings in developmental psychology. The chapters cover intrinsic motivation and curiosity; motor development, examining both manipulation and locomotion; perceptual development, including face recognition and perception of space; social learning, emphasizing such phenomena as joint attention and cooperation; language, from phonetic babbling to syntactic processing; and abstract knowledge, including models of number learning and reasoning strategies. Boxed text offers technical and methodological details for both psychology and robotics experiments.

Intelligent Robotics and Applications

Intelligent Robotics and Applications
Author: Chun-Yi Su
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 642
Release: 2012-09-28
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3642335039

The three volume set LNAI 7506, LNAI 7507 and LNAI 7508 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications, ICIRA 2012, held in Montreal, Canada, in October 2012. The 197 revised full papers presented were thoroughly reviewed and selected from 271 submissions. They present the state-of-the-art developments in robotics, automation and mechatronics. This volume covers the topics of robot actuators and sensors; robot design, development and control; robot intelligence, learning and linguistics; robot mechanism and design; robot motion analysis and planning; robotic vision, recognition and reconstruction; and planning and navigation.

Mobile Microrobotics

Mobile Microrobotics
Author: Metin Sitti
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2017-06-16
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0262341018

The first textbook on micron-scale mobile robotics, introducing the fundamentals of design, analysis, fabrication, and control, and drawing on case studies of existing approaches. Progress in micro- and nano-scale science and technology has created a demand for new microsystems for high-impact applications in healthcare, biotechnology, manufacturing, and mobile sensor networks. The new robotics field of microrobotics has emerged to extend our interactions and explorations to sub-millimeter scales. This is the first textbook on micron-scale mobile robotics, introducing the fundamentals of design, analysis, fabrication, and control, and drawing on case studies of existing approaches. The book covers the scaling laws that can be used to determine the dominant forces and effects at the micron scale; models forces acting on microrobots, including surface forces, friction, and viscous drag; and describes such possible microfabrication techniques as photo-lithography, bulk micromachining, and deep reactive ion etching. It presents on-board and remote sensing methods, noting that remote sensors are currently more feasible; studies possible on-board microactuators; discusses self-propulsion methods that use self-generated local gradients and fields or biological cells in liquid environments; and describes remote microrobot actuation methods for use in limited spaces such as inside the human body. It covers possible on-board powering methods, indispensable in future medical and other applications; locomotion methods for robots on surfaces, in liquids, in air, and on fluid-air interfaces; and the challenges of microrobot localization and control, in particular multi-robot control methods for magnetic microrobots. Finally, the book addresses current and future applications, including noninvasive medical diagnosis and treatment, environmental remediation, and scientific tools.