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[4.0] What Robotics Related Periodicals and Publications are there?


[4.1] Magazines, Journals, Newsletters
[4.1.1] Robotics Publications
[4.1.2] Trade magazines
[4.1.3] Other sources
[4.2] Books, Online Information and Videos
[4.2.1] Books
[4.2.2] CDROMS
[4.2.3] Magazine Articles
[4.2.4] Online Technical Reports
[4.2.5] Videos

[4.1] Magazines, Journals, Newsletters

There are a number of academic journals and trade magazines devoted to robotics. Until recently, there are no magazines currently devoted to the hobbyist or designer of robotic mechanisms. In the 1980's Robotics Engineering (nee Robotics Age) lasted for 7-8 years but folded. Hopefully, there is more interest in robotics today to support these periodicals.

[4.1.1] Robotics Publications

This list of periodical covers the academic journals, the trade magazines devoted to both robotics and relevant sub-areas, and the lone newsletter for hobbyists.

Advanced Robotics (in English)

The International Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan.
ISSN 0169-1864
Editor-in-Chief, Robotics Society of Japan, 6FL. Bunkyo-Shogaku Bldg.,
1-15-4, Hongu, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan.
Subscriptions and orders:
VSP
PO Box 346,
3700 AH Zeist,
The Netherlands.
Bimonthly, DM525 (1993 price).

Automation in Construction

Publisher: Elsevier Science Publisher B. V., Amsterdam.
Desk Editor: Erik de Vries
The Editor of the journal is
Dr. T. Michael Knasel
10324 Lake Avenue
Cleveland, OH 441102-1239.
fax: 216.651.5136.

Autonomous Robots

ISSN 0929-5593
Kluwer Academic Publishers
Journal Dept
PO Box 358, Accord Station
Hingham, MA 02018-0358
tel: 617.871.6600
fax: 617.871.6528
subscription: $50/individual
Vol 1, 1994 (2 issues)
Editor-in-chief
George Bekey

Industrial Robot

ISSN 0143-991X
Quarterly, $145/year
MCB University Press Ltd.
62 Toller Lane
Bradford, West Yorkshire
England, BD8 9BY
tel: (44) 274 499821,
fax: (44) 274 547143
--in the US
MCB University Press Ltd.
PO Box 10812
Birmingham, AL 35201-0812
tel: 1-800-633-4931 (1-205-995-1567),
fax: 1-205-995-1588

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)

Service Center
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854-4150
tel: 201.981.0060
tel: 800.678.IEEE
ftp://ftp.ieee.org/
The IEEE has a formidable array of journals, transactions and magazines. Here are a few that are relevant to robotics work:
IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
IEEE Control Systems Magazine
IEEE Computer Magazine
IEEN Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics Cost: Have to join IEEE and then subscribe. Student rates are much less expensive than non-student rates.

International Journal of Robotics and Automation
Published 4 times annually. ISSN 0826-8185

ACTA Press,
PO Box 354,
CH-8053,
Zurich, Switzerland or
ACTA Press
PO Box 2481
Anaheim, CA 92814 Subscriptions: $165 US or 313.50 SFr. ($12 US or 22.80 SFr postage and handling). A special rate is available to members of IASTED.

International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR)

MIT Press
28 Carleton Street
Cambridge, MA 02142 Cost: $50/year to individuals

Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems

Kluwer Academic Publishers Group
PO Box 322,
3300 AH Dordrecht,
The Netherlands in the US:
PO Box 358
Accord Station,
Hingham, MA 02018-0358 Three issues per volume, $58.50 per volume (individual)

Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan

Robotics Society of Japan
6Fl. Bunkyo Shogaku Bldg.,
1-15-4 Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan
tel: (03)3812-7594 fax: (03)3812-4628. The table of contents (TOC) are posted to comp.research.japan and comp.robotics as they are available, although there is some delay. All of the TOC for this and other Japanese CS journals are archived for anonymous FTP at ftp://cs.arizona.edu/japan/table.contents/robotics.TOC/jrsj.TOC

Journal of Robotic Systems

G. Beni and S. Hackwood, editors
College of Engineering
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521-0425 Publisher:
Interscience Division
Professional, Reference, and Trade Group
John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
605 Third Ave.
New York, NY 10158

Mechatronics (Mechanics, Electronics, Control)
Editors-in-Chief:

Dr. R. W. Daniel
Department of Engineering Science,
University of Oxford,
Parks Road,
Oxford, OX1-3PJ
United Kingdom:
tel: +44-865-273153
fax: +44-865-273153
-
Professor J. R. Hewit
Engineering Design Institute
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Technology, Loughborough
Leicestershire, LE11 3TU
UNITED KINGDOM
tel: +44-509-222936
fax: +44-509-268103) Published by Pergamon Press Ltd, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 0BW UK. 1993 subscription rates: 193 pounds Sterling (US $312) Personal subscription rates for those whose library subscribes at a regular rate are available on request. Subscription rates for Japan are available on request.

