The problem of robotic and virtual interaction with physical objects has been the subject of research for many years in both the robotic manipulation and haptics communities. Both communities have focused much attention on human touch-based perception and manipulation, modelling contact between real or virtual hands and objects, or mechanism design. However, as a whole, these problems have not yet been addressed from a unified perspective. This edited book is the outcome of a well-attended workshop which brought together leading scholars from various branches of the robotics, virtual-reality, and human studies communities during the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. It covers some of the most challenging problems on the forefront of today’s research on physical interaction with real and virtual objects, with special emphasis on modelling contacts between objects, grasp planning algorithms, haptic perception, and advanced design of hands, devices and interfaces.

The problem of robotic and virtual interaction with physical objects has been the subject of research for many years in both the robotic manipulation and haptics communities. Both communities have focused much attention on human touch-based perception and manipulation, modelling contact between real or virtual hands and objects, or mechanism design. However, as a whole, these problems have not yet been addressed from a unified perspective. This edited book is the outcome of a well-attended workshop which brought together leading scholars from various branches of the robotics, virtual-reality, and human studies communities during the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. It covers some of the most challenging problems on the forefront of today’s research on physical interaction with real and virtual objects, with special emphasis on modelling contacts between objects, grasp planning algorithms, haptic perception, and advanced design of hands, devices and interfaces.

Virtual reality (VR) potentially provides our minds with direct access to digital media in a way that at first seems to have no limits.However, creating compelling VR experiences is an incredibly complex challenge.When VR is done well, the results are brilliant and pleasurable experiences that go beyond what we can do in the real world.When VR is done badly, not only is the system frustrating to use, but sickness can result.Reasons for bad VR are numerous; some failures come from the limitations of technology, but many come from a lack of understanding perception, interaction, design principles, and real users. This book discusses such issues, focusing upon the human element of VR rather than technical implementation, for if we do not get the human element correct, then no amount of technology will make VR anything more than an interesting tool confined to research laboratories. Even when VR principles are fully understood, first implementations are rarely novel and never ideal due to the complex nature of VR and the countless possibilities. However, the VR principles discussed within enable us to intelligently experiment with the rules and iteratively design towards innovative experiences.

The advent of augmented reality technologies used to assist human operators in complex manipulative operations—has brought an urgency to research into the modeling and training of human skills in Virtual Environments. However, modeling a specific act still represents a challenge in cognitive science. The same applies for the control of humanoid robots and the replication of skilled behavior of avatars in Virtual Environments. Skill Training in Multimodal Virtual Environments presents the scientific background, research outcomes, engineering developments, and evaluation studies conducted during the five years (2006-2011) of the project SKILLS–Multimodal Interfaces for Capturing and Transfer of Skill, funded by the European Commission under its 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. The SKILLS project evaluated how to exploit robotics and virtual environment technologies for the training of specific skills. This book details the novel approach used in the study to cope with skill acquisition, setting aside the mainstream assumptions of common computer-assisted training simulators. It explores how the SKILLS approach generated new training scenarios that allow users to practice new experiences in the performance of the devised task. Using a carefully designed approach that balances science with practicality, the book explores how virtual and augmented reality systems can be designed to address the skill transfer and training in different application contexts. The application of the same roadmap to skills originating from domains such as sports, rehabilitation, industrial environment, and surgery sets this book apart. It demonstrates how technology-oriented training conditions can yield better results than more traditional training conditions.

Complete with online files and updates, this cutting-edge text looks at the next generation of unmanned flying machines. Aerial robots can be considered as an evolution of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). This book provides a complete overview of all the issues related to aerial robotics, addressing problems ranging from flight control to terrain perception and mission planning and execution. The major challenges and potentials of heterogeneous UAVs are comprehensively explored.

People have dreamed of machines, which would free them from unpleasant, dull, dirty and dangerous tasks and work for them as servants, for centuries if not millennia. Service robots seem to finally let these dreams come true. But where are all these robots that eventually serve us all day long, day for day? A few service robots have entered the market: domestic and professional cleaning robots, lawnmowers, milking robots, or entertainment robots. Some of these robots look more like toys or gadgets rather than real robots. But where is the rest? This is a question, which is asked not only by customers, but also by service providers, care organizations, politicians, and funding agencies. The answer is not very satisfying. Today’s service robots have their problems operating in everyday environments. This is by far more challenging than operating an industrial robot behind a fence. There is a comprehensive list of technical and scientific problems, which still need to be solved. To advance the state of the art in service robotics towards robots, which are capable of operating in an everyday environment, was the major objective of the DESIRE project (Deutsche Service Robotik Initiative – Germany Service Robotics Initiative) funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under grant no. 01IME01A. This book offers a sample of the results achieved in DESIRE.

Offers a unique multidisciplinary overview of how humans interact with soft objects and how multiple sensory signals are used to perceive material properties, with an emphasis on object deformability. The authors describe a range of setups that have been employed to study and exploit sensory signals involved in interactions with compliant objects as well as techniques to simulate and modulate softness – including a psychophysical perspective of the field. Multisensory Softness focuses on the cognitive mechanisms underlying the use of multiple sources of information in softness perception. Divided into three sections, the first Perceptual Softness deals with the sensory components and computational requirements of softness perception, the second Sensorimotor Softness looks at the motor components of the interaction with soft objects and the final part Artificial Softness focuses on the identification of exploitable guidelines to help replicate softness in artificial environments.