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This introductory text treats the following subjects: the basic characteristics of industrial robot mechanisms; the pose and movement of an object, which are described by homogenous transformation matrices; a geometric model of robot mechanism; a short introduction into kinematics and dynamics of robots; robot sensors and the planning of robot trajectories; basic control schemes resulting in either desired end-effector trajectory or force; robot grippers and feeding devices, which are described together with the basics of robot vision; the planning of robot assembly; and finally, robot standards and safety are briefly dealt with. The book concludes with a glossary in English, French and German.
This volume is supplementary reading for courses in robotics or industrial robotics and requires minimal knowledge of physics and mathematics.
List of contents
Homogenous transformation matrices.- Geometric description of the robot mechanism.- Two-segment robot manipulator.- Robot sensors.- Trajectory planning.- Robot control.- Robot environment.- Standards and safety in robotics.
About the author
Matjaz Mihelj graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1996. In October 1997 he became a research staff member and in October 1998 a teaching assistant for robotic courses in the Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering and Robotics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Ljubljana. He received M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees in biomedical engineering from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana in 1999 and 2002, respectively. For his diploma thesis he was awarded by the Slovenian Ministry of Science and Technology and ISKRA Holding with the Bedjani award. In 2001 he was a visiting researcher at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. From May 2005 till April 2006 he spent one year as a visiting researcher at the Automatic Control Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). The research on the rehabilitation robotics performed at ETH Zurich was awarded with the Swiss Technology Award. Since 2009 he has been affiliated as an associate professor. He gives fifth year control system lectures on the man/machine interaction topic with the main focus on multimodal systems based on haptic devices. His current research interests are in man/machine interaction, haptic interfaces as well as modeling and control of biological systems with the main focus on restoration of lost functions in people with disabilities. Dr. Mihelj is a member of IFMBE and IFESS. Janez Podobnik received the B.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2004 and 2009, respectively. He was born in 1980 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He attended Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he obtained the B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2004. His B.Sc. thesis covered stability of haptic interface. He received a Ph.D. degree from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana in 2009. He is currently a teaching assistant in the Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering and Robotics, at the same faculty. His research interests include various applications of haptic interface.
Report
From the reviews:
"This simply titled work is a result of carefully delivered lectures ... for multiple classes of undergraduate engineering students over more than a decade. This exemplary course resource can serve as a basis for the study of robotics. Pedagogically well structured, it covers the fundamentals of industrial robotics ... . this book is a concise, readable reference source for those getting their feet wet in the field. ... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates, two-year technical program students, and general readers." (G. Trajkovski, Choice, Vol. 47 (11), July, 2010)
