%{search_type} search results

• Introduction
• Basics
• Body schema learning
• Learning kinematic models of articulated objects
• Vision-based perception of articulated objects
• Object recognition using tactile sensors
• Object state estimation using tactile sensors
• Learning manipulation tasks by demonstration
• Conclusions.

Mobile manipulation robots are envisioned to provide many useful services both in domestic environments as well as in the industrial context. Examples include domestic service robots that implement large parts of the housework, and versatile industrial assistants that provide automation, transportation, inspection, and monitoring services. The challenge in these applications is that the robots have to function under changing, real-world conditions, be able to deal with considerable amounts of noise and uncertainty, and operate without the supervision of an expert. This book presents novel learning techniques that enable mobile manipulation robots, i.e., mobile platforms with one or more robotic manipulators, to autonomously adapt to new or changing situations. The approaches presented in this book cover the following topics: (1) learning the robot's kinematic structure and properties using actuation and visual feedback, (2) learning about articulated objects in the environment in which the robot is operating, (3) using tactile feedback to augment the visual perception, and (4) learning novel manipulation tasks from human demonstrations. This book is an ideal resource for postgraduates and researchers working in robotics, computer vision, and artificial intelligence who want to get an overview on one of the following subjects: · kinematic modeling and learning, · self-calibration and life-long adaptation, · tactile sensing and tactile object recognition, and ·imitation learning and programming by demonstration.

• Energy-Time Efficiency in Aerial Swarm Deployment / Timothy Stirling and Dario Floreano
• A Distributed, Real-Time Approach to Multi Robot Uniform Frequency Coverage / Giorgio Cannata and Antonio Sgorbissa
• Connectivity Maintenance of a Heterogeneous Sensor Network / Randy Andres Cortez, Rafael Fierro and John Wood
• Multi-robot Topological Exploration Using Olfactory Cues / Ali Marjovi and Lino Marques
• Distributed Coverage and Exploration in Unknown Non-convex Environments / Subhrajit Bhattacharya, Nathan Michael and Vijay Kumar
• Evaluating Efficient Data Collection Algorithms for Environmental Sensor Networks / William C. Evans, Alexander Bahr and Alcherio Martinoli
• A Plume Tracking Algorithm Based on Crosswind Formations / Thomas Lochmatter, Ebru Aydın Göl, Iñaki Navarro and Alcherio Martinoli
• Cooperative Distributed Object Tracking by Multiple Robots Based on Feature Selection / Takayuki Umeda, Kosuke Sekiyama and Toshio Fukuda.

• Pancakes: A Software Framework for Distributed Robot and Sensor Network Applications / Patrick Martin, Jean-Pierre de la Croix and Magnus Egerstedt
• Distributed Information Filters for MAV Cooperative Localization / Andrea Cristofaro, Alessandro Renzaglia and Agostino Martinelli
• Multi-robot Map Updating in Dynamic Environments / Fabrizio Abrate, Basilio Bona, Marina Indri, Stefano Rosa and Federico Tibaldi
• Any-Com Multi-robot Path-Planning: Maximizing Collaboration for Variable Bandwidth / Michael Otte and Nikolaus Correll
• An Improved Particle Swarm Optimization Method for Motion Planning of Multiple Robots / Ellips Masehian and Davoud Sedighizadeh
• Decentralized and Prioritized Navigation and Collision Avoidance for Multiple Mobile Robots / Giannis Roussos and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos
• Optimal Reciprocal Collision Avoidance for Multiple Non-Holonomic Robots / Javier Alonso-Mora, Andreas Breitenmoser, Martin Rufli, Paul Beardsley and Roland Siegwart.

• Visual-Aided Guidance for the Maintenance of Multirobot Formations / Patricio Nebot and Enric Cervera
• Reactive Coordination and Adaptive Lattice Formation in Mobile Robotic Surveillance Swarms / Robert J. Mullen, Dorothy Monekosso, Sarah Barman and Paolo Remagnino
• Probabilistic Communication Based Potential Force for Robot Formations: A Practical Approach / Simon Bjerg Mikkelsen, René Jespersen and Trung Dung Ngo
• Coordinating a Group of Autonomous Robotic Floats in Shallow Seas / Eemeli Aro, Zhongliang Hu, Mika Vainio and Aarne Halme
• Distributed Algebraic Connectivity Maximization for Robotic Networks: A Heuristic Approach / Andrea Simonetto, Tamás Keviczky and Robert Babuška
• Beat-Based Synchronization and Steering for Groups of Fixed-Wing Flying Robots / Sabine Hauert, Severin Leven, Jean-Christophe Zufferey and Dario Floreano
• Distributed Filtering for Time-Delayed Deployment to Multiple Sites / T. William Mather, Christopher Braun and M. Ani Hsieh.

