Robotics Science

These 16 contributions provide a field guide to robotics science today. Each takes up current work the problems addressed, and future directions in the areas of perception, planning, control, design, and actuation. In a substantial introduction, Michael Brady summarizes a personal list of 30 problems, problem areas, and issues that lie on the path to development of a science of robotics. These involve sensing vision, mobility, design, control, manipulation, reasoning, geometric reasoning and systems integration. Contents: The Problems of Robotics, Michael Brady. Perception. A Few Steps Toward Artificial 3-D Vision, Olivier D. Faugeras. Contact Sensing for Robot Active Touch. Paolo Dario. Learning and Recognition in Natural Environments. Alex Pentland and Robert Bolles. 3-D Vision for Outdoor Navigation by an Autonomous Vehicle, Martial Hebert and Takeo Kanade. Planning. Geometric Issues in Planning Robot Tasks, Tomas Lozano Perez and Russell Taylor. Robotic Manipulation: Mechanics and Planning, Matthew Mason. Control. A Survey of Manipulation and Assembly: Development of the Field and Open Research Issues, Daniel Whitney. Control, Suguru Arimoto. Kinematics and Dynamics for Control, John Hollerbach. The Whole Iguana, Rodney Brooks. Design and Actuation. Design and Kinematics for Force and Velocity Control of Manipulators and End Effectors, Bernard Roth. Arm Design, Haruhiko Asada. Behavior Based Design of Robot Effectors, Stephen Jacobsen, Craig Smith, Klaus Biggers, and Edwin Iversen. Using an Articulated Hand to Manipulate Objects, Kenneth Salisbury, David Brock and Patrick O'Donnell. Legged Robots, Marc Raibert. Michael Brady is Professor of Information Engineering at Oxford University. Robotics Scienceis included in the System Development Foundation Benchmark series. System Development Foundation grants have contributed significantly to the development of robotics in the United States during the 1980s.