Offers a First Amendment approach to defend against governmental censorship of the newest form of technological expression: robotic speech.

From the world-wide leader in strange-but-true stories comes a fascinating book full of the marvels of mechanical men, glimpses into tomorrow’s technology…and what happens when machines go mad. It’s a robot invasion! For more than 25 years, the writers at the Bathroom Readers’ Institute have had a soft spot in their hearts for all things robotic. From the promise of artificial intelligence making the world a better place to the threat of an android apocalypse, we never get tired of reading about robots. They perform surgery, traverse the surface of Mars, and even cook a perfect steak…until they malfunction and chase after their human creators. Uncle John’s Robotica will stimulate your humor sensors with hundreds of incredible stories about robots from the past, the present…and the future. Prepare to be assimilated as you read about... • Robotic suits…controlled by monkeys • The robot that can rebuild itself • The world’s first robot • Pop-culture robots (such as the mecha-Michael Jackson with laser-shooting eyes) • Robotic roaches that herd real cockroaches • Microscopic nanobots that heal you before you know you’re sick • Garbage-eating robots • What are the actual chances of a Terminator-style robot war? And much, much more!

In every era of communications technology - whether print, radio, television, or Internet - some form of government censorship follows to regulate the medium and its messages. Today we are seeing the phenomenon of 'machine speech' enhanced by the development of sophisticated artificial intelligence. Ronald K. L. Collins and David M. Skover argue that the First Amendment must provide defenses and justifications for covering and protecting robotic expression. It is irrelevant that a robot is not human and cannot have intentions; what matters is that a human experiences robotic speech as meaningful. This is the constitutional recognition of 'intentionless free speech' at the interface of the robot and receiver. Robotica is the first book to develop the legal arguments for these purposes. Aimed at law and communication scholars, lawyers, and free speech activists, this work explores important new problems and solutions at the interface of law and technology.

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 supplementary introductory text for courses in robotics or industrial robotics requires minimal knowledge of physics and mathematics. It treats many fundamental subjects in robotics and includes a glossary in English, French and German.

Bring a robot to life without programming or assembly language skills! There’s never been a better time to explore the world of the nearly human. With the complete directions supplied by popular electronics author John Iovine, you can: • Build your first walking, talking, sensing, thinking robot • Create 12 working robotic projects, using the fully illustrated instructions provided • Get the best available introduction to robotics, motion control, sensors, and neural intelligence • Put together basic modules to build sophisticated ‘bots of your own design • Construct a robotic arm that responds to your spoken commands • Build a realistic, functional robotic hand • Apply sensors to detect bumps, walls, inclines , and roads • Give your robot expertise and neural intelligence You geteverything you need to create 12 exciting robotic projects using off-the-shelf products and workshop-built devices, including a complete parts list. Also ideal for anyone interested in electronic and motion control, this cult classic gives you the building blocks you need to go practically anywhere in robotics.