This book presents extensive research on two main problems in robotics: the path planning problem and the multi-robot task allocation problem. It is the first book to provide a comprehensive solution for using these techniques in large-scale environments containing randomly scattered obstacles. The research conducted resulted in tangible results both in theory and in practice. For path planning, new algorithms for large-scale problems are devised and implemented and integrated into the Robot Operating System (ROS). The book also discusses the parallelism advantage of cloud computing techniques to solve the path planning problem, and, for multi-robot task allocation, it addresses the task assignment problem and the multiple traveling salesman problem for mobile robots applications. In addition, four new algorithms have been devised to investigate the cooperation issues with extensive simulations and comparative performance evaluation. The algorithms are implemented and simulated in MATLAB and Webots.

One of the ultimate goals in Robotics is to create autonomous robots. Such robots will accept high-level descriptions of tasks and will execute them without further human intervention. The input descriptions will specify what the user wants done rather than how to do it. The robots will be any kind of versatile mechanical device equipped with actuators and sensors under the control of a computing system. Making progress toward autonomous robots is of major practical inter est in a wide variety of application domains including manufacturing, construction, waste management, space exploration, undersea work, as sistance for the disabled, and medical surgery. It is also of great technical interest, especially for Computer Science, because it raises challenging and rich computational issues from which new concepts of broad useful ness are likely to emerge. Developing the technologies necessary for autonomous robots is a formidable undertaking with deep interweaved ramifications in auto mated reasoning, perception and control. It raises many important prob lems. One of them - motion planning - is the central theme of this book. It can be loosely stated as follows: How can a robot decide what motions to perform in order to achieve goal arrangements of physical objects? This capability is eminently necessary since, by definition, a robot accomplishes tasks by moving in the real world. The minimum one would expect from an autonomous robot is the ability to plan its x Preface own motions.

Through expanded intelligence, the use of robotics has fundamentally transformed a variety of fields, including manufacturing, aerospace, medicine, social services, and agriculture. Continued research on robotic design is critical to solving various dynamic obstacles individuals, enterprises, and humanity at large face on a daily basis. Robotic Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a vital reference source that delves into the current issues, methodologies, and trends relating to advanced robotic technology in the modern world. Highlighting a range of topics such as mechatronics, cybernetics, and human-computer interaction, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for robotics engineers, mechanical engineers, robotics technicians, operators, software engineers, designers, programmers, industry professionals, researchers, students, academicians, and computer practitioners seeking current research on developing innovative ideas for intelligent and autonomous robotics systems.

The presence of mobile robots in diverse scenarios is considerably increasing to perform a variety of tasks. Among them, many developments have occurred in the fields of ground, underwater, and flying robotics. Independent of the environment where they move, navigation is a fundamental ability of mobile robots so that they can autonomously complete high-level tasks. This problem can be efficiently addressed through the following actions: First, it is necessary to perceive the environment in which the robot has to move, and extract some relevant information (mapping problem). Second, the robot must be able to estimate its position and orientation within this environment (localization problem). With this information, a trajectory toward the target points must be planned (path planning), and the vehicle must be reactively guided along this trajectory considering either possible changes or interactions with the environment or with the user (control). Given this information, this book introduces current frameworks in these fields (mapping, localization, path planning, and control) and, in general, approaches to any problem related to the navigation of mobile robots, such as odometry, exploration, obstacle avoidance, and simulation.

Studies on robotics applications have grown substantially in recent years, with swarm robotics being a relatively new area of research. Inspired by studies in swarm intelligence and robotics, swarm robotics facilitates interactions between robots as well as their interactions with the environment. The Handbook of Research on Design, Control, and Modeling of Swarm Robotics is a collection of the most important research achievements in swarm robotics thus far, covering the growing areas of design, control, and modeling of swarm robotics. This handbook serves as an essential resource for researchers, engineers, graduates, and senior undergraduates with interests in swarm robotics and its applications.

Offers a theoretical and practical guide to the communication and navigation of autonomous mobile robots and multi-robot systems This book covers the methods and algorithms for the navigation, motion planning, and control of mobile robots acting individually and in groups. It addresses methods of positioning in global and local coordinates systems, off-line and on-line path-planning, sensing and sensors fusion, algorithms of obstacle avoidance, swarming techniques and cooperative behavior. The book includes ready-to-use algorithms, numerical examples and simulations, which can be directly implemented in both simple and advanced mobile robots, and is accompanied by a website hosting codes, videos, and PowerPoint slides Autonomous Mobile Robots and Multi-Robot Systems: Motion-Planning, Communication and Swarming consists of four main parts. The first looks at the models and algorithms of navigation and motion planning in global coordinates systems with complete information about the robot’s location and velocity. The second part considers the motion of the robots in the potential field, which is defined by the environmental states of the robot's expectations and knowledge. The robot's motion in the unknown environments and the corresponding tasks of environment mapping using sensed information is covered in the third part. The fourth part deals with the multi-robot systems and swarm dynamics in two and three dimensions. Provides a self-contained, theoretical guide to understanding mobile robot control and navigation Features implementable algorithms, numerical examples, and simulations Includes coverage of models of motion in global and local coordinates systems with and without direct communication between the robots Supplemented by a companion website offering codes, videos, and PowerPoint slides Autonomous Mobile Robots and Multi-Robot Systems: Motion-Planning, Communication and Swarming is an excellent tool for researchers, lecturers, senior undergraduate and graduate students, and engineers dealing with mobile robots and related issues.

This book presents practical development experiences in different areas of data analysis and pattern recognition, focusing on soft computing technologies, clustering and classification algorithms, rough set and fuzzy set theory, evolutionary computations, neural science and neural network systems, image processing, combinatorial pattern matching, social network analysis, audio and video data analysis, data mining in dynamic environments, bioinformatics, hybrid computing, big data analytics and deep learning. It also provides innovative solutions to the challenges in these areas and discusses recent developments.