Product Description

Paolo Ulivi and David Harland provide in Robotic Exploration of the Solar System a detailed history of unmanned missions of exploration of our Solar System. As in their previous book Lunar Exploration, the subject will be treated wherever possible from an engineering and scientific standpoint. Technical descriptions of the spacecraft, of their mission designs and of instrumentations will be provided. Scientific results will be discussed in considerable depth, together with details of mission management.

The book will be comprehensive, covering missions and results from the 1950s until the present day, and some of the latest missions and their results will appear in a popular science book for the first time. The authors will also cover many unflown missions, providing an indication of the ideas that proved to be unfulfilled at the time but which may still be proven and useful in the future.

Just like Lunar Exploration, this book will use sources only recently made available on the Soviet space program, in addition to some obscure and rarely used references on the European space program. Unflown European projects of the 1960s and 1970s, a subject never before treated, will also be covered.

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent contribution
Robotic Exploration of the Solar System. Part 1.


The best book I read so far on space exploration.

The combination of Harlan the historian, and Ulivi the astronomer, which had alreadyproduced the excellent `lunar exploration' bookmade this an outstanding contribution.

First, this book describes the state of the kwowledge of the solar system just before space exploration beggins. Second, this book is comprehensive, in that it includesus, european and soviet/russian contributions.

They are many detailed descriptions, including all phases of a given mission, even those which were never realized, from planning, launch and the follow-up on results. All aspects are described, financial, political and technical.

The book contains many readeable line drawings, figures, good pictures, some of them quite rare, as well as many little known facts for the average reader, it is an excellent basis for those who are looking for a global view of this part of the history of science.

P. Haubrechts


... Read more

Product Description
LEGO MINDSTORMS lets you design and program robots that can do just about anything!
The LEGO MINDSTORMS RIS 2.0 is the core set for all MINDSTORMS users, that lets users design and program working robots - limited only by their imagination. Initially designed for users 12 and up, LEGO MINDSTORMS has taken off with LEGO enthusiasts of all ages.
10 Cool LEGO MINDSTORMS RIS 2.0 Projects: Amazing Projects You Can Build in Under an Hour provides step-by-step instructions and detailed illustrations for users of all skill levels and proficiencies.

From out of the box to up and running in less than an hour.
8-page color insert. A color insert illustrates the complete projects in full-detail.
Specifically targeted at new users of the LEGO MINDSTORMS RIS 2.0. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Yahoo!
its the correct book for the new mindstorms - alot of the other books we ordered we for the old one

Wrong generation
We got our son a new Mindstorm for Christmas - the NXT.This book was designed for the previous generation of the Mindstorm, so was of no use to us. The description on-line was not clear to us that we were wasting our money.

Whoa
This is the perfect compilation set of fun, and challenging projects which can easily be manipulated for your own robotic tastes. The sources of this book are the masters in the field, and do an astounding job sharing their wealth of knowledge.

Where do they get these people?
Once again Syngres has put together a top notch team of Lego builders. The robots in here are incredible to say the least. I was amazed to see that CS Soh had a hand in this book as I've been a big fan of his LEGO work on the web for some time. I just finished building all of the robots in the prequel to this book for the Star Wars Dark side lego kit when I saw this become available. These are all top notch robots built by people who know their lego robots. They don't beat around the bush-they give you step by step instructions for buidling these robots. They go one step beyond the first book by giving you alternate building instructions for download. I'm going to use this in my high school robotics class. Top notch. ... Read more

Product Description

* Provides an elegant introduction to the geometric concepts that are important to applications in robotics

* Includes significant state-of-the art material that reflects important advances, connecting robotics back to mathematical fundamentals in group theory and geometry

* An invaluable reference that serves a wide audience of grad students and researchers in mechanical engineering, computer science, and applied mathematics

