Foundations of Robotics

This book provides the basic know-how on the foundations of robotics: modelling, planning and control. The book develops around a core of consistent and rigorous formalism with fundamental and technological material giving rise naturally and with gradually increasing difficulty to more advanced considerations. Problems are raised and the proper tools established to find engineering-oriented solutions rather than to focus on abstruse theoretical methodology. The theory of manipulator structures presented in the early part of the book encompasses the fundamentals: - kinematics, statics and trajectory planning; and dynamics and motion control. Subsequently, more advanced instruction is given in: - visual control; - wheeled robots; - motion planning; - flexible robots; and - force control and cooperative manipulation. Appendices ensure that students will have access to a consistent level of background in basic areas such as linear algebra; rigid-body mechanics; feedback control; differential geometry; and graph search algorithms. To impart practical skill, more than 50 examples and case studies are carefully worked out and interwoven through the text, using simulation. Over 190 end-of-chapter problems are included, with a solutions manual downloadable free of charge to those adopting Foundations of Robotics as a textbook for courses. This book is suitable for use in senior undergraduate and graduate courses in automation and computer, electrical, electronic and mechanical engineering courses with strong robotics content.