Robotics

This book introduces readers to robotics, industrial robot mechanisms, and types of robots, e.g. parallel robots, mobile robots and humanoid robots. The book is based on over 10 years of teaching robotics and has been extensively class tested and praised for its simplicity. It addresses the following subjects: a general introduction to robotics; basic characteristics of industrial robot mechanisms; position and movement of an object, which are described by homogenous transformation matrices; a geometric model of robot mechanisms (including a robot wrist orientation description in this new edition); a brief introduction to the kinematics and dynamics of robots; robot sensors and planning of robot trajectories; fundamentals of robot vision; basic control schemes resulting in either desired end-effector trajectory or force; collaborative robots; robot workcells with feeding devices and robot grippers; and the planning of assembly tasks. This second edition has been expanded to include the following new topics: parallel robots; how to teach robots; mobile robots; and humanoid robots. Rounded out with a glossary of key terms in English, French and German, the book is optimally suited for courses in robotics or industrial robotics and requires a minimal grasp of physics and mathematics. The 1st edition of this book won the Outstanding Academic Title distinction from the library magazine CHOICE in 2011.