* Military Robotics

L&B Limited
19 Rock Creek Church Road
N.W., Washington, DC 20011-6005
tel: 202.723.1600
fax: 202.723.5031
net: jlovece@dgs.dgsys.com This bi-weekly publication reports on government and military unmanned vehicles in land, sea and air applications and has been published since 1986.

The newsletter subscription cost is $350 (U.S.) and $375 (outside North America).

Robot (Japanese)

Industrial Robots and Application Systems
published bimonthly
Japan Industrial Robot Association (JIRA)
Kikai-Shinko Building
3-5-8, Shiba-Kohen,
Mina To-ku
Tokyo, Japan
tel: (03) 3434-2919
fax: (03) 3578-1404

Robot Explorer

Appropriate Solutions
145 Grove Street
PO Box 458
Peterborough, NH 03458-0458
tel: 603.924.6079
fax: 603.924.9441
net: apsol@world.std.com
ISSN: 1060-4375 'The newsletter of motile systems' $14.95/year in the US, $29.95 to the rest of the world.

Robotica

Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building
Shaftesbury Road,
Cambridge CB2 2RU (UK) in the US:
Cambridge University Press
Journals Department
40 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011-4211

International Journal of Information, Education and Research in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Quarterly publication, US $179 per year

Robotics and Autonomous Systems
In Europe:

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.
Journals Department
PO Box 211, 100 AE Amsterdam
The Netherlands Editors in Chief:
Prof. F.C.A. Groen
University of Amsterdam
Faculty of Mathematics and CS
Dept. of Computer Systems
Kruislaan 403
1098 SJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
net: In the US and Canada:
Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc.
Journal Information Center
655 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10010 Editor in Chief:
Prof. T.C. Henderson
University of Utah
Dept. of Computer Science
3160 Merrill Engineering Bldg.
Salt Lake City, UT 84112 USA
net:

Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing

Elsevier Science Inc,
660 White Plains Road,
Tarrytown, NY 10591-5153, USA or
Elsevier Science Ltd,
The Boulevard,
Langford Lane,
Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1GB, UK. Pergamon Press, ISSN 0736-5845
Editorial Office: Dr. Andre Sharon, Associate Editor, damien@mit.edu

The Robotics Practitioner

Footfalls, Ltd.
483 S. Kirkwood Road, Suite 130
Kirkwood, MO 63122
net: trp@footfalls.com Published quarterly. The charter subscription rate is $29. This will go up to $36 after March 31, 1995. MO residents add $1.73 tax, Canada and Mexico add $6 postage. All other foreign add $16 postage.

Robotics Today

Society of Manufacturing Engineers
One SME Drive
PO Box 930
Dearborn, MI 48121
tel: 313.271.1500

Robotics World

Communication Channels
6255 Barfield Road
Atlanta, GA 30328
tel: 404.256.9800 "The end-user's magazine of flexible automation." Published quarterly They also publish the Robotics World Directory $49.95

+ Unmanned Systems

1735 N. Lynn Street, Suite 950
Arlington, VA 22209-2022
tel: 703.524.6646 Editor: Sarah M. Cook. Subscription: $40/year (US), $50/year (outside USA) (4 issues) Published by The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
InterLingua Retrieval Service InterLingua, an information retrieval and translation company, will be making available (starting January, 1995) at no cost the tables-of-contents of selected Japanese publications every month. This is part of a larger project in the science / technology arena that we are engaged in, so it is possible for us to make this information available at no obligation.

T-O-Cs of Japanese publications in the computer/electronics cateogry will be posted on the Usenet group (comp.research.japan). However, other T-O-Cs can be delivered via e-mail to you if you contact us with your address and category preferences at the e-mail address below. (Sorry, we are unable to deliver via post office or fax).

Below is a list of categories in which we are currently translating T-O-Cs and making them available at no cost. Should you have any other suggestions, please let us know. If there is sufficient interest in other categories, we will consider making arrangements with Japanese publishers.

