Page 8 - Autonomous Mobile Robots

viii Preface

This edited book tries for the first time to provide a comprehensive treatment
of autonomous mobile systems, ranging from related fundamental technical
issues to practical system integration and applications. The chapters are writ-
ten by some of the leading researchers and practitioners working in this field
today. Readers will be presented with a complete picture of autonomous mobile
systems at the systems level, and will also gain a better understanding of the
technological and theoretical aspects involved within each module that com-
poses the overall system. Five distinct parts of the book, each consisting of
several chapters, emphasize the different aspects of autonomous mobile sys-
tems, starting from sensors and control, and gradually moving up the cognitive
ladder to planning and decision making, finally ending with the integration of
the four modules in application case studies of autonomous systems.
The first part of the book is dedicated to sensors and sensor fusion. The four
chapters treat in detail the operation and uses of various sensors that are crucial
for the operation of autonomous systems. Sensors provide robots with the cap-
ability to perceive the world, and effective utilization is of utmost importance.
The chapters also consider various state-of-the art techniques for the fusion
and utilization of various sensing information for feature detection and pos-
ition estimation. Vision sensors, RADAR, GPS and INS, and landmarks are
discussed in detail in Chapters 1 to 4 respectively.
Modeling and control issues concerning nonholonomic systems are dis-
cussed in the second part of the book. Real-world systems seldom present
themselves in the form amenable to analysis as holonomic systems, and the
importance of nonholonomic modeling and control is evident. The four chapters
of this part, Chapters 5 to 8, thus present novel contributions to the control of
these highly complicated systems, focusing on discontinuous control, unified
neural fuzzy control, adaptive control with actuator dynamics, and the control
of car-like vehicles for vehicle tracking maneuvers, respectively.
The third part of the book covers the map building and path planning aspects
of autonomous systems. This builds on technologies in sensing and control to
further improve the intelligence and autonomy of mobile robots. Chapter 9
discusses the specifics of building an accurate map of the environment, using
either single or multiple robots, with which localization and motion planning
can take place. Probabilistic motion planning as a robust and efficient planning
scheme is examined in Chapter 10. Action coordination and formation control
of multiple robots are investigated in Chapter 11.
Decision making and autonomy, the highest levels in the hierarchy of
abstraction, are examined in detail in the fourth part of the book. The three
chapters in this part treat in detail the issues of representing knowledge, high
level planning, and coordination mechanisms that together define the cognitive
capabilities of autonomous systems. These issues are crucial for the devel-
opment of intelligent mobile systems that are able to reason and manipulate
available information. Specifically, Chapters 12 to 14 present topics pertaining

© 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

FRANKL: “dk6033_c000” — 2006/3/31 — 16:42 — page viii — #8