The contributions in Toward Learning Robots address the question of how a robot can be designed to acquire autonomously whatever it needs to realize adequate behavior in a complex environment. ...

This manual is designed to provide users with an understanding and appreciation of some of the theoretical concepts behind control system elements and operations, without the need of advanced math and theory. It also presents some of the practical details of how elements of a control system are designed and operated, such as would be gained from on-the-job experience. This middle ground of knowledge enables users to design the elements of a ...

With today's competition in the high-tech industries, and the continuing need for material and energy conservation, hazard free operation, and environmentally safe discharges, it has become increasingly important to develop and apply methodologies and techniques that lead to improved performance and operation. Process Control and Identification presents the time domain approach to modern process control, which allows for the formulation of ...

"Building Robots with Lego Mindstorms" explains how to build robots using Lego bricks and components. The book describes the practical aspects of robot building, discussing the basics of mechanics, motors, sensors, pneumatics, and navigation, and offers a variety of tips and tricks. It surveys a wide range of ideas for building, with the idea of inspiring the creative impulses of the reader rather than offering models for replication. ...

The book describes the design and implementation of the MicroC/OS-II real-time operating system (RTOS). In addition to its value as a reference to the kernel, it is an extremely detailed and highly readable design study that is useful to the embedded systems student. In addition to documenting the design and implementation of the kernel, it also walks the reader through the many related development issues: how to adapt the kernel for a new ...

"Robot Building for Beginners" provides basic, practical knowledge on getting started in amateur robotics. Short chapters are perfectly suited for bedtime reading. It contains step-by-step instructions and small, hands-on experiments, including a line-following robot that the reader builds out of a sandwich container. By the end, the reader will make a palm-size solar robot and is also introduced to contests and potential project plans. Learning ...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of six workshops on evolutionary computation held concurrently as EvoWorkshops 2000 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, in April 2000.The 37 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected by the respective program committees. All in all, the book demonstrates the broad application potential of evolutionary computing in a variety of fields. In accordance with the individual workshops, the book ...

Mobile Robotics: A Practical Introduction is an excellent introduction to the foundations and methods used for designing completely autonomous mobile robots. In this book you are introduced to the fundamental concepts of this complex field via twelve detailed case studies which show how to build and program real working robots. This book provides a very practical introduction to mobile robotics for a general scientific audience, and is essential ...

RoboCup is an international initiative devoted to advancing the state of the art in artificial intelligence and robotics. The ultimate, long range goal is to build a team of robot soccer players that can beat a human World Cup champion team.This is the first book devoted to RoboCup. It opens with an overview section presenting the history of this young initiative, motivation, the overall perspectives and challenges, and a survey of the state of ...

This book gives a unified treatment of classical input-output stability theory and recent developments in nonlinear robust and passivity-based control. The synthesis between these areas is provided by the theory of dissipative systems. Specifically, the small-gain and passivity theorems and their implications for nonlinear stability and stabilization are discussed from this vantage-ground. The connection between L2-gain and passivity via ...