Tables-of-contents from Japanese magazines will be available in the following categories:

  1. General engineering (robotics, materials, inventions and patents)
  2. Mechanical engineering
  3. Transportation engineering
  4. Metal engineering
  5. Chemistry and chemical engineering
  6. Energy engineering
  7. Nuclear engineering
  8. Electrical engineering
  9. Electronics and communication technology
  10. Information science (software and hardware)
Again, these are the subject areas in which InterLingua is currently engaged in translations and information retrieval. Any additional suggestions are more than welcome.

To subscribe to our e-mail delivery service contact us by e-mail at: japanese@aol.com


[4.1.2] Trade Magazines

Usually free, mostly ads or industry news. Many articles written by advertisers. Great sources of product information. Our lab at CMU receives 50-60 trade magazines and journals per month and while no one reads all of the articles, pointers are passed on to people around the lab. This keeps the group abreast of new products and developments.

Advanced Imaging

445 Broad Hollow Rd.
Melville, NY 11747
tel: 516.845.2700
fax: 516.845.2797 Subscription free to qualified professionals, $50/yr otherwise.

ComputerCraft

CQ Communications
76 N. Broadway
Hicksville, NY 11801
tel: 516.681.2922
fax: 516.681.2926 Cost: $18.97/yr, ISSN: 1055-5072

Computer Applications Journal

Circuit Cellar Inc.
4 Park St. Suite 20
Vernon, CT 06066
Subscriptions: P.O. Box 7694
Riverton, NJ 08077
tel: 203.875.2751 Cost: $21.95/yr. ISSN: 0896-8985 Excellent for those building hardware, programming microcontrollers, etc. Also a very good source for companies who have products in these areas.

Design News

Cahners Publishing Co.
275 Washington Street
Newton, MA. 02158 News and Applications for design engineers. Cost: Free to qualified recipients.

EE Times

CMP Publications, Inc.
600 Community Drive
Manhasset, NY 11030 Cost: Free to qualified recipients (in the U.S.); otherwise $159/yr (U.S. and Foreign)

Electronic Design

Penton Publishing Inc
1100 Superior Ave
Cleveland, OH 44114-2543
611 Route #46 West
Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604
tel: 201.393.6060
fax: 201.393.0204 Cost: $95.00/yr (free if qualified) ISSN: 0013-4872

Electronics Now (formerly Radio Electronics)

Gernsback Publications Inc
Subscription Dept
Box 55115
Boulder, CO 80321-5115
500-B Bi-County Boulevard
Farmingdale, NY 11735
tel: 516.293.3000 Cost: $19.97/yr. ISSN: 0033-7862

Embedded Systems Programming

Miller Freeman
600 Harrison St.
San Francisco, CA 94107
tel: 800.829.5537 (customer service)
tel: 415.905.2200
bbs: 415.905.2689. Cost: $49.95 for 12 issue

Laser Focus World

10 Tara Blvd., Fifth Floor (Editorial Office)
Nashua, NH 03062
tel: 603.891.0123
fax: 603.891.0574
internet: lfworld@pinet.aip.org Subscription Inquiries: 918.831.9424

Machine Design

Penton Publishing Inc.
1100 Superior Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44114-2543
tel: 216.696.7000
fax: 216.621.8469 Cost: Free to qualified recipients in the U.S.; otherwise $100.00/yr in U.S., $140/yr in Canada, $160/yr for all others

Midnight Engineering

Published by William E Gates, [No, not that Bill....]
111 E. Drake Road
Suite 7041
Fort Collins, CO 80525
tel: 719.254.4558
fax: 719.254.4517 One-year (6 issues) $24, canada and mexico $29, other foreign $49 (airmail) Perhaps marginal for this list but focus is on "resources and insight for the entrepreneurial engineer" Issues and articles on developing hardware, software, micro-controllers, product development, marketing, patenting issues, startups, etc etc. Excellent if you need this info.

Modern Materials Handling

44 Cook Street
Denver, CO 80206-5800
tel: 303.388.4511 Trade magazine covering productivity solutions for manufacturing, warehousing and distribution. Typically includes articles on factory automation, etc. Cost: Free to qualified recipients; otherwise - $75 for US subscribers.

Motion Control

Tower Media Corp.
800 Roosevelt Rd.
Bldg. C, Suite 206
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137 Trade magazine for Motion Control applications and Technology. Cost: Free to qualified recipients in the U.S.; otherwise - $50/yr in U.S. $90/yr foreign subscriptions.

NASA Tech Briefs

Associated Business Publications Co., Ltd.
41 E. 42nd St.
New York, NY 10017-5391 Contains useful technology transfer information which very often includes robotics research performed at various NASA centers. Cost: Free to qualified recipients; otherwise - $75.00/yr in the U.S., $150.00/yr for Foreign subscriptions.

