This book includes recent research on climbing and walking robots. CLAWAR 2022 is the twenty-fifth International Conference Series on Climbing and Walking Robots and Mobile Machine Support Technologies. The conference is organized by CLAWAR Association in collaboration with the University of the Azores, S. Miguel, Portugal, during September 12-14, 2022. CLAWAR 2022 provides an updated state of the art on robotics and its use in a diversity of applications and/or simulation scenarios, within the framework “Robotics in Natural Settings”. The topics covered include Bio-Inspired Robotics, Biped Locomotion, Educational Robotics, Human-Machine/Human-Robot Interaction, Innovative Actuators, Inspection, Legged Locomotion, Modeling and Simulation of CLAWAR, Outdoor and Field Robotics, Planning and Control, Wearable Devices and Assistive Robotics, and the Use of A.I. in Robotics. The intended readership includes participants of CLAWAR 2022 conference, international robotic researchers, scientists, and professors of related topics worldwide, and professors and students of postgraduate courses in Robotics and Automation, Control Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Mechatronics.

Soon to be a DreamWorks movie, coming to theaters 9/27/24! Includes 8 pages of full color stills from the movie! Wall-E meets Hatchet in this #1 New York Times bestselling illustrated middle grade novel from Caldecott Honor winner Peter Brown Can a robot survive in the wilderness? When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is all alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is--but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a violent storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realizes that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island's unwelcoming animal inhabitants. As Roz slowly befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home--until, one day, the robot's mysterious past comes back to haunt her. From bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Peter Brown comes a heartwarming and action-packed novel about what happens when nature and technology collide.

A revolutionary new framework that draws on insights from ecology for the design and analysis of long-duration robots Robots are increasingly leaving the confines of laboratories, warehouses, and manufacturing facilities, venturing into agriculture and other settings where they must operate in uncertain conditions over long timescales. This multidisciplinary book draws on the principles of ecology to show how robots can take full advantage of the environments they inhabit, including as sources of energy. Magnus Egerstedt introduces a revolutionary new design paradigm—robot ecology—that makes it possible to achieve long-duration autonomy while avoiding catastrophic failures. Central to ecology is the idea that the richness of an organism’s behavior is a function of the environmental constraints imposed by its habitat. Moving beyond traditional strategies that focus on optimal policies for making robots achieve targeted tasks, Egerstedt explores how to use survivability constraints to produce both effective and provably safe robot behaviors. He blends discussions of ecological principles with the development of control barrier functions as a formal approach to constraint-based control design, and provides an in-depth look at the design of the SlothBot, a slow and energy-efficient robot used for environmental monitoring and conservation. Visionary in scope, Robot Ecology presents a comprehensive and unified methodology for designing robots that can function over long durations in diverse natural environments.

This book includes recent research on climbing and walking robots. CLAWAR 2022 is the twenty-fifth International Conference Series on Climbing and Walking Robots and Mobile Machine Support Technologies. The conference is organized by CLAWAR Association in collaboration with the University of the Azores, S. Miguel, Portugal, during September 12-14, 2022. CLAWAR 2022 provides an updated state of the art on robotics and its use in a diversity of applications and/or simulation scenarios, within the framework "Robotics in Natural Settings". The topics covered include Bio-Inspired Robotics, Biped Locomotion, Educational Robotics, Human-Machine/Human-Robot Interaction, Innovative Actuators, Inspection, Legged Locomotion, Modeling and Simulation of CLAWAR, Outdoor and Field Robotics, Planning and Control, Wearable Devices and Assistive Robotics, and the Use of A.I. in Robotics. The intended readership includes participants of CLAWAR 2022 conference, international robotic researchers, scientists, and professors of related topics worldwide, and professors and students of postgraduate courses in Robotics and Automation, Control Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Mechatronics.

Social robots not only work with humans in collaborative workspaces – we meet them in shopping malls and even more personal settings like health and care. Does this imply they should become more human, able to interpret and adequately respond to human emotions? Do we want them to help elderly people? Do we want them to support us when we are old ourselves? Do we want them to just clean and keep things orderly – or would we accept them helping us to go to the toilet, or even feed us if we suffer from Parkinson’s disease? The answers to these questions differ from person to person. They depend on cultural background, personal experiences – but probably most of all on the robot in question. This book covers the phenomenon of social robots from the historic roots to today’s best practices and future perspectives. To achieve this, we used a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach, incorporating findings from computer scientists, engineers, designers, psychologists, doctors, nurses, historians and many more. The book also covers a vast spectrum of applications, from collaborative industrial work over education to sales. Especially for developments with a high societal impact like robots in health and care settings, the authors discuss not only technology, design and usage but also ethical aspects. Thus this book creates both a compendium and a guideline, helping to navigate the design space for future developments in social robotics.

“[An] essential book… it is required reading as we seriously engage one of the most important debates of our time.”—Sherry Turkle, author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age From drones to Mars rovers—an exploration of the most innovative use of robots today and a provocative argument for the crucial role of humans in our increasingly technological future. In Our Robots, Ourselves, David Mindell offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the cutting edge of robotics today, debunking commonly held myths and exploring the rapidly changing relationships between humans and machines. Drawing on firsthand experience, extensive interviews, and the latest research from MIT and elsewhere, Mindell takes us to extreme environments—high atmosphere, deep ocean, and outer space—to reveal where the most advanced robotics already exist. In these environments, scientists use robots to discover new information about ancient civilizations, to map some of the world’s largest geological features, and even to “commute” to Mars to conduct daily experiments. But these tools of air, sea, and space also forecast the dangers, ethical quandaries, and unintended consequences of a future in which robotics and automation suffuse our everyday lives. Mindell argues that the stark lines we’ve drawn between human and not human, manual and automated, aren’t helpful for understanding our relationship with robotics. Brilliantly researched and accessibly written, Our Robots, Ourselves clarifies misconceptions about the autonomous robot, offering instead a hopeful message about what he calls “rich human presence” at the center of the technological landscape we are now creating.

CLAWAR 2023 is the 26th International Conference Series on Climbing and Walking Robots and Mobile Machine Support Technologies. The conference is organized by CLAWAR Association in collaboration with the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil, during October 2–4, 2023. This book provides the latest research and development findings and state-of-the-art insights into the mobile robotics and associated technologies in a diverse range of application scenarios, within the framework of “Synergetic Cooperation Between Robots and Humans”. The topics covered include climbing and inspection robots, education in robotics and robotics in education, hybrid and convertible UAVs, legged robots, multibody systems and mechanism design in robotics, planning and control, robotic navigation, robotics and neurotechnologies for healthcare improvements, and simulation and digital twins in robotic applications. The intended readership includes participants of CLAWAR 2023 conference, worldwide researchers, scientists, and educators in the areas of robotics and related topics. The book is also a good source for courses in robotics and automation, control engineering, mechanical engineering, and mechatronics.