Advances in Autonomous Mini Robots

Advances in Autonomous Mini Robots

Autonomous robots must carry out useful tasks all by themselves relying entirely on their own perceptions of their environment. The cognitive abilities required for autonomous action are largely independent of robot size, which makes mini robots attractive as artefacts for research, education and entertainment. Autonomous mini robots must be small enough for experimentation on a desktop or a small laboratory. They must be easy to carry and safe for interaction with humans. They must not be expensive. Mini robot designers have to work at the leading edge of technology so that their creations can carry out purposeful autonomic action under these constraints. Since 2001 researchers have met every two years for an international symposium to report on the advances achieved in Autonomous Mini Robots for Research and Edutainment (AMiRE). The AMiRE Symposium is a single track conference that offers ample opportunities for discussion and exchange of ideas. This volume contains the contributed papers of the 2011 AMiRE Symposium held from 23 to 25 May 2011 at Bielefeld University, Germany. The contributions in this volume represent the state-of-the-art of autonomous mini robots; they demonstrate what is currently technically feasible and show some of the applications for autonomous mini robots.

Advances in Autonomous Mini Robots

Morphogenetic Engineering

Morphogenetic Engineering

Edited and authored by leading researchers in the field First comprehensive monograph on this newly emerging field Suitable as both self-study tutorial and reference text Generally, spontaneous pattern formation phenomena are random and repetitive, whereas elaborate devices are the deterministic product of human design. Yet, biological organisms and collective insect constructions are exceptional examples of complex systems that are both self-organized and architectural. This book is the first initiative of its kind toward establishing a new field of research, Morphogenetic Engineering, to explore the modeling and implementation of ‘self-architecturing’ systems. Particular emphasis is placed on the programmability and computational abilities of self-organization, properties that are often underappreciated in complex systems science-while, conversely, the benefits of self-organization are often underappreciated in engineering methodologies. Altogether, the aim of this work is to provide a framework for and examples of a larger class of ‘self-architecturing’ systems, while addressing fundamental questions such as > How do biological organisms carry out morphogenetic tasks so reliably? > Can we extrapolate their self-formation capabilities to engineered systems? > Can physical systems be endowed with information (or informational systems be embedded in physics) so as to create autonomous morphologies and functions? > What are the core principles and best practices for the design and engineering of such morphogenetic systems? The intended audience consists of researchers and graduate students who are working on, starting to work on, or interested in programmable self-organizing systems in a wide range of scientific fields, including computer science, robotics, bioengineering, control engineering, physics, theoretical biology, mathematics, and many others.

Morphogenetic Engineering

Smart Sensors and Mems

Smart Sensors and Mems

Smart sensors and micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) can include a variety of devices and systems that have a high level of functionality. They may integrate sensing and actuating with information processing, analog to digital conversion and memory functions. Smart sensors and MEMS may respond to algorithmic instructions and calibration requests, allowing smart devices to become more autonomous as they provide self diagnostics and self correction. Intelligence enables adaptation, which in turn increases the reliability and longevity of the smart device and this can significantly reduce costs. The editors have brought together a roster of contributing experts to cover smart sensors including capacitive, inductive, resistive and image sensors, smart MEMS including power MEMS, optical MEMS, inertial MEMS, and MEMS print heads.

Smart Sensors and Mems

Advanced Bimanual Manipulation

Advanced Bimanual Manipulation

Dexterous and autonomous manipulation is a key technology for the personal and service robots of the future. Advances in Bimanual Manipulation edited by Bruno Siciliano provides the robotics community with the most noticeable results of the four-year European project DEXMART (DEXterous and autonomous dual-arm hand robotic manipulation with sMART sensory-motor skills: A bridge from natural to artificial cognition). The volume covers a host of highly important topics in the field, concerned with modelling and learning of human manipulation skills, algorithms for task planning, human-robot interaction, and grasping, as well as hardware design of dexterous anthropomorphic hands. The results described in this five-chapter collection are believed to pave the way towards the development of robotic systems endowed with dexterous and human-aware dual-arm/hand manipulation skills for objects, operating with a high degree of autonomy in unstructured real-world environments.

Advanced Bimanual Manipulation

Programming Multi-Agent Systems

Programming Multi-Agent Systems

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Programming Multi-Agent Systems, ProMAS 2007, held in Honolulu, HI, USA, in May 2007 as an associated event of AAMAS 2007, the 6th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems.

Programming Multi-Agent Systems

Complex Automated Negotiations

Complex Automated Negotiations

Complex Automated Negotiations are a widely studied, emerging area in the field of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. In general, automated negotiations can be complex, since there are a lot of factors that characterize such negotiations. For this book, we solicited papers on all aspects of such complex automated negotiations, which are studied in the field of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. This book includes two parts, which are Part I: Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiations and Part II: Automated Negotiation Agents Competition. Each chapter in Part I is an extended version of ACAN 2011 papers after peer reviews by three PC members. Part II includes ANAC 2011 (The Second Automated Negotiating Agents Competition), in which automated agents who have different negotiation strategies and implemented by different developers are automatically negotiate in the several negotiation domains. ANAC is an international competition in which automated negotiation strategies, submitted by a number of universities and research institutes across the world, are evaluated in a tournament style. The purpose of the competition is to steer the research in the area of bilateral multi-issue, closed negotiation. This book includes rules, results, agents and domains descriptions for ANAC2011 submitted by organizers and finalists.

Complex Automated Negotiations