Brought together . . . and torn apart Cynic Jack Ryerson. Here to escape. Idealist Syd Birkett. Here to learn. Roommates at Robot Academy, a postgraduate course in human-robot understanding. But Syd and Jack get caught up in an explosive conflict as anti-robot propaganda spreads through the school. Passions ignite. Tensions rise. Now Jack, Syd, and their friends are learning lessons no school would dare teach. Robot Academy is the second book in the Origin Phase Cycle. Book 1 is Origin Phase, and Book 3 is Oasis. All the books of the Origin Phase Cycle are complete 400+‑page novels, and the cycle can be read in any order. Time Travel. Adventure. Romance. Intrigue. Passion. All at the intersection of science fiction and fantasy. Your timeless journey starts now.

Build a nearly two-foot-tall marble run, and learn all about the scientific principles behind your creation with this interactive science book and kit. This is no ordinary maker kit. It contains everything kids need to build a nearly two-foot-high working marble run, complete with wheels, ramps, stops, and drops—two marbles included. As construction begins, young engineers in training can read along in the accompanying 64-page science activity book to test theories, perform experiments, and learn all about mechanics, speed, forces, and other scientific principles that relate to their marble run. Focusing on STEM concepts in a fun and engaging way, this kit is a great option for an upcoming science fair or a quiet rainy day at home.

Assemble a launch pad, build a rocket, and go on a hands-on adventure around our solar system and beyond! This is no ordinary maker kit. It contains everything kids need to assemble a launch pad for a model three-stage rocket, as well as build the rocket and planets of our solar system. As construction begins, young engineers in training can read along in the accompanying 64-page science activity book to test theories, perform experiments, and learn all about gravity, the Law of Motion, orbital velocity, and more as they relate to the space models. Focusing on STEM concepts in a fun and engaging way, this kit is a great option for an upcoming science fair or a quiet rainy day at home.

The author has maintained two open-source MATLAB Toolboxes for more than 10 years: one for robotics and one for vision. The key strength of the Toolboxes provide a set of tools that allow the user to work with real problems, not trivial examples. For the student the book makes the algorithms accessible, the Toolbox code can be read to gain understanding, and the examples illustrate how it can be used —instant gratification in just a couple of lines of MATLAB code. The code can also be the starting point for new work, for researchers or students, by writing programs based on Toolbox functions, or modifying the Toolbox code itself. The purpose of this book is to expand on the tutorial material provided with the toolboxes, add many more examples, and to weave this into a narrative that covers robotics and computer vision separately and together. The author shows how complex problems can be decomposed and solved using just a few simple lines of code, and hopefully to inspire up and coming researchers. The topics covered are guided by the real problems observed over many years as a practitioner of both robotics and computer vision. It is written in a light but informative style, it is easy to read and absorb, and includes a lot of Matlab examples and figures. The book is a real walk through the fundamentals of robot kinematics, dynamics and joint level control, then camera models, image processing, feature extraction and epipolar geometry, and bring it all together in a visual servo system. Additional material is provided at http://www.petercorke.com/RVC

This textbook offers a tutorial introduction to robotics and Computer Vision which is light and easy to absorb. The practice of robotic vision involves the application of computational algorithms to data. Over the fairly recent history of the fields of robotics and computer vision a very large body of algorithms has been developed. However this body of knowledge is something of a barrier for anybody entering the field, or even looking to see if they want to enter the field — What is the right algorithm for a particular problem?, and importantly: How can I try it out without spending days coding and debugging it from the original research papers? The author has maintained two open-source MATLAB Toolboxes for more than 10 years: one for robotics and one for vision. The key strength of the Toolboxes provide a set of tools that allow the user to work with real problems, not trivial examples. For the student the book makes the algorithms accessible, the Toolbox code can be read to gain understanding, and the examples illustrate how it can be used —instant gratification in just a couple of lines of MATLAB code. The code can also be the starting point for new work, for researchers or students, by writing programs based on Toolbox functions, or modifying the Toolbox code itself. The purpose of this book is to expand on the tutorial material provided with the toolboxes, add many more examples, and to weave this into a narrative that covers robotics and computer vision separately and together. The author shows how complex problems can be decomposed and solved using just a few simple lines of code, and hopefully to inspire up and coming researchers. The topics covered are guided by the real problems observed over many years as a practitioner of both robotics and computer vision. It is written in a light but informative style, it is easy to read and absorb, and includes a lot of Matlab examples and figures. The book is a real walk through the fundamentals light and color, camera modelling, image processing, feature extraction and multi-view geometry, and bring it all together in a visual servo system. “An authoritative book, reaching across fields, thoughtfully conceived and brilliantly accomplished Oussama Khatib, Stanford

"Dr. Cosmic's class of clever monsters at the Mad Scientist Academy solve[s] the greatest challenges in science, [the first of which involves dinosaurs]"--

Beautifully updated with fresh color, this new edition Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity is the first volume of the middle-grade graphic novel series from Dave Roman. Hakata Soy’s past won’t stay in the past! This former space hero is doing his best to keep his head down at Astronaut Academy. Things aren’t going so great, though. The most popular girl in school has it in for him. His best friend won’t return his calls. And his new roommate is a complete jock who only cares about Fireball. Hakata just wants to make a fresh start. But how will he find time to study Anti-Gravity Gymnastics and Tactical Randomness when he’s got a robot doppelganger on its way to kill him?

A fresh look at a “robot-proof” education in the new age of generative AI. In 2017, Robot-Proof, the first edition, foresaw the advent of the AI economy and called for a new model of higher education designed to help human beings flourish alongside smart machines. That economy has arrived. Creative tasks that, seven years ago, seemed resistant to automation can now be performed with a simple prompt. As a result, we must now learn not only to be conversant with these technologies, but also to comprehend and deploy their outputs. In this revised and updated edition, Joseph Aoun rethinks the university’s mission for a world transformed by AI, advocating for the lifelong endeavor of a “robot-proof” education. Aoun puts forth a framework for a new curriculum, humanics, which integrates technological, data, and human literacies in an experiential setting, and he renews the call for universities to embrace lifelong learning through a social compact with government, employers, and learners themselves. Drawing on the latest developments and debates around generative AI, Robot-Proof is a blueprint for the university as a force for human reinvention in an era of technological change—an era in which we must constantly renegotiate the shifting boundaries between artificial intelligence and the capacities that remain uniquely human.

Many of our imaginative inventions eventually come to fruition, and the robot is one such creation. The science-fiction robots of yesteryear are here. From assembly lines to teaching tools, robots are a reality that author Jennifer MacKay richly explores in this book. Readers will learn robotic history, how robots move, "think," and are used. They will also consider future uses.