Nuts and Volts

430 Princeland Court
Corona, CA 91719
tel: 800.783.4624
net: 74262.3664@compuserve.com Electronics classifieds and ads. Lots of devices and products relevant for robot builders. Often features articles on robot building by Karl Lunt.

Sensors

Helmers Publishing
174 Concord Street
PO Box 874
Peterborough, NH 03458-0874
tel: 603.924.9631 Trade magazine devoted to sensing devices. Publishes directory. Cost: Free to qualified subscribers, $55/yr otherwise.

To be added: GPS World (Global Positioning System related), RF Design, Sea Technology, Laser Focus, POB (surveying profession), Broadcast Engineering.


[4.1.3] Other sources:

Thomas Register
Thomas Publishing Company
One Penn Plaza
New York, NY 10117-0139
tel: 212.695.0500
fax: 212.290.7362 About $250 for a 20-odd volume encyclopedia of US industry. Concentration on heavier industries - but still an amazing source for information. No company or lab building products should be without one. Available on CD-ROM for about $300.

EEM

[Address to add]
The 'Thomas Register' for Electrical engineers.

[4.2] Books, Online Information and Videos

[4.2.1] Books
[4.2.2] CDROMS
[4.2.3] Magazine Articles
[4.2.4] Online Technical Reports
[4.2.5] Videos

The readership of this group ranges from the beginner to experienced robot designers and users. Accordingly, this list covers the gamut as well. I would like to include net resources as well such as papers or tech reports so send me your sites!


[4.2.1] Books

Some of these books may be out of print. Check with your local bookseller or try a used bookstore that provides a search service.

Advanced Robot Systems

Mark J. Robillard
Howard Sams and Co. 1984

Autonomous Robot Vehicles

I.J. Cox and G.T. Wilfong (eds)
New York, Springer-Verlag, 1990
Collection of seminal papers on autonmous robot vehicles.

Build Your Own Universal Computer Interface

Bruce Chubb
TAB Books

Control System Design Guide

George Ellis ISBN 0-12-237470-3 Covers hardware,software and theory of ordinary PID control.

Directed Sonar Sensing for Mobile Robot Navigation

by John J. Leonard and Hugh F. Durant-Whyte
Kluwer Academic Press
Boston (1992)
ISBN 0-7923-9242-6 An expansion on John's thesis work at Oxford.

The Illusion Of Life, Lifelike Robotics

by Gene Poor
Published by Creative Learning Systems.

It has lots of pictures and shows lots of different companies and their animatronic designs and what is used to control them. If anyone has further information on this book please send email to me. Thanks.

Industrial Robots: Computer Interfacing and Control, Wesley E. Snyder

Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1985.
LOC # TS191.8.S67 Fair amount of detail on inductrial robot controllers and connecting to them.

Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, Mechatronics and the Coming Robotopia

Frederik L. Schodt
Kodansha International
New York, NY 1988 Lots of interesting views of robots in Japan and Japan's fascination with robots.

Interfacing Test Circuits With Single-Board Computers

Robert H. Luetzow
TAB Books

Machines That Walk

Shin-Min Song and Kenneth J Waldron
ISBN 0-262-19274-8 Like it says: legged locomotion. Focus is on the OSU Adaptive Suspension Vehicle.

A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation

R. M. Murray, Z. Li, and S. S. Sastry
CRC Press, 1994 For more information, see http://avalon.caltech.edu/~murray/mls

Microprocessor Based Robotics

Mark J. Robillard
Howard Sams and Co. 1983

Microcontroller Technology: The 68HC11

Peter Spasov
Regents/Prentice Hall, 1993, ISBN 0-13-583568-2 Aimed at the 68HC11 family, good reference.

Minimalist Mobile Robotics

Jonathan H Connel
ISBN 0-12-185230-X Brooks subsumption architecture robots. Shows complex behaviors are possible with little of the massive architectures done in other programs.

Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation.

Joseph L. Jones and Anita Flynn, This book grew out of the Mobot Lab at MIT and covers many aspects of mobile robots including design and the mechanics and electronics of construction as well as robot programming. Good for the beginner and experienced robot builder. A Mobile Robot kit is also available. See the Rug Warrior in the section on Small, Inexpensive Robots. Check out AK Peters web page as well for a variety of books, kits and other mobile robot products.

