Biomimetic Robotic Artificial Muscles presents a comprehensive up-to-date overview of several types of electroactive materials with a view of using them as biomimetic artificial muscles. The purpose of the book is to provide a focused, in-depth, yet self-contained treatment of recent advances made in several promising EAP materials. In particular, ionic polymer-metal composites, conjugated polymers, and dielectric elastomers are considered. Manufacturing, physical characterization, modelin...

This valuable little book offers a thorough introduction to the open-source electronics prototyping platform that's taking the design and hobbyist world by storm. Getting Started with Arduino gives you lots of ideas for Arduino projects and helps you get going on them right away. From getting organized to putting the final touches on your prototype, all the information you need is right in the book.Inside, you'll learn about:Interaction de...

Make amazing robots and gadgets with two of today’s hottest DIY technologies. With this easy-to-follow guide, you’ll learn how to build devices with Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0, the Arduino prototyping platform, and some add-on components to bridge the two. Mindstorms alone lets you create incredible gadgets. Bring in Arduino for some jaw-dropping functionality—and open a whole new world of possibilities.Build a drink dispenser, music synthesizer, wireless lamp, and more

Atmel's AVR microcontrollers are the chips that power Arduino, and are the go-to chip for many hobbyist and hardware hacking projects. In this book you'll set aside the layers of abstraction provided by the Arduino environment and learn how to program AVR microcontrollers directly. In doing so, you'll get closer to the chip and you'll be able to squeeze more power and features out of it.Each chapter of this book is centered around projects that incorporate that particular microcont...

Want to know how to use an electronic component? This third book of a three-volume set includes key information on electronics parts for your projects--complete with photographs, schematics, and diagrams. You'll learn what each one does, how it works, why it's useful, and what variants exist. No matter how much you know about electronics, you'll find fascinating details you've never come across before.Perfect for teachers, hobbyists, engineers, and students of all ages, this refere...

Get started in the rapidly expanding field of computer vision with this practical guide. Written by Adrian Kaehler and Gary Bradski, creator of the open source OpenCV library, this book provides a thorough introduction for developers, academics, roboticists, and hobbyists. You’ll learn what it takes to build applications that enable computers to "see" and make decisions based on that data.With over 500 functions that span many areas in vision, OpenCV is used for commercial applicat...

Make your First Robot will help students to build and program their first robot using Arduino. It starts with an introduction of the hardware and software required to build and program the robots. The concepts are explained with simple analogies. Detailed explanation of the functionalities and programming of each hardware component are given. Integration of all the hardware components and programs to make a fully functional robot is explained for a mini Path-finder and Robotic Arm. Inexpen...

This book addresses the fundamentals of machine ethics. It discusses abilities required for ethical machine reasoning and the programming features that enable them. It connects ethics, psychological ethical processes, and machine implemented procedures. From a technical point of view, the book uses logic programming and evolutionary game theory to model and link the individual and collective moral realms. It also reports on the results of experiments performed using several model implement...

In today's fast-paced world, it's tough to find the time to read. But with Joosr guides, you can get the key insights from bestselling non-fiction titles in less than 20 minutes. Whether you want to gain knowledge on the go or find the books you'll love, Joosr's brief and accessible eBook summaries fit into your life. Find out more at joosr.com.When we think of robots it seems more science fiction than science fact. But what kind of automated technology is entering the workforce to...

Many new technologies – like RFID, GPS, and sensor networks – that dominate innovative developments in logistics are based on the idea of autonomous cooperation and control. This self-organisational concept describes „...processes of decentralized decision-making in heterarchical structures. It presumes interacting elements in non-deterministic systems, which possess the capability and possibility to render decisions. The objective of autonomous cooperation and control is the achievement o...

Quantum robotics is an emerging engineering and scientific research discipline that explores the application of quantum mechanics, quantum computing, quantum algorithms, and related fields to robotics. This work broadly surveys advances in our scientific understanding and engineering of quantum mechanisms and how these developments are expected to impact the technical capability for robots to sense, plan, learn, and act in a dynamic environment. It also discusses the new technological pote...

This book deals with averaging dynamics, a paradigmatic example of network based dynamics in multi-agent systems. The book presents all the fundamental results on linear averaging dynamics, proposing a unified and updated viewpoint of many models and convergence results scattered in the literature.Starting from the classical evolution of the powers of a fixed stochastic matrix, the text then considers more general evolutions of products of a sequence of stochastic matrices, either ...