• A Formal Approach to Deployment of Robotic Teams in an Urban-Like Environment / Yushan Chen, Xu Chu Ding, Alin Stefanescu and Calin Belta
• Heuristic Planning for Decentralized MDPs with Sparse Interactions / Francisco S. Melo and Manuela Veloso
• A Note on the Consensus Protocol with Some Applications to Agent Orbit Pattern Generation / Panagiotis Tsiotras and Luis Ignacio Reyes Castro
• Utilizing Stochastic Processes for Computing Distributions of Large-Size Robot Population Optimal Centralized Control / Dejan Milutinović
• Robust Multi-robot Team Formations Using Weighted Voting Games / Prithviraj Dasgupta and Ke Cheng
• Influence Maximization for Informed Agents in Collective Behavior / Amir Asiaee Taheri, Mohammad Afshar and Masoud Asadpour
• Emergence of Specialization in a Swarm of Robots / Ádám M. Halász, Yanting Liang, M. Ani Hsieh and Hong-Jian Lai.

• Distributed Colony-Level Algorithm Switching for Robot Swarm Foraging / Nicholas Hoff, Robert Wood and Radhika Nagpal
• On Fault Tolerance and Scalability of Swarm Robotic Systems / Jan Dyre Bjerknes and Alan F.T. Winfield
• Hierarchical Distributed Task Allocation for Multi-robot Exploration / John Hawley and Zack Butler
• Endocrine Control for Task Distribution among Heterogeneous Robots / Joanne H. Walker and Myra S. Wilson
• Hierarchical Planning for Self-reconfiguring Robots Using Module Kinematics / Robert Fitch and Rowan McAllister
• Heterogeneous Self-assembling Based on Constraint Satisfaction Problem / Serge Kernbach
• A New Graph Signature Calculation Method Based on Power Centrality for Modular Robots / Keyvan Golestan, Masoud Asadpour and Hadi Moradi
• Sensor-Coupled Fractal Gene Regulatory Networks for Locomotion Control of a Modular Snake Robot / Payam Zahadat, David Johan Christensen, Serajeddin Katebi and Kasper Stoy.

• Analysis of Human Standing-Up Motion Based on Distributed Muscle Control / Qi An, Yusuke Ikemoto, Hajime Asama and Tamio Arai
• Cooperative Grasping and Transport Using Multiple Quadrotors / Daniel Mellinger, Michael Shomin, Nathan Michael and Vijay Kumar
• Cooperative Transportation by Swarm Robots Using Pheromone Communication / Ryusuke Fujisawa, Hikaru Imamura and Fumitoshi Matsuno
• Socially-Mediated Negotiation for Obstacle Avoidance in Collective Transport / Eliseo Ferrante, Manuele Brambilla, Mauro Birattari and Marco Dorigo
• Physical Interactions in Swarm Robotics: The Hand-Bot Case Study / Michael Bonani, Philippe Rétornaz, Stéphane Magnenat, Hannes Bleuler and Francesco Mondada
• A Low-Cost Multi-robot System for Research, Teaching, and Outreach / James McLurkin, Andrew J. Lynch, Scott Rixner, Thomas W. Barr and Alvin Chou, et al.

Distributed robotics is a rapidly growing, interdisciplinary research area lying at the intersection of computer science, communication and control systems, and electrical and mechanical engineering. The goal of the Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS) is to exchange and stimulate research ideas to realize advanced distributed robotic systems. This volume of proceedings includes 43 original contributions presented at the Tenth International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS 2010), which was held in November 2010 at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. The selected papers in this volume are authored by leading researchers from Asia, Europa, and the Americas, thereby providing a broad coverage and perspective of the state-of-the-art technologies, algorithms, system architectures, and applications in distributed robotic systems. The book is organized into four parts, each representing one critical and long-term research thrust in the multi-robot community: distributed sensing (Part I); localization, navigation, and formations (Part II); coordination algorithms and formal methods (Part III); modularity, distributed manipulation, and platforms (Part IV).
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Direct Structure from Motion
• Online Loop Detection
• Online 3D Model Simplification
• Conclusions.

This book proposes a complete pipeline for monocular (single camera) based 3D mapping of terrestrial and underwater environments. The aim is to provide a solution to large-scale scene modeling that is both accurate and efficient. To this end, we have developed a novel Structure from Motion algorithm that increases mapping accuracy by registering camera views directly with the maps. The camera registration uses a dual approach that adapts to the type of environment being mapped. In order to further increase the accuracy of the resulting maps, a new method is presented, allowing detection of images corresponding to the same scene region (crossovers). Crossovers then used in conjunction with global alignment methods in order to highly reduce estimation errors, especially when mapping large areas. Our method is based on Visual Bag of Words paradigm (BoW), offering a more efficient and simpler solution by eliminating the training stage, generally required by state of the art BoW algorithms. Also, towards developing methods for efficient mapping of large areas (especially with costs related to map storage, transmission and rendering in mind), an online 3D model simplification algorithm is proposed. This new algorithm presents the advantage of selecting only those vertices that are geometrically representative for the scene.