Klaus Peters
President and Publisher
AK PETERS, LTD.
289 Linden Street
Wellesley, MA 02181
tel: 617.235.2210
fax: 617.235.2404
net:
ulr: http://www.tiac.net/users/akpeters

* Navigating Mobile Robots: Systems and Techniques

Joahann Borenstein, H.R. Everett, and Liquang Feng
A K Peters, Ltd., 1996
ISBN 1-56881-058-X An excellent overview and introduction to navigation sensors, methods and techniques. If you are at all concerned with tracking, guiding and mapping of mobile systems, then you need this book.

* Recent Trends in Mobile Robots

Edited by Y. F. Zheng
World Scientific
tel: 201.487.9655
Singapore/New Jersey/London/Hong Kong (1993)
ISBN 981-02-1511-8 Written by the members of the Mobile Robots Technical Committee of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.

The Robot Book

Richard Pawson
Windward, 1985, 192 pages. Utilizes Lego kits.

The Robot Builder's Bonanza: 99 Inexpensive Robotics Projects

Gordon McComb
TAB Books

The general consensus is that this is a good attempt for hobbyists. Unfortunately this book has a number of errors - comp.robotics.misc has covered a number of these. I hope to collect a number of these; perhaps if it is reprinted or a new edition comes out these can be corrected.

One example: Walkerbot (pg 136)it calls for two pieces of 1x1x1/16 angle stock 23 7/8" and two 17 5/8" these pices should be 24" and 17 7/8 " respectively.

Robot Evolution: the Development of Anthropomorphics

Rosheim, Mark E.
1994, John Wiley and Sons
ISBN 0-471-02622-0

Robot Hobby: The Complete Manual, for Individuals and Clubs

John W. Gutmann, Foreword by Joe Engelberger From:
Machine Press Publishing
P.O. Box 870210
Stone Mountain, GA 30087-0006

ISBN 0-9634272-4-5, Soft cover $29.95, Hard Cover $36.95

Robotic Technology: Principles and Practice.

Werner G. Holzbock
Van Nostrand Reinhold Co, 1986, ISBN 0-442-23154-7

Robotics

edited by Marvin Minsky
Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1985
ISBN: 0385194145, LCCN: 84024390

Robot Motion: Planning and Control

Brady, Hollerbach, Johnson, Lozano-Perez, and Mason.
Cambridge, MA, MIT Press 1982) Collection of excellent papers on the topic of robot motion.

Robots

Peter Marsh
Crescent (Crown) Publishers, NY 1985 Marsh edited the volume and the book is made up of several contributions from robotics researchers. A very well illustrated book that covers the general topic of robots. Excellent source materials and graphics.

Safety, Reliability, and Human Factors in Robotic Systems.

Edited by James H. Graham.
Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1991.
ISBN 0-442-00280-7 Laws/rules/regulations are governing industrial robot installations in the U.S.

Sensors for Mobile Robots

H. R. Everett
Publisher: A K Peters
net: http://www.tiac.net/users/akpeters/sensors.html

An excellent overview of many sensors useful for robotics (and other applications)

Teleoperation and Robotics in Space

Steven B. Skaar and Carl F. Ruoff, editors;
American Institute of Aerodynamics and Astrodynamics' PROGRESS IN AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS SERIES, AIAA, Washington D.C., 1994.

This volume discusses many of the practical and theoretical aspects of on-orbit teleoperation and robotics. Included in the volume are detailed discussions, diagrams, and photos of international hardware designed to assist with the assembly and maintenance of the space station, as well as information about new remote teleoperation systems and training facilities and programs for their operators. The economics and politics of robotic vs manned space activities are discussed at length as are the special issues which affect long-distance operation, operation in near-zero g, operation using very-light-weight, nonrigid units, and operation with an unconstrained base.


[4.2.2] CDROMS

Isaac Asimov's The Ultimate Robot.
It is an excellent intro and retrospective on robotics. Includes movie clips from several cinema robots, robotic terminology defined and illustrated (linkages, kinmatics, arm types etc), vignettes of many historically important robots including Moshers work >from the 60's, many teleoperated devices, several mobile machines including the ASV and many others. There is also a fun part where you get to select parts, build a robot and animate it. (Design by Ralph MacQuarrie who was production designer on Star Wars)

There are video interviews with Asimov and all of his robot stories and essays as well. Published by Microsoft. Available from a number of CDROM vendors.

AICDROM
Network Cybernetics Corporation is now shipping the second annual revision of their popular AI CD-ROM, an ISO-9660 format CD-ROM containing a wide assortment of information on AI, Robotics, and other advanced machine technologies. The AI CD-ROM contains thousands of programs, source code collections, tutorials, research papers, Internet journals, and other resources. The topics covered include artificial intelligence, artificial life, robotics, virtual reality, and many related fields. Programs for OS/2, DOS, Macintosh, UNIX, Amiga, and other platforms can be found on the disc. The files have been collected from civilian and government research centers, universities, Internet archive sites, BBS systems and other sources.

