The field of Intelligent Autonomous Systems (lAS) has attracted over the years the attention of numerous research and industrial groups and has by now arrived at an advanced level of development. The results have been achieved through the synergetic use of concepts, techniques and technologies drawn from electrical and mechanical engineering, control engineering, systems science, computer science and management science. Currently, the majority of working systems in practice are of the semi autonomous type needing some level of human intervention. Therefore much effort is presently devoted in academic, research and industrial environments towards further increasing the level of autonomy. This book provides a collection of essays which cover the latest research in the lAS field and present a rich set of results accompanied by detailed descriptions of the relevant concepts, tools, techniques and hardware/software designs. The book contains twenty three chapters grouped in the following parts: Part 1: General concepts, architectures and technologies Part 2: Mobile, walking and snake-like robots Part 3: Applications PART 1 involves the first seven chapters which deal with generic issues. Chapter 1 (by S. G. Tzafestas) provides some background material, accompanied by a description of two research lAS prototypes, namely a car-disassembly robotic system and a semi-autonomous/autonomous robotic wheelchair. Chapter 2 (by G. Bolmsjo, M. Olsson and K. Brink) presents a generic event-based control system structure for the control of a robotic workcell, including its implementation, where the autonomous operation is achieved via reactive replanning and configurable corrections.

Inhalt
1 General Concepts, Architectures and Technologies.- 1 Intelligent Autonomous Robotic Systems: Some General Issues And Two Representative Research Prototypes.- 2 Increased Autonomy in Industrial Robotic Systems: A Framework.- 3 Combining Visual, Tactile and Range Sensor Information to Increase the Autonomy of Robots.- 4 The ICa Approach to Intelligent Autonomous Systems.- 5 Intelligent Robotic Agent Combining Reactive and Cognitive Capabilities.- 6 Reactive Planning with Learned Operational Concepts.- 7 Sensors Used for Autonomous Navigation.- 2 Mobile, Walking and Snake-Like Robots.- 8 Design, Control and Applications Of Autonomous Mobile Robots.- 9 Intelligent Autonomous Systems: Visual Navigation Functionalities for Autonomous Mobile Vehicles.- 10 Mapping and Navigating in Time-Varying Obstacle Fields.- 11 High Integrity Navigation for Autonomous Systems.- 12 Autonomous Robot Motion Planning and Control in Uncertain Environments: Overview and A New Algorithm Based on Sliding-Mode Control.- 13 Autonomous Control for An Omnidirectional Mobile Robot with Feedback Control System.- 14 On the Design of a Control Architecture for an Autonomous Mobile Robot.- 15 Dynamic Walking: A Step Forward?.- 16 An Omnidirectional Control Algorithm for Walking Machines Based on a Wave-Crab Gait.- 17 Dynamic Modeling and Locomotion Control of Biped Autonomous Robots.- 18 A Novel Robotic Snake.- 3 Applications.- 19 Autonomous Agents in Cellular Manufacturing.- 20 Man-Machine Cooperation for the Control of an Intelligent Powered Wheelchair.- 21 The Design, Development and Operation of an Autonomous Robotic Excavator.- 22 Autonomous Robotic Exploration and Gaze Planning Using Range Sensing.- 23 Mixed Traffic Control Involving Manually-Controlled and Automatically-Controlled Vehicles in Ivhs.