• Introduction
• Feature-Based Image Mosaicing
• A New Global Alignment Method for Feature Based Image Mosaicing
• Combined ASKF-EKF Framework for Topology Estimation
• Topology Estimation Using Bundle Adjustment
• Conclusions.

Large scale optical mapping methods are in great demand among scientists who study different aspects of the seabed, and have been fostered by impressive advances in the capabilities of underwater robots in gathering optical data from the seafloor. Cost and weight constraints mean that low-cost ROVs usually have a very limited number of sensors. When a low-cost robot carries out a seafloor survey using a down-looking camera, it usually follows a predefined trajectory that provides several non time-consecutive overlapping image pairs. Finding these pairs (a process known as topology estimation) is indispensable to obtaining globally consistent mosaics and accurate trajectory estimates, which are necessary for a global view of the surveyed area, especially when optical sensors are the only data source. This book contributes to the state-of-art in large area image mosaicing methods for underwater surveys using low-cost vehicles equipped with a very limited sensor suite. The main focus has been on global alignment and fast topology estimation, which are the most challenging steps in creating large area image mosaics. This book is intended to emphasise the importance of the topology estimation problem and to present different solutions using interdisciplinary approaches opening a way to further develop new strategies and methodologies.

• An Optimization-Based Estimation and Adaptive Control Approach for Human-Robot Cooperation / Wilm Decré, Herman Bruyninckx and Joris De Schutter
• Motion-Language Association Model for Human-Robot Communication / Wataru Takano, Minoru Kanazawa and Yoshihiko Nakamura
• Grounding Verbs of Motion in Natural Language Commands to Robots / Thomas Kollar, Stefanie Tellex, Deb Roy and Nicholas Roy
• Mightability: A Multi-state Visuo-spatial Reasoning for Human-Robot Interaction / Amit Kumar Pandey and Rachid Alami
• Learning from Demonstration: A Study of Visual and Auditory Communication and Influence Diagrams / Nathan Koenig, Leila Takayama and Maja J. Matarić
• Reducing Uncertainty in Human-Robot Interaction: A Cost Analysis Approach / Junaed Sattar and Gregory Dudek
• Interface Design and Control Strategies for a Robot Assisted Ultrasonic Examination System / François Conti, Jaeheung Park and Oussama Khatib
• A Novel Discretely Actuated Steerable Probe for Percutaneous Procedures / Elif Ayvali, Mingyen Ho and Jaydev P. Desai
• Continuous Control of the DLR Light-Weight Robot III by a Human with Tetraplegia Using the BrainGate2 Neural Interface System / Joern Vogel, Sami Haddadin, John D. Simeral, Sergey D. Stavisky, Daniel Bacher [and 3 others]
• Automotive Safety Solutions through Technology and Human-Factors Innovation / Jochen Heinzman and Alexander Zelinsky
• Controlling Closed-Chain Robots with Compliant SMA Actuators: Algorithms and Experiments / Kyle Gilpin, Eduardo Torres-Jara and Daniela Rus
• Automatic Self-calibration of a Full Field-of-View 3D n-Laser Scanner / Mark Sheehan, Alastair Harrison and Paul Newman
• Unsupervised Calibration for Multi-beam Lasers / Jesse Levinson and Sebastian Thrun
• A General Framework for Temporal Calibration of Multiple Proprioceptive and Exteroceptive Sensors / Jonathan Kelly and Gaurav S. Sukhatme
• Calibrating a Multi-arm Multi-sensor Robot: A Bundle Adjustment Approach / Vijay Pradeep, Kurt Konolige and Eric Berger
• Soft Autonomous Materials--Using Active Elasticity and Embedded Distributed Computation / Nikolaus Correll, Çağdaş D. Önal, Haiyi Liang, Erik Schoenfeld and Daniela Rus
• Towards Reliable Grasping and Manipulation in Household Environments / Matei Ciocarlie, Kaijen Hsiao, Edward Gil Jones, Sachin Chitta, Radu Bogdan Rusu and Iaon A. Şucan
• Using Near-Field Stereo Vision for Robotic Grasping in Cluttered Environments / Adam Leeper, Kaijen Hsiao, Eric Chu and J. Kenneth Salisbury
• Aerial Grasping from a Helicopter UAV Platform / Paul E. Pounds and Aaron M. Dollar
• Manipulation Capabilities with Simple Hands / Alberto Rodriguez, Matthew T. Mason and Siddhartha S. Srinivasa
• Interactive Perception of Articulated Objects / Dov Katz, Andreas Orthey and Oliver Brock
• MiniMag: A Hemispherical Electromagnetic System for 5-DOF Wireless Micromanipulation / Bradley E. Kratochvil, Michael P. Kummer, Sandro Erni, Ruedi Borer, Dominic R. Frutiger [and 2 others].