The CD-ROM is updated annually to keep it current with the latest trends and developments in advanced machine technologies such as AI. The AI CD-ROM Rev. 1 was a CD-ROM PROFESSIONAL CONSUMER DISK PRODUCT OF THE YEAR AWARD finalist and has received good reviews in many magazines including Byte (Jerry Pournelle, March '93) and IEEE Computer (J. Zalewski, July '93), CD-ROM Professional and others. The new revision of the AI CD-ROM is now shipping. The price of Revision 2 will remain the same as the Revision 1 CD: $129 + $5 (US) / $10 (foreign) for shipping and processing. If you currently own the revision 1 AI CD-ROM, you can "upgrade" to the Rev.2 CD for $79 + shipping. Email or fax to get an upgrade form.

From:

Network Cybernetics Corporation
4201 Wingren Road, Suite 202
Irving, Texas 75062-2763
tel: 214.650.2002
fax: 214.650.1929

[4.2.3] Magazine Articles

Initial List Provided by Dave Hrynkiw

Best source for most general articles and journal articles is your library - check online sources too!

Discover Magazine, March 1991, Pg 43
An excellent 6 page article of the goings-on in the MIT AI lab.

"Mathematical Recreations - Insectoids Invade a Field of Robots"
Scientific American Magazine, July 1991.
Another excellent 4 page article about MIT's work in the field of mobile robotics.

"Gearing Down"
Science News, Vol. 139 No. 2, January 12 1991, Pg 26-27
Referenced from Scientific American Magazine, July 1991 ("Mathematical Recreations" column)

"Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control"
Research News, May 1990, Pg 959-961
One of the better MIT Lab articles. Worth hunting down.

"Working the bugs out of a new breed of 'insect' robots"
Smithsonian Magazine, June 1991, pgs 63-73.
Another excellent and more technical article on MIT's robot research.

"The Iconoclast - Life in the Anthropomorphic Lane"
Macworld magazine, May 1991, Pg 43-47
Another basic, but decent review of MIT's AI Robot labs.

"People - A Mind of Their Own"
Connoisseur Magazine, May 1991, Pg 42-46
A more personal look at Rodney Brook.

"Robot Insects"
Popular Science, March 1991, Pg 52-55,86
Popular Science does it's regular quality article. Some detail, but not to technical. Good, basic read.

"New Approaches to Robotics"
Science Magazine, Vol.253, September 1991, Pg 1227-1232
Very complete and technical document by Rodney Brooks. Has a very complete reference and notes section.

"Artificial Intelligence - Building a Better Mouse"
Omni Magazine, ??, Pg 22,126
Interesting Article about Dave Otten, the micro-mouse champ. Short, but interesting read.

"Tech Update - Transformer Robots Crawl Up Stairs"
Popular Mechanics, March 1993, Pg 17
Not much to say, but look at the pictures - what innovation!

"Mighty Mouse"
MIT Reporter, July 1991, Pg 12
A short piece about Dave Otten's micromice.

"The OMNI Photovore - How to build a robot that thinks like a roach"
Omni Magazine, October 1988, Pg 201-210,212
MIT developed this basic robot for the magazine. A really interesting read, with good technical.

"Annual Report of Microbot Technology, Inc."
Omni Magazine, ??? Pg 68,70,76
Omni's interesting futuristic look of the possibilities with micro robots.

"Tech Update - Mechanical Caterpillar"
Popular Mechanics, June 1992, Pg 24
Another neat idea to look at.

"Tech Update - Silicon Ants Could Prove Tireless Workers"
Popular Mechanics, May 1992, Pg 21
Interesting little bit on the future of solar powered microbots. Neat graphic.

"Trends - Let's Get Small"
Technology Review, Aug/Sept 1992, pg 18-19
Article on JPL/IS Robotics small robots. Decent article

"Go Robots, Go!"
Popular Science, December 1992, Pg 97-102,138,140
Interesting overview of the AAAI Mobile Robotics Competition held in San Jose.

"New Trends - Legs win over wheels for moon work"
Machine Design Magazine, February 11 1988
A dated article on Georgia Tech's "Skitter". Short, but has photograph.

"Light Elements - RoboHockey"
Discover magazine, May 1990, pg 82
Interesting bit about MIT's Mech Eng 2.70 competition.

