Main description:

This volume contains papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on "Sensors and Sensory Systems for Advanced Robots", which was held in Maratea, Italy, during the week Apri I 28 - May 3, 1986. Participants in the ARW, who came from eleven NATO and two non-NATO countries, represented an i nternat i ona I assortment of d i st i ngu i shed research centers in industry, government and academia. Purpose of the Workshop was to rev i ew the state of the art of sensing for advanced robots, to discuss basic concepts and new ideas on the use of sensors for robot control and to provide recommendations for future research in this area, There IS an almost unanimous consensus among invest i gators in the fie I d of robot i cs that the add i t i on of sensory capabi I ities represents the "natural" evolution of present industrial robots, as wei I as the necessary premise to the development of advanced robots for nonindustrial app I i cat ions. However, a number of conceptua I and techn i ca I problems sti I I challenge the practical implementation and widespread appl ication of sensor-based robot control techn i ques. Cruc i a I among those prob I ems is the ava i lab iii ty of adequate sensors.

Contents:

1. The Biological Model: the Human Body and its Sensory Systems.- The central nervous system as a low and high level control system.- Proprioceptive feedback for sensory-motor control.- Physiology and psychophysics in taste and smell.- The physiology and psychophysics of touch.- 2. The Artificial Counterpart: Robots and their Sensory Functions. General Memarks.- Steps toward making robots see.- An overview of local environment sensing in robotics applications.- Force and tactile sensing for robots.- 3. Physics of Transduction and Transducing Techniques.- Basic transduction mechanisms and techniques.- Analogs of biological tissues for mechanoelectrical transduction: Tactile sensors and muscle-like actuators.- Solid state transducers.- Fibre optic sensors in advanced robotic systems.- 4. Applications.- Models of errors and mistakes in machine perception: First results for computer vision range measurements.- Holographic techniques.- Electrical proximity sensors.- Ultrasonic sensors.- Acoustic imaging in three dimensions.- Gas sensors: Towards an artificial nose.- Development and application of humidity sensors.- Development and application of chemical sensors in liquids.- 5. Integration of Sensory Systems.- Integration of robot sensory systems.- Multisensory feedback including cooperative robots.- Active vision: Integration of fixed and mobile cameras.- Sensors for mobile robots.- Multimedia sensory systems for the solution of the error recovery problem.- Pattern recognition in multidimensional perception: Robots and humans.- An iterative and interactive simulation method to reconstruct unknown inputs contributing to known outputs of neuronal systems.- M. Hulliger.- Non-conventional smart colour sensing in robotics.- R.F. Wolffenbuttel.- Adaptable accomodation in assembly.- C.J. Bland.- List of Participants.