The contributions for this book have been gathered over several years from conferences held in the series of Mechatronics and Machine Vision in Practice, the latest of which was held in Ankara, Turkey. The essential aspect is that they concern practical applications rather than the derivation of mere theory, though simulations and visualization are important components. The topics range from mining, with its heavy engineering, to the delicate machining of holes in the human skull or robots for surgery on human flesh. Mobile robots continue to be a hot topic, both from the need for navigation and for the task of stabilization of unmanned aerial vehicles. The swinging of a spray rig is damped, while machine vision is used for the control of heating in an asphalt-laying machine. Manipulators are featured, both for general tasks and in the form of grasping fingers. A robot arm is proposed for adding to the mobility scooter of the elderly. Can EEG signals be a means to control a robot? Can face recognition be achieved in varying illumination?"

In contrast with previous books on mechatronics and machine vision in practice, a significant number of chapters focus on systems designed for human interaction and deciphering human motion. Examples illustrate assistive actuation of hip joints, the augmentation of touch sense in artificial hand prostheses and helping stroke survivors in repetitive motion therapy. Interactive mechatronics and the experience of developing machine interfaces has enabled an examination of how we use mechatronics in the service of training, and even to consider why computer games perhaps appear to capture attention so much more readily than a human instructor! Mechatronics continues to be an exciting and developing field. It is now an essential part of our world and living experience. This and the previous books in this series illustrate the journey in developing the use of mechatronics so far. We anticipate that you will find the chapters here an equal source of inspiration for new devices to solve the challenges of new applications, and of course as a resource for teaching and inspiring the new generation of mechatronics engineers.

The many intriguing examples on the application of mechatronics reinforce the excitement of this creative field of technology. As a collection they present a stimulating resource to developers of future mechatronics technology, and to educators searching for interesting examples. From structured-light measurement of the build-up of detritus on railway bogies and detection of uncracked spores of Chinese medicine to a practical tractor vision guidance system embedded in a smart-phone application, the practical applications of mechatronics and machine vision abound. Fruits are counted on the tree, pasture biomass is measured and a robot collects camel dung as a resource. 3D printing is in vogue, but papers here discuss the construction and strategy of the printer itself. The measurement and analysis of myoelectric muscle signals enable a prosthesis to be controlled and a feeding robot is used for patient care. An exoskeleton has both soft and rigid links and an optical sensor analyses the tissue into which a surgical needle is being inserted. These are some of the papers in this collection from the 26th annual conference on Mechatronics and Machine Vision in Practice, carefully selected to exclude papers that are merely theoretical and to highlight those that show practical verification. Papers have been contributed from China, New Zealand, the Philippines, Emirates, Germany and of course Australia.

The second edition of this accepted reference work has been updated to reflect the rapid developments in the field and now covers both 2D and 3D imaging. Written by expert practitioners from leading companies operating in machine vision, this one-stop handbook guides readers through all aspects of image acquisition and image processing, including optics, electronics and software. The authors approach the subject in terms of industrial applications, elucidating such topics as illumination and camera calibration. Initial chapters concentrate on the latest hardware aspects, ranging from lenses and camera systems to camera-computer interfaces, with the software necessary discussed to an equal depth in later sections. These include digital image basics as well as image analysis and image processing. The book concludes with extended coverage of industrial applications in optics and electronics, backed by case studies and design strategies for the conception of complete machine vision systems. As a result, readers are not only able to understand the latest systems, but also to plan and evaluate this technology. With more than 500 images and tables to illustrate relevant principles and steps.

This book presents recent research results related to various applications of computer vision methods in the widely understood contexts of automation and robotics. As the current progress of image analysis applications may be easily observed in various areas of everyday life, it becomes one of the most essential elements of development of Industry 4.0 solutions. Some of the examples, partially discussed in individual chapters, may be related to the visual navigation of mobile robots and drones, monitoring of industrial production lines, non-destructive evaluation and testing, monitoring of the IoT devices or the 3D printing process and the quality assessment of manufactured objects, video surveillance systems, and decision support in autonomous vehicles.

Annotation Embedded vision systems such as smart cameras have been rapidly developed recently. Vision systems have become smaller and lighter, but their performance has improved. The algorithms in embedded vision systems have their specifications limited by frequency of CPU, memory size, and architecture. The goal of this e-book is to provide a an advanced reference work for engineers, researchers and scholars in the field of robotics, machine vision, and automation and to facilitate the exchange of their ideas, experiences and views on embedded vision system models. The effectiveness for all methods is emphasized in a practical sense for systems presented in this e-book.

Niku offers comprehensive, yet concise coverage of robotics that will appeal to engineers. Robotic applications are drawn from a wide variety of fields. Emphasis is placed on design along with analysis and modeling. Kinematics and dynamics are covered extensively in an accessible style. Vision systems are discussed in detail, which is a cutting-edge area in robotics. Engineers will also find a running design project that reinforces the concepts by having them apply what they’ve learned.

In the last few decades, near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has distinguished itself as one of the most rapidly advancing spectroscopic techniques. Mainly known as an analytical tool useful for sample characterization and content quantification, NIR spectroscopy is essential in various other fields, e.g. NIR imaging techniques in biophotonics, medical applications or used for characterization of food products. Its contribution in basic science and physical chemistry should be noted as well, e.g. in exploration of the nature of molecular vibrations or intermolecular interactions. One of the current development trends involves the miniaturization and simplification of instrumentation, creating prospects for the spread of NIR spectrometers at a consumer level in the form of smartphone attachments—a breakthrough not yet accomplished by any other analytical technique. A growing diversity in the related methods and applications has led to a dispersion of these contributions among disparate scientific communities. The aim of this Special Issue was to bring together the communities that may perceive NIR spectroscopy from different perspectives. It resulted in 30 contributions presenting the latest advances in the methodologies essential in near-infrared spectroscopy in a variety of applications.

This book includes papers from the 5th International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications held at KAIST, Daejeon, Korea on December 13–15, 2017. It covers the following areas: artificial intelligence, autonomous robot navigation, intelligent robot system design, intelligent sensing and control, and machine vision. The topics included in this book are deep learning, deep neural networks, image understanding, natural language processing, speech/voice/text recognition, reasoning & inference, sensor integration/fusion/perception, multisensor data fusion, navigation/SLAM/localization, distributed intelligent algorithms and techniques, ubiquitous computing, digital creatures, intelligent agents, computer vision, virtual/augmented reality, surveillance, pattern recognition, gesture recognition, fingerprint recognition, animation and virtual characters, and emerging applications. This book is a valuable resource for robotics scientists, computer scientists, artificial intelligence researchers and professionals in universities, research institutes and laboratories.