Product Description
A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation presents a mathematical formulation of the kinematics, dynamics, and control of robot manipulators. It uses an elegant set of mathematical tools that emphasizes the geometry of robot motion and allows a large class of robotic manipulation problems to be analyzed within a unified framework. The foundation of the book is a derivation of robot kinematics using the product of the exponentials formula. The authors explore the kinematics of open-chain manipulators and multifingered robot hands, present an analysis of the dynamics and control of robot systems, discuss the specification and control of internal forces and internal motions, and address the implications of the nonholonomic nature of rolling contact are addressed, as well. The wealth of information, numerous examples, and exercises make A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation valuable as both a reference for robotics researchers and a text for students in advanced robotics courses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not bad as a reference
This books deals with all kinds of manipulators. It has a good amount of math but looks not enough and not easy to understand (I did not go into the math details). I think this book would be a good reference in your library where it has a good amount of advanced information about manipulators.

a branch of applied maths
For decades, physics and engineering undergraduates have used texts on classical mechanics that often contained what some students might consider to be abstruse ideas, with little everyday usage. But this book on robotics is a worthy rejoinder. It can be regarded as an advanced text in classical mechanics.

It shows how mathematical treatments of rigid and non-rigid body rotations and displacements are necessary to correctly model robot manipulators. Plus how holonomic constraints can be used to determine system behaviour. Engineering students also get exposure to the use of Lagrange's equation in robotics. Typically nowadays, Lagrange's equation is taught in pure physics courses, with engineering undergrads having little need for it.

One implication is that some students might need to upgrade their maths background before turning to this book. (Maybe you should have paid more attention in some classes!) ... Read more

Product Description

Robotic technology has paved the way for new opportunities in pediatric urologic surgery. Where once laparoscopy was restricted to urological conditions in children such as undescended testicles and ambiguous genitalia, robotic techniques are now enabling the completion of greatly needed, more involved procedures. Written by highly respected surgeons, Pediatric Robotic Urology provides a state-of-the-art, comprehensive overview of the precise surgical techniques that are changing the practice of pediatric urologic surgery. Divided in two sections and covering both introductory topics and advanced surgical techniques, Pediatric Robotic Urology also includes myriad illustrations and photographs of intraoperative procedures. Developed for accessible reading, this invaluable title is a concise, yet broad reference that is certain to be of significant value to urologists, surgeons, and all health care providers who care for pediatric urologic patients.

Product Description
Industrial Robotics has a polarized view throughout the manufacturing sector in the United States. On one hand the robotic automation is a way of life for manufacturers seeking to be globally competitive, as well as reduce the reliance on manual labor to perform redundant tasks. On the other hand, there are the majority of manufacturers that have yet to utilize their first robot. The statistic is often quoted as, 90% of the manufacturers in the United States have yet to use their first robot .

Written by an expert in the field who has year of practical, real-world experience, this unique resource covers a broad spectrum of robotics that can be readily used and applied by education and manufacturing personnel. Additionally, the texts would be most likely written with a theoretical theme. Developed with the intent of being practical and easily applied, Industrial Robotics provides guidance to personnel involved in manufacturing who are thinking about implementing a robotic program. This tool compliments the robotics sales and engineering team that strives to educate end-users about automation when the end user is considering the task of making a significant capital investment in robotic processes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Glaser Nails It
This is a very good read for anyone considering automation in their facility. A lot of very good information as far as implementing robotics while keeping your processes lean, and determining how to identify when automation projects will or will not be successful. ... Read more

Product Description

Paolo Ulivi and David Harland provide in "Robotic Exploration of the Solar System" a detailed history of unmanned missions of exploration of our Solar System As in their previous book Lunar Exploration, the subject will be treated wherever possible from an engineering and scientific standpoint. Technical descriptions of the spacecraft, of their mission designs and of instrumentations will be provided. Scientific results will be discussed in considerable depth, together with details of mission management.