"Society - Technology - For the Love of Robotics"
Newsweek magazine, March 9 1992, Pg 68-69
Public-robot fodder. Nothing new here but some interesting pictures. Covers the Austin area Robot Group

"Robots Go Buggy"
Science News Magazine, Vol 140, November 30 1991, Pg 361-3
Very good article about the comparison between "simple" robotics and biologics (bugs)

"Build This Robot Bug"
Radio-Electronics Magazine, June 1992, Pg 33-38
Very basic robot. Not a bad place to start thoough.

Science Digest, April 1983 p68
"The Rise of the Robot" by Tom Parrett.
Article includes photos of the Atlanta Robotics Special Interest Group" founded by John W. Gutmann with the support of Bill Dodd, owner of Hobby Robot CO. The first meeting was held on April 21st of 1981.


[4.2.4] Online Technical Reports

There are emerging sources on the net for tech reports and papers. If you know of additional ones please send me email. Thanks.
The Kahaner Reports
This directory archives reports written about computing in Japan by Dr. David Kahaner, a numerical analyst current on assignment with the Office of Naval Research Asia (ONR Asia). The file INDEX contains a short description of each report in alphabetical order. The file INDEX.bydate contains the same descriptions ordered by the date the report was written. See
japan.html, and robotics Table of Contents

Other relevant files are Robots, an overview of trends in robot manufacturing, use, and sales in Japan dated Feb 28, 1993. Also,robots.93 is a Dec 10, 1993 summary of the 24th International Symposium on Industrial Robots (ISIR), the 1993 International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR), and the 1993 International Industrial Robot Exhibition, all held in Tokyo 1-5 Nov 1993.

The 6.270 Robot Builder's Guide (See also the Miniboard section in this FAQ) by Fred Martin ftp://cherupakha.media.mit.edu/pub/6270/docs/ filenames: *.PS.Z This directory contains "The 6.270 Robot Builder's Guide", the course notes to the 1992 MIT LEGO Robot Design Competition. Hardcopy also available for $15 from:

E and L Memo Requests
MIT Media Laboratory
20 Ames Street Room E15-309
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Check should be made out to 'MIT Epistemology and Learning' Contact: Fred Martin at fredm@media-lab.media.mit.edu.

Cambridge University Tech report on 3D object model acquisition and recognition: ftp://svr-ftp.eng.cam.ac.uk/reports/

Carnegie Mellon University SCS Technical Reports

  1. The machine reports@cs.cmu.edu is the offical SCS machine for ftping SCS technical reports. Directories containing .ps files (compressed and uncompressed, dependent on size) are stored for ease of access. You can use the instructions below to browse the directories.
  2. The reports appearing in our ftpable directories are also automatically transferred into MOSAIC. Authors retain the right to decide whether their report(s) should or should not appear in the public ftp directories/MOSAIC.
  3. A third mechanism for storing and making reports available is MERCURY--the scanned image, full text, online database (part of the LIS system). Whether the report is scanned into the system is again left up to invidivual author choice. The CMU community is able to view text for the reports, as they appear, at their desks using Mercury. This system, supported by ARPA and CNRI, will open soon to MIT, Stanford, Cornell, and Berkeley...so we can all share online text of reports. Down the road, it is anticipated that more and more universities will become a part of this service. We scan original copies of reports into the system,

    URL: ftp://reports.adm.cs.cmu.edu/ The reports are in postscript format (.ps). The index file is called README.mss. The reports are listed in the directory by their NUMBER.ps...for example, CMU-CS-92-100.ps, CMU-CS-92-101.ps and so on. The majority of the files are not compressed, although any compressed files will be listed as NUMBER.ps.Z . A very few reports have been broken down into multiple postscript files. They will appear as NUMBERA.ps, NUMBERB.ps, etc. The README.mss will indicate the reports that have multiple .ps files.

MIT AI Laboratory
net: publications@ai.mit.edu
tel: 617.253.6773
fax: 617.253.5060 MIT bibliography, general info about the lab and most recent research publications is choice of ascii or .ps files ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/bibliography, and ftp://publications/ai-publications/general-pubs

NASA Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL)
ftp://robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/gat/ filenames: bc4pe.rtf, aaai92.rtf, nats.rtf

Note that all files are in Microsoft Word RTF format. Contact gat@robotics.jpl.nasa.gov if you don't have access to a Mac.

