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Chapter 0 — Preface

Bruno Siciliano, Oussama Khatib and Torsten Kröger

The preface of the Second Edition of the Springer Handbook of Robotics contains three videos about the creation of the book and using its multimedia app on mobile devices.

Bruno Siciliano — Keynote, February 2017

Author  Bruno Siciliano

Video ID : 847

Bruno Siciliano, Editor of the Springer Handbook of Robotics, gives a keynote during the One SpringerNature event in Barcelona on 7 February 2017.

Chapter 36 — Motion for Manipulation Tasks

James Kuffner and Jing Xiao

This chapter serves as an introduction to Part D by giving an overview of motion generation and control strategies in the context of robotic manipulation tasks. Automatic control ranging from the abstract, high-level task specification down to fine-grained feedback at the task interface are considered. Some of the important issues include modeling of the interfaces between the robot and the environment at the different time scales of motion and incorporating sensing and feedback. Manipulation planning is introduced as an extension to the basic motion planning problem, which can be modeled as a hybrid system of continuous configuration spaces arising from the act of grasping and moving parts in the environment. The important example of assembly motion is discussed through the analysis of contact states and compliant motion control. Finally, methods aimed at integrating global planning with state feedback control are summarized.

Whole quadruped manipulation

Author  Toru Omata et al.

Video ID : 366

The video shows a quadruped robot that can use two of its legs for whole-body manipulation of objects. The robot can stand on the knee joints of its hind legs, grasp an object with the two front legs, and adjust its center of mass by rotating the hind knee joints to manipulate it. This enables the robot to place an object on its stomach/back and use the hind legs again for walking so that the object can be moved around in the environment.

Chapter 58 — Robotics in Hazardous Applications

James Trevelyan, William R. Hamel and Sung-Chul Kang

Robotics researchers have worked hard to realize a long-awaited vision: machines that can eliminate the need for people to work in hazardous environments. Chapter 60 is framed by the vision of disaster response: search and rescue robots carrying people from burning buildings or tunneling through collapsed rock falls to reach trapped miners. In this chapter we review tangible progress towards robots that perform routine work in places too dangerous for humans. Researchers still have many challenges ahead of them but there has been remarkable progress in some areas. Hazardous environments present special challenges for the accomplishment of desired tasks depending on the nature and magnitude of the hazards. Hazards may be present in the form of radiation, toxic contamination, falling objects or potential explosions. Technology that specialized engineering companies can develop and sell without active help from researchers marks the frontier of commercial feasibility. Just inside this border lie teleoperated robots for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and for underwater engineering work. Even with the typical tenfold disadvantage in manipulation performance imposed by the limits of today’s telepresence and teleoperation technology, in terms of human dexterity and speed, robots often can offer a more cost-effective solution. However, most routine applications in hazardous environments still lie far beyond the feasibility frontier. Fire fighting, remediating nuclear contamination, reactor decommissioning, tunneling, underwater engineering, underground mining and clearance of landmines and unexploded ordnance still present many unsolved problems.

UNMACA: Demining Afghanistan

Author  James P. Trevelyan

Video ID : 571

This is a high-quality video made partly with the aim of seeking funds to help complete demining projects in Afghanistan. This video has been included because researchers can see plenty of examples of realistic field conditions under which demining is being done in Afghanistan. It is essential for researchers to have an accurate appreciation of the real field conditions before considering expensive research projects. There are plenty of opportunities to see manual mine clearance. Current-generation demining machines don't work here because of the very hard and rocky ground. There is an interesting segment showing the Bamyan site. The sentiments expressed by deminers are genuine, in my experience. I have met many similarly dedicated Afghan deminers, and they are selected for their dedication, attitude to nation-building, courage, and conscientious work ethic. They are justly proud of the work they do, and their uniforms and equipment set them apart from most other Afghans and give them a real sense of respect. Note that winter rains and summer storms wash mud over mines, encasing them in what later turns to hard, cement-like soil. It is hard physical work demanding sensitive hands, care, and attention to detail. For more information see: http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/~jamest/demining/countries/afghan/minefields-afghan.html

Chapter 69 — Physical Human-Robot Interaction

Sami Haddadin and Elizabeth Croft

Over the last two decades, the foundations for physical human–robot interaction (pHRI) have evolved from successful developments in mechatronics, control, and planning, leading toward safer lightweight robot designs and interaction control schemes that advance beyond the current capacities of existing high-payload and highprecision position-controlled industrial robots. Based on their ability to sense physical interaction, render compliant behavior along the robot structure, plan motions that respect human preferences, and generate interaction plans for collaboration and coaction with humans, these novel robots have opened up novel and unforeseen application domains, and have advanced the field of human safety in robotics.

