Robotics Books

The book is clearly written. The developmental approach and lucid style of the text reinforces the readers confidence and understanding at every stage. The text is a motivator for acquiring and applying the tools of controls engineering.

This is the best controls book for engineers who are first learning controls. The author has a great step-by-step approach that really simplifies controls for the average student and makes a very complicated subject much easier to learn. The pictures are great too! Especially Figure 1.2!

This is a not too technical book, introducing you to evolutionary robotics. It covers a lot of interesting work done in the field over the last few years.

Using genetic algorithms it is possible to construct the brain of a robot ( Neural network ), and even (though harder) the hardware itself. The book gives an introduction to genetic algortihms & artificial neural networks, but the reader should still be somewhat familiar with these concepts before buying this book.

After reading this book, I did one of the experiments mentioned in the book. While I only did this with a freeware Kephara robot simulator, it was still fun.

This is a not too technical book, introducing you to evolutionary robotics. It covers a lot of interesting work done in the field over the last few years.

Using genetic algorithms it is possible to construct the brain of a robot ( Neural network ), and even (though harder) the hardware itself. The book gives an introduction to genetic algortihms & artificial neural networks, but the reader should still be somewhat familiar with these concepts before buying this book.

After reading this book, I did one of the experiments mentioned in the book. While I only did this with a freeware Kephara robot simulator, it was still fun.

This book is a wonderful introduction to the more advanced ideas of control theory. But it is written with emphasis on classical control and transfer functions (which makes for a good introduction). The problem is that this book is no longer in print. However, the copyright has reverted back to the authors. And they have kindly decided to make the book available for free! Simply do a google search for "Feedback Control Theory", and you will find it.

Essential for anyone who deals with robust control (or wants to). And as noted elsewhere, google the title, you'll find it on the web for free.

Apenas he empezado a leer los primeros capítulos de este libro, y he encontrado que su contenido es de altísima calidad y bastante claro de entender.

Se lo recomiendo a quien quiera tener un conocimiento más profundo en lo que son y cómo funcionan los distintos buses de campo más importantes.

For years I've listened to talk about the wonders of fieldbus. Claims for this technology ranged from "less wire and maintenance" to "world peace and prosperity"! It's now such a relief to have an unbiased book that explains in simple terms some of the most common fieldbus technologies. Hopefully, this information, combined with the growing availability of fieldbus products, will make it possible for me to improve the control system in my plant.

This book shows using the program how fuzzy logic works.
There is a lot in the book
and it needs to be read a few times.

Read also

FUZZY LOGIC: THE REVOLUTIONARY COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY THAT IS CHANGING OUR WORLD
by Daniel Mcneil

The ideas in both are amazing.
page 107 is great here.

It's not theoretical or programming based, rather a superb description of what fuzzy logic can DO. The software is getting a bit out of date, but you can always download the latest demo version off their web site.

Vision: "If a general-purpose vision system is used, there is no easy way to determine if the problem is with the robot, the vision system or some combination of robot and vision. In addition, if the vision was purchased from a robot supplier, it is likely the supplier has experience with similar applications." "Are the broader range of options available in the general-purpose system worth the extra time and cost require to make use of them for a robotic vision applications?"

Tracking Systems: Tast, this method uses the welding arc as a sensor to measure variations in the welding current that are caused by changes in arc length. Laser, the laser must be place in front of the welding torch to allow the laser to scan across the weld joint. A camera inside the sensor monitors the laser light to determine the location of the weld joint and passes this information to the robot. Touch sensing, the robot finds a seam by using the welding electrode or a separate pointer to make electrical contact with the part. The robot performs a search pattern so that it can touch the part to find out how far the seam has shifted and rotated it up to three dimensions. An offset can then be applied to every weld that is on this seam.

Well Dressed, the integrated dress pack carries all the power, data, pneumatic and hydraulic hoses bundled inside a highly flexible, polyurethane jacket. "With proper installation, umbilicals can increase cable and hose life tenfold"

Laser cutting, with a minimum of six degrees of freedom, a robot can reach in and around tooling to cut required features into a part. Small work cells can have one ore more robots in the same cell increasing production. Often two robots are able to share the same laser. The robot can utilize flexible programming allowing it to be redeployed to cut a new part. "A robotic laser cutting system is not competitive in high-volume flat sheet cutting that can be performed by a dedicated 2D laser-cutting machine. Part volumes should be 50,000 to 100,000.

Small shops, "as companies strive to enhance their time to market, the role of robots becomes particularly critical for smaller shops, where ergonomic issues and absenteeism impact the bottom line." First time robot users should not expect to automate all parts at once, but start with one family part and develop a good understanding of the automation and gradually automate additional part families. ROI, "vision provides higher flexibility and reduces the cost of part location. More than one part type can run the same cell without the need to invest in dedicated fixtures. Part can be delivered in a tray or a multiplayer tray system."

Now that robots have become more affordable, they are "trickling" down into smaller businesses and being used for more unexpected and varied tasks in larger enterprises. This book will have you thinking about new ways to employ robotic systems and machine vision in your operations. There are numerous descriptions of successful robotic implementations, an excellent section on productivity of robotic systems, and clear descriptions of methods of calculating payback. Very helpful as well when working with management to get approval of a new robotic system. Recommended!!!

