Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics XV


Book Description

This book includes significant recent research on robotic algorithms. It has been written by leading experts in the field. The 15th Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR) was held on June 22–24, 2022, at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. Each chapter represents an exciting state-of-the-art development in robotic algorithms that was presented at this 15th incarnation of WAFR. Different chapters combine ideas from a wide variety of fields, spanning and combining planning (for tasks, paths, motion, navigation, coverage, and patrol), computational geometry and topology, control theory, machine learning, formal methods, game theory, information theory, and theoretical computer science. Many of these papers explore new and interesting problems and problem variants that include human–robot interaction, planning and reasoning under uncertainty, dynamic environments, distributed decision making, multi-agent coordination, and heterogeneity.




Nonparametric Bayesian Learning for Collaborative Robot Multimodal Introspection


Book Description

This open access book focuses on robot introspection, which has a direct impact on physical human-robot interaction and long-term autonomy, and which can benefit from autonomous anomaly monitoring and diagnosis, as well as anomaly recovery strategies. In robotics, the ability to reason, solve their own anomalies and proactively enrich owned knowledge is a direct way to improve autonomous behaviors. To this end, the authors start by considering the underlying pattern of multimodal observation during robot manipulation, which can effectively be modeled as a parametric hidden Markov model (HMM). They then adopt a nonparametric Bayesian approach in defining a prior using the hierarchical Dirichlet process (HDP) on the standard HMM parameters, known as the Hierarchical Dirichlet Process Hidden Markov Model (HDP-HMM). The HDP-HMM can examine an HMM with an unbounded number of possible states and allows flexibility in the complexity of the learned model and the development of reliable and scalable variational inference methods. This book is a valuable reference resource for researchers and designers in the field of robot learning and multimodal perception, as well as for senior undergraduate and graduate university students.







Automated Planning and Acting


Book Description

This book presents the most recent and advanced techniques for creating autonomous AI systems capable of planning and acting effectively.




Principles of Robot Motion


Book Description

A text that makes the mathematical underpinnings of robot motion accessible and relates low-level details of implementation to high-level algorithmic concepts. Robot motion planning has become a major focus of robotics. Research findings can be applied not only to robotics but to planning routes on circuit boards, directing digital actors in computer graphics, robot-assisted surgery and medicine, and in novel areas such as drug design and protein folding. This text reflects the great advances that have taken place in the last ten years, including sensor-based planning, probabalistic planning, localization and mapping, and motion planning for dynamic and nonholonomic systems. Its presentation makes the mathematical underpinnings of robot motion accessible to students of computer science and engineering, rleating low-level implementation details to high-level algorithmic concepts.




Recent Developments in Automatic Control Systems


Book Description

This monograph provides an overview of the recent developments in modern control systems including new theoretical findings and successful examples of practical implementation of the control theory in different areas of industrial and special applications. Recent Developments in Automatic Control Systems consists of extended versions of selected papers presented at the XXVI International Conference on Automatic Control "Automation 2020" (October 13–15, 2020, Kyiv, Ukraine) which is the main Ukrainian Control Conference organized by the Ukrainian Association on Automatic Control (national member organization of IFAC) and the National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute". This is the third monograph in the River Publishers series in Automation, Control and Robotics based on the selected papers of the Ukrainian Control Conferences "Automation", in particular, the first monograph Control Systems: Theory and Applications (2018) was published based on "Automation – 2017" and the second monograph Advanced Control Systems: Theory and Applications was based on "Automation – 2018". The monograph is divided into three main parts: (a) Advances in Theoretical Research of Control Systems; (b) Advances in Control Systems Application; (c) Recent Developments in Collaborative Automation. The chapters have been structured to provide an easy-to-follow introduction to the topics that are addressed, including the most relevant references, so that anyone interested in this field can get started in the area. This book may be useful for researchers and students who are interesting in recent developments in modern control systems, robust adaptive systems, optimal control, fuzzy control, motion control, identification, modelling, differential games, evolutionary optimization, reliability control, security control, intelligent robotics and cyber–physical systems.




Active Inference


Book Description

The first comprehensive treatment of active inference, an integrative perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior used across multiple disciplines. Active inference is a way of understanding sentient behavior—a theory that characterizes perception, planning, and action in terms of probabilistic inference. Developed by theoretical neuroscientist Karl Friston over years of groundbreaking research, active inference provides an integrated perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior that is increasingly used across multiple disciplines including neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. Active inference puts the action into perception. This book offers the first comprehensive treatment of active inference, covering theory, applications, and cognitive domains. Active inference is a “first principles” approach to understanding behavior and the brain, framed in terms of a single imperative to minimize free energy. The book emphasizes the implications of the free energy principle for understanding how the brain works. It first introduces active inference both conceptually and formally, contextualizing it within current theories of cognition. It then provides specific examples of computational models that use active inference to explain such cognitive phenomena as perception, attention, memory, and planning.







Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics X


Book Description

Algorithms are a fundamental component of robotic systems. Robot algorithms process inputs from sensors that provide noisy and partial data, build geometric and physical models of the world, plan high-and low-level actions at different time horizons, and execute these actions on actuators with limited precision. The design and analysis of robot algorithms raise a unique combination of questions from many elds, including control theory, computational geometry and topology, geometrical and physical modeling, reasoning under uncertainty, probabilistic algorithms, game theory, and theoretical computer science. The Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR) is a single-track meeting of leading researchers in the eld of robot algorithms. Since its inception in 1994, WAFR has been held every other year, and has provided one of the premiere venues for the publication of some of the eld's most important and lasting contributions. This books contains the proceedings of the tenth WAFR, held on June 13{15 2012 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The 37 papers included in this book cover a broad range of topics, from fundamental theoretical issues in robot motion planning, control, and perception, to novel applications.




Index to IEEE Publications


Book Description