The fields of control and robotics are now at an advanced level of maturity both in theory and practice. Numerous systems are used effectively in industrial production and other sectors of modern life. This volume contains a well-balanced collection of over fifty papers focusing on analysis and design problems. The current trends and advances in the fields are reflected. Topics covered include: system analysis, identification and stability optimal, adaptive, robust and QFT controller design design and application of driving simulators industrial robots and telemanipulators mobile, service, and legged robots virtual reality in robotics The book brings together important original results derived from a variety of academic and engineering environments. Also, it serves as a timely reference volume for the researcher and practitioner.

This book provides an essential overview of the authors’ work in the field of cable-suspended parallel robots, focusing on innovative design, mechanics, control, development and applications. It presents and analyzes several typical mechanical architectures of cable-suspended parallel robots in practical applications, including the feed cable-suspended structure for super antennae, hybrid-driven-based cable-suspended parallel robots, and cooperative cable parallel manipulators for multiple mobile cranes. It also addresses the fundamental mechanics of cable-suspended parallel robots on the basis of their typical applications, including the kinematics, dynamics and trajectory tracking control of the feed cable-suspended structure for super antennae. In addition it proposes a novel hybrid-driven-based cable-suspended parallel robot that uses integrated mechanism design methods to improve the performance of traditional cable-suspended parallel robots. A comparative study on error and performance indices of hybrid-driven based and traditional cable-suspended parallel robots rounds out the coverage. This book addresses the needs of researchers, engineers and post-graduates in the field of cable-suspended parallel robots and related areas.

The last two decades have witnessed considerable progress in the study of underactuated robotic systems (URSs). Control Design and Analysis for Underactuated Robotic Systems presents a unified treatment of control design and analysis for a class of URSs, which include systems with multiple-degree-of-freedom and/or with underactuation degree two. It presents novel notions, features, design techniques and strictly global motion analysis results for these systems. These new materials are shown to be vital in studying the control design and stability analysis of URSs. Control Design and Analysis for Underactuated Robotic Systems includes the modelling, control design and analysis presented in a systematic way particularly for the following examples: l directly and remotely driven Acrobots l Pendubot l rotational pendulum l counter-weighted Acrobot 2-link underactuated robot with flexible elbow joint l variable-length pendulum l 3-link gymnastic robot with passive first joint l n-link planar robot with passive first joint l n-link planar robot with passive single joint double, or two parallel pendulums on a cart l 3-link planar robots with underactuation degree two 2-link free flying robot The theoretical developments are validated by experimental results for the remotely driven Acrobot and the rotational pendulum. Control Design and Analysis for Underactuated Robotic Systems is intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and researchers in the area of control systems, mechanical and robotics systems, nonlinear systems and oscillation. This text will not only enable the reader to gain a better understanding of the power and fundamental limitations of linear and nonlinear control theory for the control design and analysis for these URSs, but also inspire the reader to address the challenges of more complex URSs.

This book unites two fast-developing forms of control—vision-based control and fractional-order control—and applies them in mechatronic systems. Image-Based and Fractional-Order Control for Mechatronic Systems is presented in two parts covering the theory and applications of the subject matter. The theoretical material presents the concepts of visual servoing and image-based feature extraction for feedback loops and fractional-order control. It discusses a range of systems from the classic monocular camera to new RGB-D sensors. The applications part of the book first discusses practical issues with the implementation of fractional-order control, comparing them with more traditional integer-order PID systems. The authors then introduce real-life examples such as a manipulator robot and a Stewart platform and results generated from such systems. MATLAB® functions and source codes are included wherever relevant to help readers develop simulations based on the theoretical ideas and practical examples in the text. Suggestions for the use of other pertinent open-source software are also indicated with the places where such may be obtained. With its combination of theoretical ideas and practical examples, Image-Based and Fractional-Order Control for Mechatronic Systems will be of interest to academic researchers looking to develop the fields of vision-based and fractional-order control and to engineers who are looking for developments that will help them provide closer control of their plants than can be achieved with integer-order PID. Advances in Industrial Control reports and encourages the transfer of technology in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology has an impact on all areas of the control discipline. The series offers an opportunity for researchers to present an extended exposition of new work in all aspects of industrial control.

These two volumes constitute the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications, ICIRA 2008, held in Wuhan, China, in October 2008. The 265 revised full papers presented were thoroughly reviewed and selected from 552 submissions; they are devoted but not limited to robot motion planning and manipulation; robot control; cognitive robotics; rehabilitation robotics; health care and artificial limb; robot learning; robot vision; human-machine interaction & coordination; mobile robotics; micro/nano mechanical systems; manufacturing automation; multi-axis surface machining; realworld applications.

Research results using some of the most advanced soft computing techniques in intelligent robotic systems are presented. The main purpose of this book is to show how the power of soft computing techniques can be exploited in intelligent robotic systems. The main emphasis is on control system for a mobile robot, behavior arbitration for a mobile robot, reinforcement learning of a robot, manipulation of a robot, collision avoidance and automatic design of robots. This book will be useful for application engineers, scientists and researchers who wish to use some of the most advanced soft computing techniques in robotics.