The authors have done a great job in presenting the materials of diverse fields, including GIS, remote sensing, multivariate statistics, many more. The book also presented an excellent review for neural networks. All the methods included in the book have proved to be effective in data integration for mineral exploration and planning purposes. I would recommend this book to any geoscientists who are interested in computer modeling and integration of geoscience data sets.

Guocheng Pan and D. Harris had put a great effort into the organization of the book structure. The book contains many subjects, all relevant to the information systhesis. The book was clearly written and it is readable for most geo-professionals and graduate students in geo-fields. The quantitative methods presented in the book are rigurous, but easy to follow. The examples in the book are also derived from real-world cases. In sum, I am really impressed with the book in terms of its quality and value offered to geoscientists.

A Realtime Trajectory Planning Method for Manipulators based on Kinetic Energy

A Realtime Trajectory Planning Method for Manipulators based on Kinetic Energy

This book helps to clear up one of the really silly images of Leonardo that exist in our world today.

People often think of Leonardo as some kind of supreme genius. We have a popular image of him sitting on a lofty mountain, serenely contemplating the universe from a point far beyond the reach of ordinary mortals.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

This book reveals the long and honorable history of how Leonardo learned from others about how to do his science. His teacher, Verrocchio, was a mechanical inventor who created a rather fabulous, whimsical clock. Leonardo learned from him and applied his principles to other things.

Throughout his life, Leonardo worked within a sphere of known mechanical knowledge. He stretched it in some places and improved it in others.

He was a very good scientist, and an extremely good observer. But an all-encompassing divine genius, he was not.

This simply proves what we've all known for years. Science cannot be done in a vaccum. Great achievements do not happen in isolation. Things happen because communities of people work together to toward a common goal - exactly like the kind of artist community Leonardo worked in under his tutelage by Verrocchio.

When Leonardo had a question, he asked others for an answer. He found some of his inspiration in ancient works of literature.

There were other inventors working at the same time who created mechanical devices far more advanced than anything Leonardo ever achieved. Why do people never remember these others, and only Leonardo?

Giovanni de Dondi, for example, created an astonishing seven-sided clock called an Astrarium, the most intricate example of medieval technology for centuries. We know Leonardo studied and sketched it, although he never equalled it.

Anyhow, interest in Leonardo seems to be waning in the popular world. I don't believe that most people know very much about Leonardo. Most of what they believe about him seems to come from a certain popular bestseller, much of which is flatly wrong.

I write this long after "The Da Vinci Code" has come and gone. The movie tanked, and the book is largely forgotten.

Thank goodness.

The charm of Leonardo lies not in his paintings, of which there are few, and certainly not in some silly, imaginary "code." His charm lies in the fact that he was a weird and wacky inventor.

He created more inventions than Giovanni de Dondi, and in all areas of technology. He was fascinated by the unknown, and captured by the joy of creativity.

Few people understand the charm of weird and wacky inventions the way Leonardo evidently did. "The Da Vinci Code" barely even mentions Leonardo's wacky inventions, except in a few brief, rather insulting asides that do nothing more than downride a great thinker.

Leonardo himself would be outraged.

It is a shame that Leonardo the man, who was not gay, who did not do "hundreds" of paintings for the Vatican, and who did not have a "lavish lifestyle" the way the "Da Vinci Code" claims, is not more widely known.

Why do people need a bestseller to interest them in someone like Leonardo? Books like "Leonardo's Lost Robots" should be enough.

The one flaw in this otherwise brilliant book is that it is recommended on the author's website to be for "anyone who has read 'The Da Vinci Code.'" I think this is an unbelievably sleezy advertising campaign that is bound to backfire in the end.

Goofy, unintelligent books like "The Da Vinci Code" come and go. Leonardo's weird and wacky inventions, however, last forever. They are always charming, fascinating and beautiful, a rare combination. Something that people would do well to learn from in the future.

- Regards.

With all the "hype" regarding Leonardo due to Dan Brown's DaVinci Code, it would be a travesty to miss out on this book. A book that focuses on Leonardo's other works beyond what is commonly known. He was a visionary and truly thought outside of the box with ideas well before his time. A man born without nobility, yet died among Kings! His works are survived in this book showing he was more than a painter but an amazing inventor.
This book is perfect for anyone interested in one of the many aspects of the "Great Master". Fantastic illustrations reprinted in this wonderful and educational book, perfect for all ages, from JR High through University.

Date: February 24, 1999 This book has been reprinted and is available from McGraw-Hill. It can be ordered from any book store.

If you're looking for the "dixie cup" of knowledge this isn't for you. This is the fire hose of knowledge and not an overview. Limited to those who wish to deeply understand the arcane science of sizing pneumatic components, this work will increase anyone's understanding of how to make a given pneumatic cylinder move faster. The book is more than that. The author tirelessly explains individual pneumatic components (generically), educates the reader (from maintenance or professional engineer), and provides resources not found in typical overview texts. If you want to know how to optimize a pneumatic circuit there is no other text available. In a narrow scope there is tremendous depth. The author details how the US could reduce dependancy on foreign oil by just more efficiently applying his simple rules clearly supported by engineering logic. It is a cherished reference and testament to what was obviously his life's work.