This book is an introduction to the foundations and methods used for designing completely autonomous mobile robots. Readers are introduced to the fundamental concepts of mobile robotics via twelve detailed case studies which show how to build and program real working robots. The book provides a very practical introduction to mobile robotics for a general scientific audience, and is essential reading for practitioners and students working in robotics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science and robot engineering.

Inhalt

1 Introduction.- 2 Foundations.- 2.1 Definitions.- 2.2 Applications of Mobile Robots.- 2.3 History of Mobile Robotics: Early Implementations.- 2.4 History of Mobile Robotics: Control Paradigms.- 2.5 Further Reading.- 3 Robot Hardware.- 3.1 Robot Sensors.- 3.2 Robot Actuators.- 3.3 Example: The Mobile Robot FortyTwo.- 3.4 The Need for Sensor Signal Interpretation.- 3.5 Further Reading.- 4 Robot Learning: Making Sense of Raw Sensor Data.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Learning Methods in Detail.- 4.3 Further Reading on Learning Methods.- 4.4 Case Studies of Learning Robots.- 4.5 Exercise 3: A Target-Following, Obstacle-Avoiding Robot.- 5 Navigation.- 5.1 Principles of Navigation.- 5.2 Fundamental Navigation Strategies of Animals and Humans.- 5.3 Robot Navigation.- 5.4 Case Studies of Navigating Robots.- 6 Simulation: Modelling Robot-Environment Interaction.- 6.1 Motivation.- 6.2 Fundamentals of Computer Simulation.- 6.3 Alternatives to Numerical Models.- 6.4 Case Study on Simulation of Robot-Environment Interaction.- 7 Analysis of Robot Behaviour.- 7.1 Motivation.- 7.2 Statistical Analysis of Robot Behaviour.- 7.3 Case Studies of Performance Evaluation and Analysis.- 7.4 Summary.- 8 Outlook.- 8.1 Achievements.- 8.2 Reasons for Success.- 8.3 Challenges.- 8.4 The Beginning.- 8.5 Further Reading.- Answers to Exercises.- 1 Sonar Sensors.- 2 Robot Learning.- 3 Error Calculations and Contingency Table Analysis.- 4 Analysis of Categorical Data.- List of Exercises and Case Studies.- References.