* NRaD

http://www.nosc.mil/robots/pubs/PubsIdx.html

New York University
file://cs.nyu.edu/pub/tech-reports/tr669.ps.Z

Abstract: Recent experimental and analytical evidence indicates that direct drive robots become very practical and economical at miniature and microscopic scales, so it is interesting to understand quantitatively the properties of direct drive robots under scaling transformations. This leads to a study of how screws and their dual co-screws behave under the group of similarity transforms. This group is the group of isometries together with dilations. Several different representations are found on the space of screws and complementary representations are found on the dual space of co-screws. From the electromagnetic theory of the force and torque on a magnet in a magnetic field, we derive the scaling properties of the electromagnetic wrench. Hence, these results can be directly applied to the scaling of direct drive motors. We conclude by proposing a scale-invariant measure for direct drive actuator performance.

LIFIA/INRIA
Files are at: ftp://imag.fr/pub/LIFIA (129.88.32.1) Several compressed PS files.

University of Massachusetts:
ftp://rabbit.cs.umass.edu/pub/papers. The files are compressed postscript, topics include path planning, neuroscience, and control.

University of Kaiserslautern
FTP-Server is : ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/reports_uni-kl/computer_science/mobile_robots/. Subdirectories: 1993/papers, 1994/papers, etc

SPIE abstracts
Abstracts from SPIE conferences can be found at ftp://mom.spie.org/abstracts/1800/ Filenames include 1831.txt [From Mobile Robots VII 1992]. SPIE bookorders can be made through bookorders@mom.spie.org

JTEC report on Japanese Space Robotics
A summary of the Japanese Technology Evaluation Center (JTEC) panel's report on the state of the art of Japanese robot technology. Lots of pictures of wierd and wonderful robots -- elephant trunk, caterpillar, space tentacle, wall builder, Komatsu's walking undersea rubble-leveler, humanoid two-armed assembly robot, 4-legged stair climber. Also tells where to write for videotapes of these machines in action. Here's the info (two years old, remember) ... Tape with narration by William "Red" Whittaker:

University Video Communications
Box 20006
Stanford, CA USA 94309
tel: 415.327.0131 Cost: $37.50
A shorter tape is available of highlights from many Japanese labs.
National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA USA 22161
tel: 703.457.4650 Article: "Japan robotics aim for unmanned space exploration" William L. Whittaker, Takeo Kanade. IEEE Spectrum, December 1990


Where Am I? Sensors and Methods for Autonomous Mobile Robot Localization. Technical Report, The University of Michigan UM-MEAM-94-21, December 1994.

A comprehensive survey on Mobile Robot Positioning. This survey is over 200 pages long, has 130 illustrations and nearly 300 references, and took well over one man-year to complete. The survey is entitled A description and table of contents can be found here.

To download the report go here and read this file first.

Alternatively, you can look at a detailed Table of Contents from within Johann Borenstein's WWW Homepage at: Johann's Home Page

Before you download the actual survey, you should read the "readme.txt" file for compatibility tips, and you should read the "um_index.wp5" file to see if you want to download all or only selected chapters of the report.


[4.2.5] Videos

[new section - looking for additional material]

MIT Press MIT Press has a number of companion videos - Legged Robots That Balance and others. See Publications for address etc.

Video Proceedings from UUST 93
UUST is the 8th International Symposium on Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology September 27-29, 1993. It was held at the Marine Systems Engineering Lab, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire USA

The video proceedings are now available for $35 US for VHS (NTSC) format and $50 US for PAL format. The video is being made publicly available on a non-profit basis. Printed abstracts and points of contacts are included in a pamphlet with each video. The program is available eclectronically via anonymous ftp to file://taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil/pub/auv/uust93_video_proceedings.ps.Z

You may order this video (or printed conference proceedings) by sending a check or money order to:

Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute (AUSI)
8 Earle Drive
Lee, New Hampshire 03824 USA
(603) 862-4600 postscript copy: ftp://taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil/pub/auv/uust93.ps.Z

Video Contents:
01:20 AUVs for Scientific Research in Hazardous Conditions
07:15 A Versatile Testbed: The "Twin-Burger"
13:55 ARPA/Navy Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV)
31:30 Summary of MBARI/Stanford ARL Joint Underwater Robotics Research Program
43:05 Development of an Aquatic Walking Robot for Underwater Inspection: "AQUAROBOT"
47:30 Naval Postgraduate School Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
50:15 The Rational Behavior Model (RBM) Software Architecture
57:25 Mobile Undersea Systems Test (MUST) Laboratory
1:02:10 The Advanced Unmanned Search System (AUSS)
1:11:20 credits


Last-Modified: Mon Apr 1 13:54:49 1996
Kevin Dowling <nivek@cmu.edu>