• Interaction Force, Impedance and Trajectory Adaptation: By Humans, for Robots / Etienne Burdet, Gowrishankar Ganesh, Chenguang Yang and Alin Albu-Schäffer
• Experiments with Motor Primitives in Table Tennis / Jan Peters, Katharina Mülling and Jens Kober
• Trajectory Generation and Control for Precise Aggressive Maneuvers with Quadrotors / Daniel Mellinger, Nathan Michael and Vijay Kumar
• Improved Stability of Running over Unknown Rough Terrain via Prescribed Energy Removal / Bruce Miller, Ben Andrews and Jonathan E. Clark
• On the Comparative Analysis of Locomotory Systems with Vertical Travel / G.C. Haynes and D.E. Koditschek
• Planning and Control of a Humanoid Robot for Navigation on Uneven Multi-scale Terrain / Koichi Nishiwaki, Joel Chestnutt and Satoshi Kagami
• On-Line Mobile Robot Model Identification Using Integrated Perturbative Dynamics / Forrest Rogers-Marcovitz and Alonzo Kelly
• Effects of Sensory Precision on Mobile Robot Localization and Mapping / John G. Rogers III, Alexander J.B. Trevor, Carlos Nieto-Granda, Alex Cunningham [and 5 others]
• Motion-Aided Network SLAM / Joseph Djugash and Sanjiv Singh
• A Bayesian Approach to Learning 3D Representations of Dynamic Environments / Ralf Kästner, Nikolas Engelhard, Rudolph Triebel and Roland Siegwart
• RGB-D Mapping: Using Depth Cameras for Dense 3D Modeling of Indoor Environments / Peter Henry, Michael Krainin, Evan Herbst, Xiaofeng Ren and Dieter Fox
• Vision-Based Reacquisition for Task-Level Control / Matthew R. Walter, Yuli Friedman, Matthew Antone and Seth Teller
• Cost-Effective Mapping Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Ecology Monitoring Applications / Mitch Bryson, Alistair Reid, Calvin Hung, Fabio Tozeto Ramos and Salah Sukkarieh
• Mapping Complex Marine Environments with Autonomous Surface Craft / Jacques C. Leedekerken, Maurice F. Fallon and John J. Leonard
• Simultaneous Tracking and Sampling of Dynamic Oceanographic Features with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles and Lagrangian Drifters / Jnaneshwar Das, Frédéric Py, Thom Maughan, Tom O'Reilly, Monique Messié, John Ryan [and 2 others]
• An Experimental Validation of Robotic Tactile Mapping in Harsh Environments such as Deep Sea Oil Well Sites / Francesco Mazzini and Steven Dubowsky
• Delay and Dropout Tolerant State Estimation for MAVs / Frédéric Bourgeois, Laurent Kneip, Stephan Weiss and Roland Siegwart
• A Pipeline for the Segmentation and Classification of 3D Point Clouds / B. Douillard, J. Underwood, V. Vlaskine, A. Quadros and S. Singh
• Smooth Coordination and Navigation for Multiple Differential-Drive Robots / Jamie Snape, Stephen J. Guy, Jur van den Berg and Dinesh Manocha
• Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Model-Based Methodologies for Distributed Control: A Comparative Experimental Study / Grégory Mermoud, Utkarsh Upadhyay, William C. Evans and Alcherio Martinoli
• An Experimental Study of Time Scales and Stability in Networked Multi-Robot Systems / Nathan Michael, Mac Schwager, Vijay Kumar and Daniela Rus.