This chapter gives an overview on the state of the art in pHRI as of the date of publication. First, the advances in human safety are outlined, addressing topics in human injury analysis in robotics and safety standards for pHRI. Then, the foundations of human-friendly robot design, including the development of lightweight and intrinsically flexible force/torque-controlled machines together with the required perception abilities for interaction are introduced. Subsequently, motionplanning techniques for human environments, including the domains of biomechanically safe, risk-metric-based, human-aware planning are covered. Finally, the rather recent problem of interaction planning is summarized, including the issues of collaborative action planning, the definition of the interaction planning problem, and an introduction to robot reflexes and reactive control architecture for pHRI.

Human-robot interaction planning

Author  Sven Parusel, Hannes Widmoser, Saskia Golz, Tobias Ende, Nico Blodow, Matteo Saveriano, Kai Krieger, Alexis Maldonado, Ingo Kresse, Roman Weitschat, Dongheui Lee, Michael Beetz, Sami Haddadin

Video ID : 616

The video presents the main aspects that have to be taken into consideration for joint human-robot assembly. These are: i) planning and appropriately distributing the tasks between human, robot, and collaboration; ii) a suitable interface between human and robot by visual and haptic gestures; iii) compliant and sensitive robot control in delivery, storage, hand-over, and assembly of parts; iv) collision detection and distinguishing from intended contacts during collaboration. The overall concept is presented for the exemplary assembly of a toy-train-track. (AAAI 2014, Video Competition)

Chapter 46 — Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

Cyrill Stachniss, John J. Leonard and Sebastian Thrun

This chapter provides a comprehensive introduction in to the simultaneous localization and mapping problem, better known in its abbreviated form as SLAM. SLAM addresses the main perception problem of a robot navigating an unknown environment. While navigating the environment, the robot seeks to acquire a map thereof, and at the same time it wishes to localize itself using its map. The use of SLAM problems can be motivated in two different ways: one might be interested in detailed environment models, or one might seek to maintain an accurate sense of a mobile robot’s location. SLAM serves both of these purposes.

We review the three major paradigms from which many published methods for SLAM are derived: (1) the extended Kalman filter (EKF); (2) particle filtering; and (3) graph optimization. We also review recent work in three-dimensional (3-D) SLAM using visual and red green blue distance-sensors (RGB-D), and close with a discussion of open research problems in robotic mapping.

Large-scale SLAM using the Atlas framework

Author  Michael Bosse

Video ID : 440

This video shows the operation of the Atlas framework for real-time, large-scale mapping using the MIT Killian Court data set. Atlas employed graphs of coordinate frames. Each vertex in the graph represents a local coordinate frame, and each edge represents the transformation between adjacent local coordinate frames. In each local coordinate frame, extended Kalman filter SLAM (Chap. 46.3.1, Springer Handbook of Robotics, 2nd edn 2016) is performed to make a map of the local environment and to estimate the current robot pose, along with the uncertainties of each. Each map's uncertainties were modelled with respect to its own local frame. Probabilities of entities in relation to arbitrary map-frames were generated by following a path formed by the edges between adjacent map-frames, using Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm. Loop-closing was achieved via an efficient map matching algorithm. Reference: M. Bosse, P. M. Newman, J. Leonard, S. Teller: Simultaneous localization and map building in large-scale cyclic environments using the Atlas framework, Int. J. Robot. Res. 23(12), 1113-1139 (2004).

Chapter 23 — Biomimetic Robots

Kyu-Jin Cho and Robert Wood

Biomimetic robot designs attempt to translate biological principles into engineered systems, replacing more classical engineering solutions in order to achieve a function observed in the natural system. This chapter will focus on mechanism design for bio-inspired robots that replicate key principles from nature with novel engineering solutions. The challenges of biomimetic design include developing a deep understanding of the relevant natural system and translating this understanding into engineering design rules. This often entails the development of novel fabrication and actuation to realize the biomimetic design.

This chapter consists of four sections. In Sect. 23.1, we will define what biomimetic design entails, and contrast biomimetic robots with bio-inspired robots. In Sect. 23.2, we will discuss the fundamental components for developing a biomimetic robot. In Sect. 23.3, we will review detailed biomimetic designs that have been developed for canonical robot locomotion behaviors including flapping-wing flight, jumping, crawling, wall climbing, and swimming. In Sect. 23.4, we will discuss the enabling technologies for these biomimetic designs including material and fabrication.

Robot dragonfly DelFly Explorer flies autonomously

Author  Christophe De Wagter, Sjoerd Tijmons, Bart D.W. Remes, Guido C.H.E. de Croon

Video ID : 402

The DelFly Explorer is the first flapping-wing micro air vehicle that is able to fly with complete autonomy in unknown environments. Weighing just 20 g, it is equipped with a 4 g onboard, stereo-vision system. The DelFly Explorer can perform an autonomous take-off, maintain its height, and avoid obstacles for as long as its battery lasts (~9 min). All sensing and processing is performed onboard, so no human or offboard computer is in the loop.

