Basics of robotics. Theory and components of manipulators and robots (Q1299562)

[The articles of this volume will not be indexed individually.] This book provides an extensive exposition on the state-of-the-art of robotics, appearing near the end of the decade. The book is an encyclopedic treatise, covering virtually all aspects of the technology. The authors' stated objective in writing the book is to ``fill a gap in Polish scientific literature presenting the bases and scope of modern robotics.'' In this reviewer's opinion, the book goes beyond this and summarizes the entire global scientific literature. The book has five authors. It spans nearly 600 pages containing 18 chapters. In their forward, the authors observe that robots are now widely used in scientific research, in manufacturing, in various areas of civil engineering, in transportation, in agriculture, in medicine, in underwater exploration, and in space research. Such extensive application is due primarily to three advantages of robots over manual efforts: (1) precision; (2) adaptability to tedious work; and (3) ability to work in hazardous environments. Robots have many shapes, sizes, and forms: there are theoretical robots (mathematical models); metrological robots (measuring machines); mobile robots (including walking machines); medical robots (for surgery and rehabilitation assist); industrial robots (in manufacturing and process industries); service robots (e.g., window cleaners and transporters); and microrobots (inspection devices). The authors discuss each of these. The volume itself is divided into four parts. The first part discussing fundamental mechanics has seven chapters. Following a brief introductory chapter, the authors present various definitions and descriptions of robots and means for organizing the complex geometry. In the subsequent chapters the authors discuss robot dynamics including kinematics, inverse kinematics, and motion planning. The second part is devoted to grippers, drives, and sensors, with a separate chapter for each. The authors describe a variety of grippers and mechanical fingers. They consider pneumatic, hydraulic, and electrical drives. Finally, they discuss position, velocity, force, proximity, touch, grasping, and vision sensors and transducers. The third part considers robot control and task planning with a chapter for both subjects. Control equations are presented, and the concepts of adaptive, sliding, and robust control are discussed. The on task planning chapter discusses not only task planning but also elementary operation planning and trajectory planning. The final part considers applications: it has seven chapters describing underwater robots, industrial robots, rehabilitation manipulators, elastic manipulators, walking machines, and microrobots. Each of the 18 chapters concludes with a comprehensive reference list for additional reading and study. Unfortunately, however, the book as a whole has no bibliography, no glossary, nor even an index. Nevertheless, the authors are to be commended for their efforts in putting together this volume. The book should be of interest to theoreticians, to researchers, to students, to engineers, and to application specialists.