Book review

Citation

Armada, M. (2008), "Book review", Industrial Robot, Vol. 35 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2008.04935aae.002

Book review

Book review

Robot Motion and Control Recent Developments

Krzysztof KozlowskiSpringer2006ISBN: 978-1-84628-404-5, $159Web site: www.springer.com/west/home/engineering?SGWID¼4-175-22-145372559-0, Online version also available: http://springerlink.com/content/110315/

All types of robots have, by definition one or more mobile parts or they move themselves in respect to some external reference. To bring about robot motion, control of individual actuators is required along with coordinate transformations that are combined to bring about the required overall robot performance. This implies that perception, navigation and interaction capabilities need to be also incorporated to the robot control system in order to accomplish new demanding applications.

Krzysztof (Chris) Kozlowski has compiled together the main subjects relating to the problem of robot motion and control. This is an excellent compendium where the reader can gain a full picture of the problems and the solutions that the authors of the different chapters propose for the control of complex mechanical systems. These include classical robots, flexible manipulators, biologically inspired motion planning, mobile robots and flying drones.

I liked the book because it combines within its five sections the most recent developments, as the title extension indicates, of robot motion and control. The literature on this subject is very fragmented and scattered and there are practically no (recent) books available that contain this subject matter, this is why this book should be recommended to Industrial Robot readers. Readers can select their preferred topic by selecting the appropriated chapter or read the full text. A very important number of references gathered chapter by chapter will permit researchers and PhD students to read deeper into this complex matter.

Special treatment of trajectory planning of non-holonomic systems are covered in the first five chapters. I was pleased to see this included in the book as, in my personal opinion, the literature of non-holonomic vehicle control is too scattered within literature so this is definitely a merit of the book. The content of these chapters will be of great help to those working on mobile robots. There are also four very motivating chapters dealing with climbing and walking robots (CLAWAR). To end this review, I would like to comment on one chapter, “on electrical analogues of mechanical systems” I enjoyed reading this (several times). This was the first chapter that I read when I opened the book and I also enjoyed rereading it too. As it is written like a short review, it will be very valuable for those working on impedance control, a research area whose applications are very hopeful.

Manuel ArmadaVice Director, Industrial Automation Institute, Madrid, Spain