Robotic Manipulators and Vehicles

Book excerpt: This monograph addresses problems of: • nonlinear control, estimation and filtering for robotic manipulators (multi-degree-of freedom rigid-link robots, flexible-link robots, underactuated, redundant and cooperating manipulators and closed-chain robotic mechanisms); and• nonlinear control, estimation and filtering for autonomous robotic vehicles operating on the ground, in the air, and on and under water, independently and in cooperating groups. The book is a thorough treatment of the entire range of applications of robotic manipulators and autonomous vehicles. The nonlinear control and estimation methods it develops can be used generically, being suitable for a wide range of robotic systems. Such methods can improve robustness, precision and fault-tolerance in robotic manipulators and vehicles at the same time as enabling the reliable functioning of these systems under variable conditions, model uncertainty and external perturbations.