Robotic vision, the combination of robotics and computer vision, involves the application of computer algorithms to data acquired from sensors. The research community has developed a large body of such algorithms but for a newcomer to the field this can be quite daunting. For over 20 years the author has maintained two open-source MATLAB® Toolboxes, one for robotics and one for vision. They provide implementations of many important algorithms and allow users to work with real problems, not just trivial examples. This book makes the fundamental algorithms of robotics, vision and control accessible to all. It weaves together theory, algorithms and examples in a narrative that covers robotics and computer vision separately and together. Using the latest versions of the Toolboxes the author shows how complex problems can be decomposed and solved using just a few simple lines of code. The topics covered are guided by real problems observed by the author over many years as a practitioner of both robotics and computer vision. It is written in an accessible but informative style, easy to read and absorb, and includes over 1000 MATLAB and Simulink® examples and over 400 figures. The book is a real walk through the fundamentals of mobile robots, arm robots. then camera models, image processing, feature extraction and multi-view geometry and finally bringing it all together with an extensive discussion of visual servo systems. This second edition is completely revised, updated and extended with coverage of Lie groups, matrix exponentials and twists; inertial navigation; differential drive robots; lattice planners; pose-graph SLAM and map making; restructured material on arm-robot kinematics and dynamics; series-elastic actuators and operational-space control; Lab color spaces; light field cameras; structured light, bundle adjustment and visual odometry; and photometric visual servoing. “An authoritative book, reaching across fields, thoughtfully conceived and brilliantly accomplished!” OUSSAMA KHATIB, Stanford

This publication covers all the topics which are relevant to Advanced Robotics today, ranging from Systems Design to Reasoning and Planning. It is based on the Seventh International Symposium on Robotics Research held in Germany on October, 21 - 24th, 1995. The papers were written by specialists in the field from the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and Canada. The editors, who also chaired this symposium, present the latest research results as well as new approaches to long standing problems. Robotics Research is a contribution to the emerging concepts, methods and tools that shape Robotics. The papers range from pure research reports to application-oriented studies. The topics covered include: manipulation, control, virtual reality, motion planning, 3D vision and industrial systems' issues.

Arc welding is one of the key processes in industrial manufacturing, with welders using two types of processes - gas metal arc welding (GMAW) and gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). This new book provides a survey-oriented account of the modeling, sensing, and automatic control of the GMAW process.Researchers are presented with the most recent information in the areas of modeling, sensing and automatic control of the GMAW process, collecting a number of original research results on the topic from the authors and colleagues. Providing an overview of a variety of topics, this book looks at the classification of various welding processes; the modeling aspects of GMAW; physics of welding; metal transfer characteristics; weld pool geometry; process voltages and variables; power supplies; sensing (sensors for arc length, weld penetration control, weld pool geometry, using optical and intelligent sensors); control techniques of PI, PID, multivariable control, adaptive control, and intelligent control. Finally, the book illustrates a case study presented by the authors and their students at Idaho State University, in collaboration with researchers at the Idaho National Engineering and Environment Laboratory.

Spatial Reasoning and Multi-Sensor Fusion

The purpose of robot vision is to enable robots to perceive the external world in order to perform a large range of tasks such as navigation, visual servoing for object tracking and manipulation, object recognition and categorization, surveillance, and higher-level decision-making. Among different perceptual modalities, vision is arguably the most important one. It is therefore an essential building block of a cognitive robot. This book presents a snapshot of the wide variety of work in robot vision that is currently going on in different parts of the world.