• Mechanics of Continuum Robots with External Loading and General Tendon Routing / D. Caleb Rucker and Robert J. Webster III
• Estimation of Thruster Configurations for Reconfigurable Modular Underwater Robots / Marek Doniec, Carrick Detweiler and Daniela Rus
• Characterization of Dynamic Behaviors in a Hexapod Robot / Haldun Komsuoglu, Anirudha Majumdar, Yasemin Ozkan Aydin and Daniel E. Koditschek
• HangBot: A Ceiling Mobile Robot with Robust Locomotion under a Large Payload / Rui Fukui, Hiroshi Morishita, Taketoshi Mori and Tomomasa Sato
• FLIRT: Interest Regions for 2D Range Data with Applications to Robot Navigation / Gian Diego Tipaldi, Manuel Braun and Kai O. Arras
• Perception Quality Evaluation with Visual and Infrared Cameras in Challenging Environmental Conditions / Christopher Brunner and Thierry Peynot
• Multi-task Learning of Visual Odometry Estimators / Vitor Campanholo Guizilini and Fabio Tozeto Ramos
• Any-Com Multi-robot Path-Planning with Dynamic Teams: Multi-robot Coordination under Communication Constraints / Michael Otte and Nikolaus Correll
• Compliant Leg Shape, Reduced-Order Models and Dynamic Running / Jae Yun Jun, Duncan Haldane and Jonathan E. Clark
• Towards Fully Autonomous Bacterial Microrobots / Sylvain Martel
• Closed-Loop Actuated Surgical System Utilizing Real-Time In-Situ MRI Guidance / Gregory A. Cole, Kevin Harrington, Hao Su, Alex Camilo, Julie G. Pilitsis and Gregory S. Fischer
• Fabrication of Highly Articulated Miniature Snake Robot Structures Using In-Mold Assembly of Compliant Joints / Arvind Ananthanarayanan, Felix Bussemer, Satyandra K. Gupta and Jaydev P. Desai
• Control of an Omnidirectional Walking Simulator / Manish Chauhan, C.G. Rajeevlochana, Subir Kumar Saha and S.P. Singh
• Control of Robotic Manipulators with Input-Output Delays: An Experimental Verification / Yen-Chen Liu and Nikhil Chopra
• Model-Based Control and Estimation of Humanoid Robots via Orthogonal Decomposition / Michael Mistry, Akihiko Murai, Katsu Yamane and Jessica Hodgins
• Enhancement of Multi-user Teleoperation Systems by Prediction of Dyadic Haptic Interaction / Daniela Feth, Angelika Peer and Martin Buss
• The Reconfigurable Omnidirectional Articulated Mobile Robot (ROAMeR) / Qiushi Fu, Xiaobo Zhou and Venkat Krovi
• Practical Motion Planning in Unknown and Unpredictable Environments / Rayomand Vatcha and Jing Xiao
• Experiments in Vision-Laser Fusion Using the Bayesian Occupancy Filter / John-David Yoder, Mathias Perrollaz, Igor E. Paromtchik, Yong Mao and Christian Laugier
• Towards Experimental Analysis of Challenge Scenarios in Robotics / Geoffrey A. Hollinger and Sanjiv Singh
• Sensitivity of Task Space Performance to Null Space Control in Presence of Model Uncertainties / Ngoc Dung Vuong, Chongyou Ma and Marcelo H. Ang Jr.

The International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER) is a series of bi-annual meetings which are organized in a rotating fashion around North America, Europe and Asia/Oceania. The goal of ISER is to provide a forum for research in robotics that focuses on novelty of theoretical contributions validated by experimental results. The meetings are conceived to bring together, in a small group setting, researchers from around the world who are in the forefront of experimental robotics research. This unique reference presents the latest advances across the various fields of robotics, with ideas that are not only conceived conceptually but also explored experimentally. It collects robotics contributions on the current developments and new directions in the field of experimental robotics, which are based on the papers presented at the 12th ISER held on December 18-21, 2010 in New Delhi and Agra, India.

• Design
• Dynamics and Control
• Interactive Presentations
• Aerial Robotics
• Multi-Robot
• Learning
• Social Robotics
• Manipulation
• Applications to the Life Sciences
• Planning and Control
• Field robotics
• Marine Robotics.

The International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER) is a series of bi-annual meetings which are organized in a rotating fashion around North America, Europe and Asia/Oceania. The goal of ISER is to provide a forum for research in robotics that focuses on novelty of theoretical contributions validated by experimental results. The meetings are conceived to bring together, in a small group setting, researchers from around the world who are in the forefront of experimental robotics research. This unique reference presents the latest advances across the various fields of robotics, with ideas that are not only conceived conceptually but also explored experimentally. It collects robotics contributions on the current developmentsand new directions in the field of experimental robotics, which are based on the papers presented at the 13th ISER held held in Québec City, Canada, at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, on June 18-21, 2012. This present thirteenth edition of Experimental Robotics edited by Jaydev P. Desai, Gregory Dudek, Oussama Khatib, and Vijay Kumar offers a collection of a broad range of topics in field and human-centered robotics.

