Biomimetic Robotics Mechanisms and Control

This book is for a first course in robotics, especially in unmanned aerial or underwater vehicles.

This book is written as an initial course in robotics. It is ideal for study of unmanned aerial or underwater vehicles, a topic on which few books exist. It presents the fundamentals of robotics, from an aerospace perspective, by considering only the field of robot mechanisms. For an aerospace engineer, three dimensional and parallel mechanisms – flight simulation, unmanned aerial vehicles, and space robotics – take on an added significance. Biomimetic robot mechanisms are fundamental to manipulators, walking, mobile, and flying robots. As a distinguishing feature, this book gives a unified and integrated treatment of biomimetic robot mechanisms. It is ideal preparation for the next robotics module: practical robot control design. While the book focuses on principles, computational procedures are also given due importance. Students are encouraged to use computational tools to solve the examples in the exercises. The author has included some additional topics for the enthusiastic reader to explore.

1. The robot; 2. Biomimetic mechanisms; 3. Homogeneous transformations and screw motions; 4. Direct kinematics of serial robot manipulators; 5. Manipulators with multiple postures and compositions; 6. Grasping: mechanics and constraints; 7. Jacobians; 8. Newtonian, Eulerian and Lagrangian dynamics; 9. Path planning, obstacle avoidance and navigation; 10. Hamiltonian systems and feedback linearization; 11. Robot control; 12. Biomimetic motive propulsion; Answers to selected exercises; Appendix: attitude and quaternions.

This book is written for an initial course in robotics. It is ideal for study of unmanned aerial or underwater vehicles, a topic on which few books exist. It presents the fundamentals of robotics, from an aerospace perspective, by considering only the field of robot mechanisms.

Dr Ranjan Vepa has been with Queen Mary and Westfield College in the Department of Engineering since 1984 after receiving his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Dr Ranjan Vepa's research covers, in addition to biomemetic robotics, aspects of the design, analysis, simulation, and implementation of avionics and avionics-related systems, including non-linear aerospace vehicle kinematics, dynamics, vibration, control, and filtering. He has published numerous journal and conference papers and has contributed to a textbook entitled Application of Artificial Intelligence in Process Control. He maintains active in learning-based design education and the utilization of modern technology in engineering education. Dr Ranjan Vepa is a Chartered Engineer, a Member of Royal Aeronautical Society, London (MRAeS), and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.