Robotics: a very short introduction



Robotics: A Very Short Introduction
Published by Oxford University Press

Additional materials, especially robot images, links and videos:
















Chapter 1 What is a robot?

e-puck educational mobile robot
e-puck
  The e-puck online resource: www.e-puck.org
  YouTube videos of swarming e-pucks:
    4 e-puck robots programmed to follow each other
    10 e-puck robots swarming toward a beacon







Replica of Grey Walter’s 
robot tortoise
Grey Walter robot tortoise: Machina Speculatrix
  The Grey Walter online archive with
  Images of Walter's famous experiments
  BBC newsreel (~1949) of Walter demonstrating Elsie and Elmer
  Images of replicas of the Grey Walter robot tortoise
  Exploration and High Adventure: the legacy of Grey Walter, a paper by Owen Holland (2003)







Chapter 2 What robots do now

Fig 7. LEGO Mindstorms NXT 
‘central nervous system’
Lego NXT Nervous System










Chapter 3 Biological robots

Solarbot
Solarbot











Shakey
  Wikipedia article describing Shakey












Toto













Slugbot
Slugbot
  Slugbot web pages: towards true robot autonomy









Closeup of Slugbot gripper
Slugbot gripper slug catcher











EcoBot II
EcoBot II
  EcoBot II Web pages










Fig 9. EcoBot III: a robot with 
an artificial digestive system
Ecobot III
  EcoBot project overview web pages
  EcoBot III Web pages












Fig 9 (inset). Microbial Fuel Cell

EcoBot III Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC)













Fig 10. Scratchbot, 
a robot with artificial whiskers
Scratchbot
  Scratchbot Web pages
  YouTube video of Scratchbot
  BIOTACT Project web pages









Chapter 4 Humanoid and android robots

Fig 11. BERT II torso 
fitted with the BRL digital head
BERT
  Cooperative Human Robot Interaction Systems project website















Fig 12. Kismet, 
an expressive robot head 
for research in social 
human–robot interaction
Kismet
  Kismet project web pages











Fig 13. Jules, 
an expressive 
android robot head
Jules, pleased to see you
  Hanson Robotics
  Jules says goodbye - YouTube video










Jules, laughing













Jules, alarmed












Jules: upset












Jules, disgusted













Fig 15. Paro, a robot baby seal
Paro












Fig 16. Cronos, an anthropomimetic 
humanoid robot
Cronos
  YouTube ECCEROBOT video
  ECCEROBOT project website















Chapter 5 Robot swarms, evolution and symbiosis

Kiva systems robots
Kiva systems warehouse robots




Swarm-bot pulling a child
Swarmbot project
  project web site
  Swarm-bot child pulling video










Fig 17 (left). Swarmanoid -
three Foot-bots and a Hand-bot
Swarmanoid footbots and handbot
  project web site
  Swarmanoid video – fetching book off bookshelf:











Fig 17 (right). Swarmanoid - 
the Eye-bot
Swarmanoid eyebot

















Fig 18. The four-stage process 
of evolutionary robotics

Evolutionary Robotics








Fig 19 (top).
In the Golem project,
a robot is evolved in simulation
GOLEM Project
  project web site










Fig 19 (bottom).
In the Golem project, the final
best evolved individual is fabricated












Fig 20. Alice robot (A) and its 
artificial neural network controller (B)
Alice robot








Fig 21 (top). Visualization of 
a Symbrion organism

SYMBRION/REPLICATOR project
  project web pages









Fig 21 (bottom). Symbrion 
Backbone and Active wheel 
robots in the process of 
autonomous self-assembly













Fig 22. Simulated Nao 
humanoid robots playing 
3-a-side football in the 
simulator Webots
Webots robot simulator

















Chapter 6 Robotic futures

Bin48 being interviewed
by Amy Harmon
Bina48
  New York Times interview:

1 comment:

  1. This is a fine book! I am an amateur robot builder, but this book has really changed how I think about many aspects of robotics. Thank you so much!

    ReplyDelete