Introduction The robots in this book were designed to imitate biological life forms. Watching the snake robot moving through a room, it is teresting to observe the surprised reactions of people when it quickly turns towards them. People actually regard the robot as being alive. I am struck with the thought that although these machines are not alive in our biological sense, they actually are alive, but as life-forms unto themselves. These artificially intelli- gent machines are the products of human imagination and techni cal understanding. As the technology advances, the line between iving and non-living matter is slowly becoming blurred Being a collector of robotics books, old and new, I am always excit- ed to see the robots and devices that other people have created,or interesting ways in which they have implemented various tech- nologies and theories. I am often inspired by some of the outdat ed mechanical diagrams and circuits in the old robotics books Even with todays advanced computer technology, nothing is quite as fascinating to see as the ingenious mechanical workings of a well-designed machine Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use
xv The robots in this book were designed to imitate biological lifeforms. Watching the snake robot moving through a room, it is interesting to observe the surprised reactions of people when it quickly turns towards them. People actually regard the robot as being alive. I am struck with the thought that although these machines are not alive in our biological sense, they actually are alive, but as life-forms unto themselves. These artificially intelligent machines are the products of human imagination and technical understanding. As the technology advances, the line between living and non-living matter is slowly becoming blurred. Being a collector of robotics books, old and new, I am always excited to see the robots and devices that other people have created, or interesting ways in which they have implemented various technologies and theories. I am often inspired by some of the outdated mechanical diagrams and circuits in the old robotics books. Even with today’s advanced computer technology, nothing is quite as fascinating to see as the ingenious mechanical workings of a well-designed machine. Introduction Amphibionics 00 3/24/03 12:49 PM Page xv Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use
Amphibionics Amphibionics is a continuation on the theme of building biological- ly inspired robots introduced in Insectronmics, which explored the building and experimentation of a hexapod walking insect robot The practical research detailed in Amphibionics is aimed at devel oping a new class of biologically inspired mobile robots that exhibits much greater robustness of performance in unstructured environments than a lot of todays robots. This new class of robot is aimed at being substantially more compliant and stable than current wheeled robots
Amphibionics is a continuation on the theme of building biologically inspired robots introduced in Insectronics, which explored the building and experimentation of a hexapod walking insect robot. The practical research detailed in Amphibionics is aimed at developing a new class of biologically inspired mobile robots that exhibits much greater robustness of performance in unstructured environments than a lot of today’s robots. This new class of robot is aimed at being substantially more compliant and stable than current wheeled robots. Amphibionics xvi Amphibionics 00 3/24/03 12:49 PM Page xvi
Acknowledgments Thanks to my parents Gordon and Ruth Williams for their encour- agement. To my brothers and their wives: Doug Williams, Gylian Williams, Geoff Williams, and Margaret Sullivan-Williams Thanks to Laurie Borowski for her love, patience, and suggestions. Thanks to judy Bass and the team at McGraw-Hill for all of their hard work. Thanks to Patricia Wallenburg for doing a great job of put- ting the book together. Thanks to the following people who always have the time to discuss robotics and new ideas: James Vanderleeuw, Stacey Dineen, Sachin Rao, Chris Meidell, John Lammers, Tom Cloutier, Darryl Archer, Paul Steinbach, Jack Kesselman, Charles Cummins, Maria Cummins, Tracy Strike, Raymond Pau, Clark MacDonald, Rodi Snow, Steve Frederick Sameer Siddiqi, Dan Dubois, and Steve Rankin. Thanks to Jason Jackson, Roland Hofer, Kenn Booty, JoAnna Kleuskens, Patti Ramseyer, Myke Predko, Roger Skubowius, and Tim Jones at Cognitive Symbolics. VIL Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use
xvii Thanks to my parents Gordon and Ruth Williams for their encouragement. To my brothers and their wives: Doug Williams, Gylian Williams, Geoff Williams, and Margaret Sullivan-Williams. Thanks to Laurie Borowski for her love, patience, and suggestions. Thanks to Judy Bass and the team at McGraw-Hill for all of their hard work. Thanks to Patricia Wallenburg for doing a great job of putting the book together. Thanks to the following people who always have the time to discuss robotics and new ideas: James Vanderleeuw, Stacey Dineen, Sachin Rao, Chris Meidell, John Lammers, Tom Cloutier, Darryl Archer, Paul Steinbach, Jack Kesselman, Charles Cummins, Maria Cummins, Tracy Strike, Raymond Pau, Clark MacDonald, Rodi Snow, Steve Frederick Sameer Siddiqi, Dan Dubois, and Steve Rankin. Thanks to Jason Jackson, Roland Hofer, Kenn Booty, JoAnna Kleuskens, Patti Ramseyer, Myke Predko, Roger Skubowius, and Tim Jones at Cognitive Symbolics. Acknowledgments Amphibionics 00 3/24/03 12:49 PM Page xvii Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use
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Amphilbionics
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