The books will cover missions from the 1950s until the present day, and some of the latest missions and their results will appear in a popular science book for the first time. The authors will also cover many unflown projects, providing an indication of the ideas that proved to be unfulfilled at the time but which may still be proven and useful in the future.

Just like Lunar Exploration, these books will use sources only recently made available on the Soviet space program, in addition to some obscure and rarely used references on the European space program.

The project will deliver three volumes totaling over 1000 pages that will provide comprehensive coverage of the topic with thousands of references to the professional literature that should make it the 'first port of call' for people seeking information on the topic.

Customer Reviews (1)

Robotic Exploration of the Solar System: Part 2:
Excellent explanation of robotics use in recent space exploration missions. Includes considerations of how the robot will function in the environment it will be going to as well as how they actually performed upon arrival at the destination. The book includes technical information but can be understood by the reader. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Modern robotics dates from the late 1960s, when progress in the development of microprocessors made possible the computer control of a multiaxial manipulator. Since then, robotics has evolved to connect with many branches of science and engineering, and to encompass such diverse fields as computer vision, artificial intelligence, and speech recognition. This book deals with robots-such as remote manipulators, multifingered hands, walking machines, flight simulators, and machine tools-that rely on mechanical systems to perform their tasks. It aims to establish the foundations on which the design, control and implementation of the underlying mechanical systems are based. The treatment assumes familiarity with some calculus, linear algebra, and elementary mechanics; however, the elements of rigid-body mechanics and of linear transformations are reviewed in the first chapters, making the presentation self-contained. An extensive set of exercises is included. Topics covered include: kinematics and dynamics of serial manipulators with decoupled architectures; trajectory planning; determination of the angular velocity and angular acceleration of a rigid body from point data; inverse and direct kinematics manipulators; dynamics of general parallel manipulators of the platform type; and the kinematics and dynamics of rolling robots. Since the publication of the previous edition there have been numerous advances in both the applications of robotics (including in laprascopy, haptics, manufacturing, and most notably space exploration) as well as in the theoretical aspects (for example, the proof that Husty's 40th-degree polynomial is indeed minimal - mentioned as an open question in the previous edition). This new edition has been revised and updated throughout to include these new ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Perfect Introduction to Robotics
You couldn't get a better introductory work that is a complete, thorough, and easy to understand as this book.I highly recommend that all students -- whether graduate, undergraduate, or high school -- use this book as a stepping stone into the wide world of robotics. ... Read more

Product Description
Niku offers comprehensive, yet concise coverage of robotics that will appeal to engineers. Robotic applications are drawn from a wide variety of fields. Emphasis is placed on design along with analysis and modeling. Kinematics and dynamics are covered extensively in an accessible style. Vision systems are discussed in detail, which is a cutting-edge area in robotics. Engineers will also find a running design project that reinforces the concepts by having them apply what they’ve learned. ... Read more

Product Description
With the proliferation of many types of robots in recent years, there is a real need to assist engineers, automation manufacturers, and robot aficionados in the proper selection, care, and feeding of a robot to achieve the maximum in productivity. This book does just that, along with classifying robots in accordance to their complexity and function provided. The book is perfect for large corporations as well as smaller "Mom and Pop" shops who may be considering using robots to help their industrial applications. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Vision, umembical , welding, painting, assembly, tracking
Vision: "If a general-purpose vision system is used, there is no easy way to determine if the problem is with the robot, the vision system or some combination of robot and vision. In addition, if the vision was purchased from a robot supplier, it is likely the supplier has experience with similar applications." "Are the broader range of options available in the general-purpose system worth the extra time and cost require to make use of them for a robotic vision applications?"

Tracking Systems: Tast, this method uses the welding arc as a sensor to measure variations in the welding current that are caused by changes in arc length. Laser, the laser must be place in front of the welding torch to allow the laser to scan across the weld joint. A camera inside the sensor monitors the laser light to determine the location of the weld joint and passes this information to the robot. Touch sensing, the robot finds a seam by using the welding electrode or a separate pointer to make electrical contact with the part. The robot performs a search pattern so that it can touch the part to find out how far the seam has shifted and rotated it up to three dimensions. An offset can then be applied to every weld that is on this seam.

