Robotics

Robotics, Second Edition is an essential addition to the toolbox of any engineer or hobbyist involved in the design of any type of robot or automated mechanical system. It is the only book available that takes the reader through a step-by step design process in this rapidly advancing specialty area of machine design. This book provides the professional engineer and student with important and detailed methods and examples of how to design the mechanical parts of robots and automated systems. Most robotics and automation books today emphasis the electrical and control aspects of design without any practical coverage of how to design and build the components, the machine or the system. The author draws on his years of industrial design experience to show the reader the design process by focusing on the real, physical parts of robots and automated systems.
- Answers the questions: How are machines built? How do they work? How does one best approach the design process for a specific machine?
- Thoroughly updated with new coverage of modern concepts and techniques, such as rapid modeling, automated assembly, parallel-driven robots and mechatronic systems
- Calculations for design completed with Mathematica which will help the reader through its ease of use, time-saving methods, solutions to nonlinear equations, and graphical display of design processes
- Use of real-world examples and problems that every reader can understand without difficulty
- Large number of high-quality illustrations
- Self-study and homework problems are integrated into the text along with their solutions so that the engineering professional and the student will each find the text very useful

Ben Zion Sandler has more than thirty years of experience in the machine design field as a practicing engineer, inventor, writer and teacher. He is currently Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva, Israel, where he has held the Hy Greenhill "Creative Machine and Design" Chair. For ten years Professor Sandler was in charge of the university's Research and Development Engineering Institute and Design Office. Prior to entering full-time teaching and research, he worked as a design engineer and engineering team manager in both the Soviet Union and the United States. Professor Sandler has been awarded twenty patents for his work in machine design. He has published forty-seven articles as well as four books.

Preface to the Second Edition. Introduction: Brief Historical Review and Main Definitions: What Robots Are. Definition of Levels or Kinds of Robots. Manipulators. Structure of Automatic Industrial Systems. Nonindustrial Representatives of the Robot Family. Relationship between the Level of Robot 'Intelligence' and the Product. References. Concepts and Layouts: Processing Layout. How Does One Find the Concept of an Automatic Manufacturing Process?. How to Determine the Productivity of a Manufacturing Process. The Kinematic Layout. Rapid Prototyping. Dynamic Analysis of Drives: Mechanically Driven Bodies. Electromagnetic Drive. Electric Drives. Hydraulic Drive. Pneumodrive. Brakes. Drive with a Variable Moment of Inertia. Kinematics and Control of Automatic Machines: Position Function. Camshafts. Master Controller, Amplifiers. Dynamic Accuracy. Damping of Harmful Vibrations. Automatic Vibration Damping. Electrically Controlled Vibration Dampers. Feedback Sensors: Linear and Angular Displacement Sensors. Speed and Flow-Rate Sensors. Force Sensors. Temperature Sensors. Item Presence Sensors. Transporting Devices: General Considerations. Linear Transportation. Rotational Transportation. Vibrational Transportation. Feeding and Orientation Devices: Introduction. Feeding of Liquid and Granular Materials. Feeding of Strips, Rods, Wires, Ribbons, Etc.. Feeding of Oriented Parts from Magazines. Feeding of Parts from Bins. General Discussion of Orientation of Parts. Passive Orientation. Active Orientation. Logical Orientation. Orientation by Nonmechanical Means. Functional Systems and Mechanisms: General Concepts. Automatic Assembling. Special Means of Assembly. Inspection Systems. Miscellaneous Mechanisms. Manipulators: Introduction. Dynamics of Manipulators. Kinematics of Manipulators. Grippers. Guides. Mobile and Walking Robots. Solutions to the Exercises. Recommended Readings. List of Main Symbols. Index.