Bücher der Reihe Foundations and Trends (R) in Robotics

By building robotic systems with soft materials, we can realize systems that are safer, cheaper, and more adaptable than the level that conventional rigid-material robots can achieve. This volume introduces the fundamental aspects of this vibrant research topic from history, modelling, control, and system integration.

Presents the findings and recommendations of a study conducted by the Hellenic Institute of Advanced Study. By presenting various applications and possibilities, this monograph should appeal to persons involved specifically with robotics, and technology development in general.

Focuses on the inclusion of security in robotics from the earliest design phases onward and with a special focus on the cost-benefit tradeoff that can otherwise be an inhibitor for the fast development of affordable systems. The authors advocate for quantitative methods of security management and design.

Provides an in-depth overview and practical examples of how robots can be deployed during a disaster. As such it should prove useful for roboticists, researchers in various fields related to robotics as well as industry professionals who are responsible for saving lives and mitigating societal impacts in times of disaster.

Presents a summary of challenges to deliver desired solutions and a presentation of efforts to be undertaken to ensure that US will continue to be a leader in robotics, both in terms of research innovation, adoption of the latest technology, and adoption of policy frameworks that ensure that the technology is utilized in a responsible fashion.

Robotics and related technologies are central to the ongoing digitization and advancement of manufacturing. In this work, the authors study the changing technological landscape of robotics and ""internet-of-things"" (IoT)-based connective technologies over the last 8-10 years in the wake of Industry 4.0.

Provides an overarching snapshot of where semantics in robotics stands today. The authors establish a taxonomy for semantics research in or relevant to robotics, split into four broad categories of activity in which semantics are extracted, used, or both.

Reviews the existing work that explores the role of physical embodiment in socially interactive robots. This book explores the embodiment hypothesis that physical embodiment has a measurable effect on performance and perception of social interactions in socially interactive robotics, and presents a thorough review of existing work.

Provides researchers, engineers and students with a comprehensive overview of core modeling, control, estimation, and planning concepts and approaches for micro aerial robots of the rotorcraft class. This monograph is a valuable starting point for researchers and developers working with aerial robots or drones.

Introduces cyber maritime cycle as a collection of feedback loops where the flow of data is regulated by functional blocks of autonomy. As a new development, the split between the data-driven cycle and the geo-scientific modelling cycle allows the separation of data streams with different time and spatial scales.

Solving estimation problems is a fundamental component of numerous robotics applications. Algorithms for solving these estimation problems need to cope with new challenges. This book addresses these challenges by providing an introduction to robust estimation with a particular focus on robotics.

Provides a systematic overview of the field of Human-Robot Interaction over the past decade, with a focus on the computational frameworks, algorithms, techniques, and models currently used to enable robots to interact with humans.

Focuses on the mechanical design of legged robots. The book introduces the topic by looking at the history of legged robots, taking us up to the dynamic legged machines that are today pushing the boundaries of speed and performance through advances in materials, design, and control.

Addresses the problem of geometric registration and the classical Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm. Though commonly used in several research fields, the focus here is on mobile robotics in which point clouds need to be registered. Even with this narrowed focus, the problem is still complex and multiple-faceted.

Autonomous navigation is an essential capability for mobile robots. In order to operate robustly, a robot needs to know what the environment looks like, where it is in its environment, and how to navigate it. This book summarizes approaches that address these problems and that use particle filters as the underlying model for representing beliefs.

The term Structure from Motion was coined by the computer vision community to define the problem of estimating the three-dimensional structure of the scene and the motion from two-dimensional image sequences. This book considers the same estimation problem but where the sensor suit is also composed of inertial sensors.

Provides a tutorial on the relevant physical phenomena governing the operation and design of microrobots, as well as a survey of existing approaches to microrobot design and control. The book also provides a detailed practical overview of actuation and control methods that are commonly used to remotely power these designs.

Where do robots get their information? For a given task, what information is necessary? What is even meant by "information"? These questions lie at the heart of robotics. In this book, the author presents an unusual view of these subjects by characterizing the uncertainty due to the many-to-one mappings between the world and sensor readings.

Presents a review of autonomous robotic perception, exploring recent work from the autonomous robotics and tracking communities in general as well as from the authors' own experiences. Throughout the text, experiments and results are derived from the authors' experiences with laser and radar based sensors.

Summarizes the rationale for robot-assisted therapy and presents the technological steps in the evolution of the design and development of lower and upper extremity rehabilitation robots. The book outlines several design criteria that are relevant for the development of effective and safe rehabilitation robots.

Presents a Mathematical Programming (MP) framework that captures the salient features of the general Multi-Vehicle Motion Planning (MVMP) problem. To demonstrate the use of MP for the formulation and solution of MVMP problems, the book examines in detail four representative works and summarizes several other related ones.