Well Dressed, the integrated dress pack carries all the power, data, pneumatic and hydraulic hoses bundled inside a highly flexible, polyurethane jacket. "With proper installation, umbilicals can increase cable and hose life tenfold"

Laser cutting, with a minimum of six degrees of freedom, a robot can reach in and around tooling to cut required features into a part. Small work cells can have one ore more robots in the same cell increasing production. Often two robots are able to share the same laser. The robot can utilize flexible programming allowing it to be redeployed to cut a new part. "A robotic laser cutting system is not competitive in high-volume flat sheet cutting that can be performed by a dedicated 2D laser-cutting machine. Part volumes should be 50,000 to 100,000.

Small shops, "as companies strive to enhance their time to market, the role of robots becomes particularly critical for smaller shops, where ergonomic issues and absenteeism impact the bottom line." First time robot users should not expect to automate all parts at once, but start with one family part and develop a good understanding of the automation and gradually automate additional part families. ROI, "vision provides higher flexibility and reduces the cost of part location. More than one part type can run the same cell without the need to invest in dedicated fixtures. Part can be delivered in a tray or a multiplayer tray system."

Outstanding robotics reference
Now that robots have become more affordable, they are "trickling" down into smaller businesses and being used for more unexpected and varied tasks in larger enterprises.This book will have you thinking about new ways to employ robotic systems and machine vision in your operations.There are numerous descriptions of successful robotic implementations, an excellent section on productivity of robotic systems, and clear descriptions of methods of calculating payback.Very helpful as well when working with management to get approval of a new robotic system.Recommended!!! ... Read more

Product Description

This book reports on the concepts and ideas discussed at the well attended ICRA2005 Workshop on "Principles and Practice of Software Development in Robotics", held in Barcelona, Spain, April 18 2005. It collects contributions that describe the state of the art in software development for the Robotics domain. It also reports a number of practical applications to real systems and discuss possible future developments.

Product Description
Surgical robotics is a rapidly evolving field. With roots in academic research, surgical robotic systems are now clinically used across a wide spectrum of surgical procedures. Surgical Robotics: Systems Applications and Visions provides a comprehensive view of the field both from the research and clinical perspectives. This volume takes a look at surgical robotics from four different perspectives, addressing vision, systems, engineering development and clinical applications of these technologies. The book also:-Discusses specific surgical applications of robotics that have already been deployed in operating rooms-Covers specific engineering breakthroughs that have occurred in surgical robotics-Details surgical robotic applications in specific disciplines of surgery including orthopedics, urology, cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, pediatric surgery and general surgerySurgical Robotics: Systems Applications and Visions is an ideal volume for researchers and engineers working in biomedical engineering. ... Read more

Product Description

Swarm robotics can be defined as the study of how a swarm of relatively simple physically embodied agents can be constructed to collectively accomplish tasks that are beyond the capabilities of a single one. Unlike other studies on multi-robot systems, swarm robotics emphasizes self-organization and emergence, while keeping in mind the issues of scalability and robustness. These emphases promote the use of relatively simple robots, equipped with localized sensing ability, scalable communication mechanisms, and the exploration of decentralized control strategies.

This state-of-the-art survey is the first book devoted to swarm robotics. It is based on the First International Workshop on Swarm Robotics held in Santa Monica, CA, USA in July 2004 as part of SAB 2004

Product Description

Throughput Optimization In Robotic Cells provides practitioners, researchers, and students with up-to-date algorithmic results on sequencing of robot moves and scheduling of parts in robotic cells. It brings together the structural results developed over the last 25 years for the various realistic models of robotic cells. This book is ideally suited for use in a graduate course or a research seminar on robotic cells.

Product Description

This supplementary introductory tutorial 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.