• Probabilistic Modelling for Robotic Perception
• Fundamentals of Bayesian Inference
• Representation of 3D Space and Sensor Modelling Within a Probabilistic Framework
• Bayesian Programming and Modelling
• Hierarchical Combination of Bayesian Models and Representations
• Bayesian Decision Theory and the Action-Perception Loop
• Probabilistic Learning
• Probabilistic Approaches for Robotic Perception in Practice
• Case-Study: Bayesian 3D Independent Motion Segmentation with IMU-aided RBG-D Sensor
• Case-Study: Bayesian Hierarchy for Active Perception
• Wrapping Things Up ...

This book tries to address the following questions: How should the uncertainty and incompleteness inherent to sensing the environment be represented and modelled in a way that will increase the autonomy of a robot? How should a robotic system perceive, infer, decide and act efficiently? These are two of the challenging questions robotics community and robotic researchers have been facing. The development of robotic domain by the 1980s spurred the convergence of automation to autonomy, and the field of robotics has consequently converged towards the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Since the end of that decade, the general public s imagination has been stimulated by high expectations on autonomy, where AI and robotics try to solve difficult cognitive problems through algorithms developed from either philosophical and anthropological conjectures or incomplete notions of cognitive reasoning. Many of these developments do not unveil even a few of the processes through which biological organisms solve these same problems with little energy and computing resources. The tangible results of this research tendency were many robotic devices demonstrating good performance, but only under well-defined and constrained environments. The adaptability to different and more complex scenarios was very limited. In this book, the application of Bayesian models and approaches are described in order to develop artificial cognitive systems that carry out complex tasks in real world environments, spurring the design of autonomous, intelligent and adaptive artificial systems, inherently dealing with uncertainty and the irreducible incompleteness of models.

• Robot-Environment Interaction
• A Framework for Sensor-Based Physical Interaction
• Planning of Physical Interaction Tasks
• Physical Interaction: When Only Force Is Available
• Physical Interaction: Adding Vision
• Physical Interaction: The Contribution of Tactile Sensors
• Towards an Assistive Mobile Manipulator
• Conclusions.

Robot manipulation is a great challenge; it encompasses versatility -adaptation to different situations-, autonomy -independent robot operation-, and dependability -for success under modeling or sensing errors. A complete manipulation task involves, first, a suitable grasp or contact configuration, and the subsequent motion required by the task. This monograph presents a unified framework by introducing task-related aspects into the knowledge-based grasp concept, leading to task-oriented grasps. Similarly, grasp-related issues are also considered during the execution of a task, leading to grasp-oriented tasks which is called framework for physical interaction (FPI). The book presents the theoretical framework for the versatile specification of physical interaction tasks, as well as the problem of autonomous planning of these tasks. A further focus is on sensor-based dependable execution combining three different types of sensors: force, vision and tactile. The FPI approach allows to perform a wide range of robot manipulation tasks. All contributions are validated with several experiments using different real robots placed on household environments; for instance, a high-DoF humanoid robot can successfully operate unmodeled mechanisms with widely varying structure in a general way with natural motions. This research was recipient of the European Georges Giralt Award and the Robotdalen Scientific Award Honorary Mention.

• Semantic 3D Object Mapping Kernel 15
• 3D Map Representations
• Mapping System Architectures
• 3D Point Feature Representations
• From Partial to Complete Models
• Clustering and Segmentation
• Mapping of Indoor Environments
• Static Scene Interpretation
• Surface and Object Class Learning
• Parametric Shape Model Fitting
• Applications
• Table Cleaning in Dynamic Environments
• Identifying and Opening Doors
• Real-Time Semantic Maps from Stereo
• Conclusion.

The book written by Dr. Radu B. Rusu presents a detailed description of 3D Semantic Mapping in the context of mobile robot manipulation. As autonomous robotic platforms get more sophisticated manipulation capabilities, they also need more expressive and comprehensive environment models that include the objects present in the world, together with their position, form, and other semantic aspects, as well as interpretations of these objects with respect to the robot tasks. The book proposes novel 3D feature representations called Point Feature Histograms (PFH), as well as frameworks for the acquisition and processing of Semantic 3D Object Maps with contributions to robust registration, fast segmentation into regions, and reliable object detection, categorization, and reconstruction. These contributions have been fully implemented and empirically evaluated on different robotic systems, and have been the original kernel to the widely successful open-source project the Point Cloud Library (PCL) -- see http://pointclouds.org.

• State of the art
• Soft-robotics control
• Biomechanics and forensics
• Crash-testing in robotics
• Sharp and acute contact
• Reactive pre-collision strategies
• Towards the robotic co-worker
• Competitive Robotics
• Intrinsic joint compliance
• Considerations for new robot standards
• Conclusion and outlook
• Soft-robotics control
• Biomechanics and forensics
• Crash-testing in robotics
• Sharp and acute contact
• Reactive pre-collision strategies
• Towards the robotic co-worker
• Competitive Robotics
• Intrinsic joint compliance
• Considerations for new robot standards.

