Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots, second edition


Book Description

The second edition of a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of mobile robotics, from algorithms to mechanisms. Mobile robots range from the Mars Pathfinder mission's teleoperated Sojourner to the cleaning robots in the Paris Metro. This text offers students and other interested readers an introduction to the fundamentals of mobile robotics, spanning the mechanical, motor, sensory, perceptual, and cognitive layers the field comprises. The text focuses on mobility itself, offering an overview of the mechanisms that allow a mobile robot to move through a real world environment to perform its tasks, including locomotion, sensing, localization, and motion planning. It synthesizes material from such fields as kinematics, control theory, signal analysis, computer vision, information theory, artificial intelligence, and probability theory. The book presents the techniques and technology that enable mobility in a series of interacting modules. Each chapter treats a different aspect of mobility, as the book moves from low-level to high-level details. It covers all aspects of mobile robotics, including software and hardware design considerations, related technologies, and algorithmic techniques. This second edition has been revised and updated throughout, with 130 pages of new material on such topics as locomotion, perception, localization, and planning and navigation. Problem sets have been added at the end of each chapter. Bringing together all aspects of mobile robotics into one volume, Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots can serve as a textbook or a working tool for beginning practitioners. Curriculum developed by Dr. Robert King, Colorado School of Mines, and Dr. James Conrad, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to accompany the National Instruments LabVIEW Robotics Starter Kit, are available. Included are 13 (6 by Dr. King and 7 by Dr. Conrad) laboratory exercises for using the LabVIEW Robotics Starter Kit to teach mobile robotics concepts.










Event-Based Neuromorphic Systems


Book Description

Neuromorphic electronic engineering takes its inspiration from the functioning of nervous systems to build more power efficient electronic sensors and processors. Event-based neuromorphic systems are inspired by the brain's efficient data-driven communication design, which is key to its quick responses and remarkable capabilities. This cross-disciplinary text establishes how circuit building blocks are combined in architectures to construct complete systems. These include vision and auditory sensors as well as neuronal processing and learning circuits that implement models of nervous systems. Techniques for building multi-chip scalable systems are considered throughout the book, including methods for dealing with transistor mismatch, extensive discussions of communication and interfacing, and making systems that operate in the real world. The book also provides historical context that helps relate the architectures and circuits to each other and that guides readers to the extensive literature. Chapters are written by founding experts and have been extensively edited for overall coherence. This pioneering text is an indispensable resource for practicing neuromorphic electronic engineers, advanced electrical engineering and computer science students and researchers interested in neuromorphic systems. Key features: Summarises the latest design approaches, applications, and future challenges in the field of neuromorphic engineering. Presents examples of practical applications of neuromorphic design principles. Covers address-event communication, retinas, cochleas, locomotion, learning theory, neurons, synapses, floating gate circuits, hardware and software infrastructure, algorithms, and future challenges.




Neuromorphic and Brain-Based Robots


Book Description

Neuromorphic and brain-based robotics have enormous potential for furthering our understanding of the brain. By embodying models of the brain on robotic platforms, researchers can investigate the roots of biological intelligence and work towards the development of truly intelligent machines. This book provides a broad introduction to this groundbreaking area for researchers from a wide range of fields, from engineering to neuroscience. Case studies explore how robots are being used in current research, including a whisker system that allows a robot to sense its environment and neurally inspired navigation systems that show impressive mapping results. Looking to the future, several chapters consider the development of cognitive, or even conscious robots that display the adaptability and intelligence of biological organisms. Finally, the ethical implications of intelligent robots are explored, from morality and Asimov's three laws to the question of whether robots have rights.




ESSCIRC '97


Book Description




Event-Based Control and Signal Processing


Book Description

Event-based systems are a class of reactive systems deployed in a wide spectrum of engineering disciplines including control, communication, signal processing, and electronic instrumentation. Activities in event-based systems are triggered in response to events usually representing a significant change of the state of controlled or monitored physical variables. Event-based systems adopt a model of calls for resources only if it is necessary, and therefore, they are characterized by efficient utilization of communication bandwidth, computation capability, and energy budget. Currently, the economical use of constrained technical resources is a critical issue in various application domains because many systems become increasingly networked, wireless, and spatially distributed. Event-Based Control and Signal Processing examines the event-based paradigm in control, communication, and signal processing, with a focus on implementation in networked sensor and control systems. Featuring 23 chapters contributed by more than 60 leading researchers from around the world, this book covers: Methods of analysis and design of event-based control and signal processing Event-driven control and optimization of hybrid systems Decentralized event-triggered control Periodic event-triggered control Model-based event-triggered control and event-triggered generalized predictive control Event-based intermittent control in man and machine Event-based PID controllers Event-based state estimation Self-triggered and team-triggered control Event-triggered and time-triggered real-time architectures for embedded systems Event-based continuous-time signal acquisition and DSP Statistical event-based signal processing in distributed detection and estimation Asynchronous spike event coding technique with address event representation Event-based processing of non-stationary signals Event-based digital (FIR and IIR) filters Event-based local bandwidth estimation and signal reconstruction Event-Based Control and Signal Processing is the first extensive study on both event-based control and event-based signal processing, presenting scientific contributions at the cutting edge of modern science and engineering.




A Field Guide to Genetic Programming


Book Description

Genetic programming (GP) is a systematic, domain-independent method for getting computers to solve problems automatically starting from a high-level statement of what needs to be done. Using ideas from natural evolution, GP starts from an ooze of random computer programs, and progressively refines them through processes of mutation and sexual recombination, until high-fitness solutions emerge. All this without the user having to know or specify the form or structure of solutions in advance. GP has generated a plethora of human-competitive results and applications, including novel scientific discoveries and patentable inventions. This unique overview of this exciting technique is written by three of the most active scientists in GP. See www.gp-field-guide.org.uk for more information on the book.