Mobile Robotics

Mobile robotics is now one of the fastest-growing areas of scientific research. Mobile robots can replace humans in many fields due to their capabilities. Mobile robots can work independently (in manufacturing plants, labs, planetary surfaces, etc.), i.e. without the help of external human operators. Mobile robotics is a central topic in the multidisciplinary field of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, cognitive science, and social sciences. In this book, the world of mobile robots is explored including the new trends and application of mobile robots in varied areas. These new trends are led by artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, network communication, cooperative work, nanorobotics, friendly human-robot interfaces, safe human-robot interaction, and emotional expression and perception. The first chapter presents the application of mobile robotics in education and research. The succeeding chapters in the book include loop closure detection based on multi-scale deep feature fusion; formation control and distributed goal assignment for multi-agent non-holonomic systems; mobile robot path planning with a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm; flexible Wi-Fi communication among mobile robots in indoor industrial environments; numerical evaluation of sample gathering solutions for mobile robots; and object transportation by two mobile robots with hand carts. To address such challenges, this book intends to handle some recent development of mobile robots and their research, and also to enhance studies on the fundamental problems observed in mobile robots. Various multidisciplinary approaches or integrative contributions including navigation, learning and adaptation, networked system, biologically inspired robots, and cognitive methods are also covered. This book deals with mobile robots and how a mobile robot can move in the real world to fulfill its objectives without human interaction.