The vision of seamless human-robot interaction in our everyday life that allows for tight cooperation between human and robot has not become reality yet. However, the recent increase in technology maturity finally made it possible to realize systems of high integration, advanced sensorial capabilities and enhanced power to cross this barrier and merge living spaces of humans and robot workspaces to at least a certain extent. Together with the increasing industrial effort to realize first commercial service robotics products this makes it necessary to properly address one of the most fundamental questions of Human-Robot Interaction: How to ensure safety in human-robot coexistence? In this authoritative monograph, the essential question about the necessary requirements for a safe robot is addressed in depth and from various perspectives. The approach taken in this book focuses on the biomechanical level of injury assessment, addresses the physical evaluation of robot-human impacts, and isolates the major factors that cause human injuries. This assessment is the basis for the design and exploration of various measures to improve safety in human-robot interaction. They range from control schemes for collision detection, reflex reaction, and avoidance to the investigation of novel joint designs that equip robots with fundamentally new capabilities.

• Layered Programming by Demonstration and Planning for Autonomous Robot Manipulation / Rainer Jäkel, Steffen W. Rühl, Sven R. Schmidt-Rohr, Martin Lösch and Zhixing Xue, et al.
• Observation and Execution / Christoph Borst, Franziska Zacharias, Florian Schmidt, Daniel Leidner and Maximo A. Roa, et al.
• Human-Robot Interaction / Daniel Sidobre, Xavier Broquère, Jim Mainprice, Ernesto Burattini and Alberto Finzi, et al.
• Innovative Technologies for the Next Generation of Robotic Hands / Gianluca Palli, Claudio Melchiorri, Gabriele Vassura, Giovanni Berselli and Salvatore Pirozzi, et al.
• Grasping and Control of Multi-Fingered Hands / Luigi Villani, Fanny Ficuciello, Vincenzo Lippiello, Gianluca Palli and Fabio Ruggiero, et al.

Dexterous and autonomous manipulation is a key technology for the personal and service robots of the future. Advances in Bimanual Manipulation edited by Bruno Siciliano provides the robotics community with the most noticeable results of the four-year European project DEXMART (DEXterous and autonomous dual-arm hand robotic manipulation with sMART sensory-motor skills: A bridge from natural to artificial cognition). The volume covers a host of highly important topics in the field, concerned with modelling and learning of human manipulation skills, algorithms for task planning, human-robot interaction, and grasping, as well as hardware design of dexterous anthropomorphic hands. The results described in this five-chapter collection are believed to pave the way towards the development of robotic systems endowed with dexterous and human-aware dual-arm/hand manipulation skills for objects, operating with a high degree of autonomy in unstructured real-world environments.

• Introduction
• Basics
• Hardware of Multi-Locomotion Robot
• Brachiation
• Quadruped Walking
• Ladder Climbing Motion
• Transition Motion from Ladder Climbing to Brachiation
• Locomotion Transition Based on Walking Stabilization Norm Using Bayesian Network
• Application of the Passive Dynamic Autonomous Control (PDAC)
• Conclusion.

Annotation Nowadays, multiple attention have been paid on a robot working in the human living environment, such as in the field of medical, welfare, entertainment and so on. Various types of researches are being conducted actively in a variety of fields such as artificial intelligence, cognitive engineering, sensor- technology, interfaces and motion control. In the future, it is expected to realize super high functional human-like robot by integrating technologies in various fields including these types of researches. The book represents new developments and advances in the field of bio-inspired robotics research introducing the state of the art, the idea of multi-locomotion robotic system to implement the diversity of animal motion. It covers theoretical and computational aspects of Passive Dynamic Autonomous Control (PDAC), robot motion control, multi legged walking and climbing as well as brachiation focusing concrete robot systems, components and applications. In addition, gorilla type robot systems are described as hardware of Multi-Locomotion Robotic system. It is useful for students and researchers in the field of robotics in general, bio-inspired robots, multi-modal locomotion, legged walking, motion control, and humanoid robots. Furthermore, it is also of interest for lecturers and engineers in practice building systems cooperating with humans.

• Introduction
• State-of-the-Art Tree-Climbing Robots
• Methodology of Tree Climbing
• A Novel Tree-Climbing Robot: Treebot
• Optimization of the Fastening Force
• Kinematics and Workspace Analysis
• Autonomous Climbing
• Global Path and Motion Planning
• Conclusions and Future Work.