Chapter 74 — Learning from Humans

Aude G. Billard, Sylvain Calinon and Rüdiger Dillmann

This chapter surveys the main approaches developed to date to endow robots with the ability to learn from human guidance. The field is best known as robot programming by demonstration, robot learning from/by demonstration, apprenticeship learning and imitation learning. We start with a brief historical overview of the field. We then summarize the various approaches taken to solve four main questions: when, what, who and when to imitate. We emphasize the importance of choosing well the interface and the channels used to convey the demonstrations, with an eye on interfaces providing force control and force feedback. We then review algorithmic approaches to model skills individually and as a compound and algorithms that combine learning from human guidance with reinforcement learning. We close with a look on the use of language to guide teaching and a list of open issues.

Demonstrations and reproduction of moving a chessman

Author  Sylvain Calinon, Florent Guenter, Aude Billard

Video ID : 97

A robot learns how to make a chess move from multiple demonstrations and to reproduce the skill in a new situation (different position of the chessman) by finding a controller which satisfies both the task constraints (what-to-imitate) and constraints relative to its body limitation (how-to-imitate). Reference: S. Calinon, F. Guenter, A. Billard: On earning, representing and generalizing a task in a humanoid robot, IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybernet. B 37(2), 286-298 (2007); URL: http://lasa.epfl.ch/videos/control.php.

Learning from failure II

Author  Aude Billard

Video ID : 477

This video illustrates in a second example how learning from demonstration can benefit from failed demonstrations (as opposed to learning from successful demonstrations). Here, the robot Robota must learn how to coordinate its two arms in a timely manner for the left arm to hit the ball with the racket right on time, after the left arm sent the ball flying by hitting the catapult. More details on this work is available in: A. Rai, G. de Chambrier, A. Billard: Learning from failed demonstrations in unreliable systems, Proc. IEEE-RAS Int. Conf. Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), Atlanta (2013), pp. 410 – 416; doi: 10.1109/HUMANOIDS.2013.7030007 .

Chapter 61 — Robot Surveillance and Security

Wendell H. Chun and Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos

This chapter introduces the foundation for surveillance and security robots for multiple military and civilian applications. The key environmental domains are mobile robots for ground, aerial, surface water, and underwater applications. Surveillance literallymeans to watch fromabove,while surveillance robots are used to monitor the behavior, activities, and other changing information that are gathered for the general purpose of managing, directing, or protecting one’s assets or position. In a practical sense, the term surveillance is taken to mean the act of observation from a distance, and security robots are commonly used to protect and safeguard a location, some valuable assets, or personal against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Surveillance is a proactive operation,while security robots are a defensive operation. The construction of each type of robot is similar in nature with amobility component, sensor payload, communication system, and an operator control station.

After introducing the major robot components, this chapter focuses on the various applications. More specifically, Sect. 61.3 discusses the enabling technologies of mobile robot navigation, various payload sensors used for surveillance or security applications, target detection and tracking algorithms, and the operator’s robot control console for human–machine interface (HMI). Section 61.4 presents selected research activities relevant to surveillance and security, including automatic data processing of the payload sensors, automaticmonitoring of human activities, facial recognition, and collaborative automatic target recognition (ATR). Finally, Sect. 61.5 discusses future directions in robot surveillance and security, giving some conclusions and followed by references.

UGV Demo II: Outdoor surveillance robot

Author  Wendell Chun

Video ID : 679

The UGV / Demo II program, begun in 1992, developed and matured those navigation and automatic target-recognition technologies critical for the development of supervised, autonomous ground vehicles capable of performing military scout missions with a minimum of human oversight.

Chapter 74 — Learning from Humans

Aude G. Billard, Sylvain Calinon and Rüdiger Dillmann

This chapter surveys the main approaches developed to date to endow robots with the ability to learn from human guidance. The field is best known as robot programming by demonstration, robot learning from/by demonstration, apprenticeship learning and imitation learning. We start with a brief historical overview of the field. We then summarize the various approaches taken to solve four main questions: when, what, who and when to imitate. We emphasize the importance of choosing well the interface and the channels used to convey the demonstrations, with an eye on interfaces providing force control and force feedback. We then review algorithmic approaches to model skills individually and as a compound and algorithms that combine learning from human guidance with reinforcement learning. We close with a look on the use of language to guide teaching and a list of open issues.

Active teaching

Author  Maya Cakmak, Andrea Thomaz

Video ID : 107

Active-teaching scenario where the Simon humanoid robot asks for help during or after teaching, verifying that its understanding of the task is correct. Reference: M. Cakmak, A.L. Thomaz: Designing robot learners that ask good questions, Proc. ACM/IEEE Int. Conf. Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Boston (2012), pp. 17–24, URL: https://www.youtube.com/user/SimonTheSocialRobot .