A broadly accessible introduction to robotics that spans the most basic concepts and the most novel applications; for students, teachers, and hobbyists. The Robotics Primer offers a broadly accessible introduction to robotics for students at pre-university and university levels, robot hobbyists, and anyone interested in this burgeoning field. The text takes the reader from the most basic concepts (including perception and movement) to the most novel and sophisticated applications and topics (humanoids, shape-shifting robots, space robotics), with an emphasis on what it takes to create autonomous intelligent robot behavior. The core concepts of robotics are carried through from fundamental definitions to more complex explanations, all presented in an engaging, conversational style that will appeal to readers of different backgrounds. The Robotics Primer covers such topics as the definition of robotics, the history of robotics (“Where do Robots Come From?”), robot components, locomotion, manipulation, sensors, control, control architectures, representation, behavior (“Making Your Robot Behave”), navigation, group robotics, learning, and the future of robotics (and its ethical implications). To encourage further engagement, experimentation, and course and lesson design, The Robotics Primer is accompanied by a free robot programming exercise workbook that implements many of the ideas on the book on iRobot platforms. The Robotics Primer is unique as a principled, pedagogical treatment of the topic that is accessible to a broad audience; the only prerequisites are curiosity and attention. It can be used effectively in an educational setting or more informally for self-instruction. The Robotics Primer is a springboard for readers of all backgrounds—including students taking robotics as an elective outside the major, graduate students preparing to specialize in robotics, and K-12 teachers who bring robotics into their classrooms.

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.

A comprehensive overview of an interdisciplinary approach to robotics that takes direct inspiration from the developmental and learning phenomena observed in children's cognitive development. Developmental robotics is a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to robotics that is directly inspired by the developmental principles and mechanisms observed in children's cognitive development. It builds on the idea that the robot, using a set of intrinsic developmental principles regulating the real-time interaction of its body, brain, and environment, can autonomously acquire an increasingly complex set of sensorimotor and mental capabilities. This volume, drawing on insights from psychology, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, and robotics, offers the first comprehensive overview of a rapidly growing field. After providing some essential background information on robotics and developmental psychology, the book looks in detail at how developmental robotics models and experiments have attempted to realize a range of behavioral and cognitive capabilities. The examples in these chapters were chosen because of their direct correspondence with specific issues in child psychology research; each chapter begins with a concise and accessible overview of relevant empirical and theoretical findings in developmental psychology. The chapters cover intrinsic motivation and curiosity; motor development, examining both manipulation and locomotion; perceptual development, including face recognition and perception of space; social learning, emphasizing such phenomena as joint attention and cooperation; language, from phonetic babbling to syntactic processing; and abstract knowledge, including models of number learning and reasoning strategies. Boxed text offers technical and methodological details for both psychology and robotics experiments.

Robots in Education is an accessible introduction to the use of robotics in formal learning, encompassing pedagogical and psychological theories as well as implementation in curricula. Today, a variety of communities across education are increasingly using robots as general classroom tutors, tools in STEM projects, and subjects of study. This volume explores how the unique physical and social-interactive capabilities of educational robots can generate bonds with students while freeing instructors to focus on their individualized approaches to teaching and learning. Authored by a uniquely interdisciplinary team of scholars, the book covers the basics of robotics and their supporting technologies; attitudes toward and ethical implications of robots in learning; research methods relevant to extending our knowledge of the field; and more.

The interdisciplinary field of robotics offers its practitioners many practical applications and makes it an exciting, dynamic, and cutting-edge pursuit, especially for young people embarking on their careers. This updated volume discusses the latest advances readers will need to be aware of in preparation for the professional positions of computer scientist, robotics engineer, and robotics technician. Readers will get detailed information and tips on what courses to take now and the ongoing advances in robotics that will determine their future study, internships, and more, including snapshots of luminaries in the field.

Robotics for Engineers provides introductory but detailed study of robot design, installation and maintenance. It caters to the needs of the students by emphasizing the practical utility of robot in the field of engineering, science and technology. The book introduces the science and engineering of robotics and provides in-depth coverage of mechanical and electrical manipulation. For every topic, the fundamental mathematical concepts and analytical tools required to develop the relevant theory, algorithms and programming have been discussed sufficiently. ACL programming has been used for developing the robot programming. In the current form, this book is useful for undergraduates, postgraduates and research scholar students for their course and research projects.

This textbook offers a tutorial introduction to robotics and control which is light and easy to absorb. The practice of robotics and control both involve the application of computational algorithms to data. Over the fairly recent history of the fields of robotics and control 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 provides 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 control 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 control. 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, and covers both mobile robots (control, path planning, navigation, localization and SLAM) and arm robots (forward and inverse kinematics, Jacobians, dynamics and joint level control). “An authoritative book, reaching across fields, thoughtfully conceived and brilliantly accomplished!” Oussama Khatib, Stanford

Once the subject of speculative fiction, robots are now reality in many spheres of life, including business, law enforcement, the military, the sciences, entertainment, and even in our homes. They will play bigger roles in the near and distant future. This book traces the development of robots from antiquity through the modern era and into the myriad possibilities of their future practical uses, including the exciting potential intersection of robots and artificial intelligence. A lively historical narrative and stimulating imagery of robots throughout the ages make this book a valuable resource for robot fans and casual readers alike.