Robot Motion and Control presents very recent results in robot motion and control. Twenty papers have been chosen and expanded from fifty-three presented at the Fourth International Workshop on Robot Motion and Control held in Poland in June 2004. The authors of these papers have been carefully selected and represent leading institutions in this field.

The following recent developments are discussed:

• Design of trajectory planning schemes for holonomic and nonholonomic systems with optimization of energy, torque limitations and other factors.
• New...

This book constitutes the presentations made at the Advanced Research Workshop on Autonomous Robotic Systems, which was held at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, June 1997. The aim of the meeting was to bring together leading researchers in the area of autonomous systems for mobility and manipulation, and the aim of this book is to share the presentations with the reader. The book presents the most recent developments in the field. Topics include sensors and navigation in mobile robots, robot co-operation, telerobotics, legged robots, climbing robots and applications. Existing and emerging...

The presence of considerable time delays in many industrial processes is well recognized and achievable performances of conventional unity feedback control systems are degraded if a process has a relatively large time delay compared to its time constants. In this case, dead time compensation is necessary in order to enhance the performances. The most popular scheme for such compensation is the Smith Predictor, but it is unsuitable for unstable or lightly damped processes because the compensated closed-loop system always contains the process poles themselves. An alternative scheme for delay...

The monograph is concerned with computational methods for controller design that allow several typical performance specifications to be directly imposed on a system. The general approach proposed, is applicable to a large class of problems; it is based on posing multi-objective control problems as convex infinite dimensional optimization problems. Particularly interesting and useful are the following methodological as pects of the approach proposed in the monograph. These are: A unified way to pose the problems as generalized linear programs. Duality theory results that characterize the...

This volume covers a wide variety of papers on learning, control and hybrid systems. The papers are the proceedings of the Bangalore Workshop held in January 1998, that honoured the 50th birthdays of Mathukumalli Vidyasagar and Bruce Allen Francis. The 27 papers, written by international specialists in the field, cover a variety of interests. The editors have grouped these into the following 4 categories: a) Learning and Computational Issues b) Hybrid Systems c) Modeling, Identification and Estimation d) Robust Control. The research areas are diverse and comprehensive, giving the reader a...

This book gives a unified and unique presentation of low gain and high gain design methodologies. In particular the development of low gain feedback design methodology is discussed. The development of both low and high gain feedback enhances the industrial relevance of modern control theory, by providing solutions to a wide range of problems that are of paramount practical importance. This detailed monograph provides the reader with a comprehensive insight into these problems: research results are examined and solutions to the problems are considered. Compared to that of high gain feedback,...

The fields of control and robotics are now at an advanced level of maturity both in theory and practice. Numerous systems are used effectively in industrial production and other sectors of modern life. This volume contains a well-balanced collection of over fifty papers focusing on analysis and design problems. The current trends and advances in the fields are reflected. Topics covered include: system analysis, identification and stability optimal, adaptive, robust and QFT controller design design and application of driving simulators industrial robots and telemanipulators mobile, service,...

The past decade has witnessed an increasing interest in observers for nonlinear systems. This subject is relevant in different contexts such as synchronization of complex dynamical systems, fault detection and isolation, and output feedback control. This book contains the contributions that are to be presented at the workshop "New Directions in Nonlinear Observer Design," to be held from June 24-26, 1999, in Geiranger Fjord, Norway. The workshop has been organised by Olav Egeland, Thor I. Fossen and Henk Nijmeijer; it will include participants from Africa, Asia, Europe and USA and it will...

This book comprises a selection of papers that were first presented at the Robustness in Identification and Control Workshop, held in Siena, July 30 - August 2, 1998. These are the latest contributions to the field, from leading researchers worldwide. The common theme underlying all of the contributions is the interplay between information, uncertainty and complexity in dealing with modelling, identification and control of dynamical systems. Papers cover recent developments in research areas such as identification for control and the classical area of robust control. There are a number of...

This book provides readers with a comprehensive coverage of iterative learning control. The book can be used as a text or reference for a course at graduate level and is also suitable for self-study and for industry-oriented courses of continuing education.
Ranging from aerodynamic curve identification robotics to functional neuromuscular stimulation, Iterative Learning Control (ILC), started in the early 80s, is found to have wide applications in practice. Generally, a system under control may have uncertainties in its dynamic model and its environment. One attractive point in ILC lies in...