Product Description

The DARPA Grand Challenge was a landmark in the field of robotics: a race by autonomous vehicles through 132 miles of rough Nevada terrain. It showcased exciting and unprecedented capabilities in robotic perception, navigation, and control. The event took place in October 2005 and drew teams of competitors from academia and industry, as well as many garage hobbyists. This book presents fifteen technical papers that describe each team's driverless vehicle, race strategy, and insights. As a whole, they present the state of the art in autonomous vehicle technology and offer a glimpse of future technology for tomorrow’s driverless cars.

Product Description
This book looks at multiagent systems that consist of teams of autonomous agents acting in real-time, noisy, collaborative, and adversarial environments. The book makes four main contributions to the fields of machine learning and multiagent systems.First, it describes an architecture within which a flexible team structure allows member agents to decompose a task into flexible roles and to switch roles while acting. Second, it presents layered learning, a general-purpose machine-learning method for complex domains in which learning a mapping directly from agents' sensors to their actuators is intractable with existing machine-learning methods. Third, the book introduces a new multiagent reinforcement learning algorithm--team-partitioned, opaque-transition reinforcement learning (TPOT-RL)--designed for domains in which agents cannot necessarily observe the state-changes caused by other agents' actions. The final contribution is a fully functioning multiagent system that incorporates learning in a real-time, noisy domain with teammates and adversaries--a computer-simulated robotic soccer team.Peter Stone's work is the basis for the CMUnited Robotic Soccer Team, which has dominated recent RoboCup competitions. RoboCup not only helps roboticists to prove their theories in a realistic situation, but has drawn considerable public and professional attention to the field of intelligent robotics. The CMUnited team won the 1999 Stockholm simulator competition, outscoring its opponents by the rather impressive cumulative score of 110-0. ... Read more

Product Description
This proceedings is a collection of 72 papers covering a vision of humankind’s future in space and robotic applications in space and in challenging situations and environments on Earth. Subjects include developing technologies of space exploration; space elevators and tethers; lunar and Martian exploration and construction; space power systems; near-Earth object (NEO) threat; high-altitude balloons; structures, materials, and controls; robotics technology; robotics in space exploration; business in space; space law and policy; and robotic applications in space, terrestrial inspection and maintenance, construction, underwater operations, the nuclear industry, environmental remediation, industry, and medicine. These papers were presented at Space 2002: The Eighth International Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction, Operations, and Business in Space and Robotics 2002: The Fifth International Conference and Exposition/Demonstration on Robotics for Challenging Situations and Environments, held in Albuquerque, New Mexico from March 17 to 21, 2002. ... Read more

Product Description
Real robots have been around for more than half a century and used for a variety of purposes. Some dinosaur robots are at the cutting edge of robot research. For years, experimental dinobots have been helping scientists and engineers test out different ways of walking. This "rexbot" will have two legs for walking and a tail to keep it balanced, just like the real T. Rex. Also in existence is Banryu, a real working dinosaur robot. This Japanese robot is about as big as a medium-size dog and is able to patrol the house like a guard dog and using its infrared sensors that can listen for noises and sniff for smoke. From fossil bones in museums to special-effects monsters in movies, T. Rex is probably the most well-known and fascinating dinosaur of all. This all-encompassing, full-color illustrated book gives kids an up-close learning experience and the chance to build their own walking T. Rex! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not a Robot
This is very easy to put together and the booklet is informative and fun to read with your kids.But the robot itself is poorly made and just walks in circles.

Robotic T-Rex (Robotoc Series)
The book attached to the build a bot was nice, informative, and my son enjoyed it... the robotic t rex was the problem... I think toys are just getting cheaper and cheaper and was indeed broken within 24 hrs and not from playing with it.

Love these kits
This is the third kit I bought for my 9 year old grandson. Book is well written and instructions are easy enough for my grandson to follow. A sense of acheivement and a great model at the end. ... Read more