Climbing robot is a challenging research topic that has gained much attention from researchers. Most of the robots reported in the literature are designed to climb on manmade structures, but seldom robots are designed for climbing natural environment such as trees. Trees and manmade structures are very different in nature. It brings different aspects of technical challenges to the robot design. In this book, you can find a collection of the cutting edge technologies in the field of tree-climbing robot and the ways that animals climb. It provides a valuable reference for robot designers to select appropriate climbing methods in designing tree-climbing robots for specific purposes. Based on the study, a novel bio-inspired tree-climbing robot with several breakthrough performances has been developed and presents in this book. It is capable of performing various actions that is impossible in the state-of-the-art tree-climbing robots, such as moving between trunk and branches. This book also proposes several approaches in autonomous tree-climbing, including the sensing methodology, cognition of the environment, path planning and motion planning on both known and unknown environment.

• Part 1 Mapping.-
• Part 2 Vision for navigation.-
• Part 3 Underwater Robots and Systems.-
• Part 4 Wheeled Robots.-
• Part 5 Localization & Sensor Fusion.-
• Part 6 Aerial Navigation & Visual Tracking.-
• Part 7 Teleoperation.-
• Part 8 SLAM.-
• Part 9 Learning & Scene Estimation.-
• Part 10 Multirobot Systems.-
• Part 11 Field Robotics - Systems and Applications.-
• Part 12 Path Planning.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

FSR, the International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, is a robotics Symposium which has established over the past ten years the latest research and practical results towards the use of field and service robotics in the community with particular focus on proven technology. The first meeting was held in Canberra, Australia, in 1997. Since then the meeting has been held every two years in the pattern Asia, America, Europe. Field robots are non-factory robots, typically mobile, that operate in complex, and dynamic environments: on the ground (of Earth or planets), under the ground, underwater, in the air or in space. Service robots are those that work closely with humans to help them with their lives. This book presents the results of the sixth edition of Field and Service Robotics, FSR07, held in Chamonix, France, on 9th - 12th July 2007. The conference provided a forum for researchers, professionals and robot manufacturers to exchange up-to-date technical knowledge and experience. This book offers a collection of a broad range of topics including: Underwater Robots and Systems, Autonomous Navigation for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, Climbing Robotics, Sensor Fusion.

• Introduction.- Physically-based Simulation of Soft Tissue Deformations.- Motion Planning in Deformable Soft Tissue with Applications to Needle Insertion.- Motion Planning in Deformable Soft Tissue with Obstacles with Applications to Needle Steering.- Motion Planning for Curvature-constrained Mobile Robots with Applications to Needle Steering.- The Stochastic Motion Roadmap: A Sampling-based Framework for Planning with Motion Uncertainty.- Motion Planning for Radiation Sources during High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy.- Conclusion.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

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.

• Simultaneous Localization and Map Building.- Marginal Filter Stability.- Suboptimal Filter Stability.- Unscented Transformation of Vehicle States.- Simultaneous Localization, Control and Mapping.- A: The Kalman Filter.- B: Concepts from Linear Algebra.- C: Sigma Points.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This monograph covers theoretical aspects of simultaneous localization and map building for mobile robots. These include estimation stability, nonlinear models for the propagation of uncertainties, temporal landmark compatibility, as well as issues pertaining the coupling of control and SLAM. One of the most relevant topics covered in this monograph is the theoretical formalism of partial observability in SLAM.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Keynote Article.- Human-Centered Robotics.- Identification and Control.- Localization and Map Building.- Medical Robotics.- Manipulation.- Humanoids.- Designs.- Flying Robots.- Multiple Robots.- Walking Robots.- Vision.- Haptics and Augmented Reality.- Perception.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER) is a series of bi-annual meetings which are organized in a rotating fashion around North America, Europe and Asia/Oceania. The goal of ISER is to provide a forum for research in robotics that focuses on novelty of theoretical contributions validated by experimental results. The meetings are conceived to bring together, in a small group setting, researchers from around the world who are in the forefront of experimental robotics research. This unique reference presents the latest advances across the various fields of robotics, with ideas that are not only conceived conceptually but also verified experimentally. It collects contributions on the current developments and new directions in the field of experimental robotics, which are based on the papers presented at the Ninth ISER held in Singapore.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Invited Papers.- In-door Navigation.- Rough Terrain Navigation.- Localization.- Mapping and Tracking.- Rough Terrain Locomotion.- Helicopters and Air Vehicles.- Mobility and Manipulation.- Human-robot Interaction.- Health Care and Service Tasks.- Mining.- Rescue and Agricultural Applications.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This unique collection is the post-conference proceedings of the 4th "International Conference on Field and Service Robotics" (FSR). This book has authoritative contributors and presents current developments and new directions in field and service robotics. The book represents a cross-section of the current state of robotics research from one particular aspect: field and service applications, and how they reflect on the theoretical basis of subsequent developments.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)