Advances in Intelligent Robotics and Collaborative Automation

The dugout was first introduced in the I9305. Until then, football managers stood by the touchline or, more often than not, sat in the stand, but the new innovation allowed them to get closer to the action, to try to better influence the play. It also pitched them into the heat of the battle, with predictable results. Put a calm, apparently sane manager into a dugout, or technical area, for the ninety minutes of competitive action, and they are regularly distorted into irrational agitators, ready to contest and debate every decision, no matter how minor. Arguing with officials, the opposing coaching staff - on occasion leading to physical confrontation - supporters, and even their own players; gesticulating wildly, often to no great purpose; making scribbled notes, bellowing opinions and bemoaning injustices to anyone who catches their eye. And as the temperature rises, there are the inevitable humorous, and at times simply unbelievable, consequences. Tales From The Dugout is a collection of memories gathered from managers, players, referees and linesmen, supporters and broadcasters which encapsulates the unique environment of the technical area and reveals how even limited exposure to it can transform characters unrecognisably. It gives an insight into the flashpoints and controversies that have erupted over the years, and explains why that small area by the side of the pitch is not a place for the faint-hearted.

This book provides an overview of a series of advanced research lines in robotics as well as of design and development methodologies for intelligent robots and their intelligent components.

This book provides an overview of a series of advanced research lines in robotics as well as of design and development methodologies for intelligent robots and their intelligent components. It represents a selection of extended versions of the best papers presented at the Seventh IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications IDAACS 2013 that were related to these topics. Its contents integrate state of the art computational intelligence based techniques for automatic robot control to novel distributed sensing and data integration methodologies that can be applied to intelligent robotics and automation systems. The objective of the text was to provide an overview of some of the problems in the field of robotic systems and intelligent automation and the approaches and techniques that relevant research groups within this area are employing to try to solve them.The contributions of the different authors have been grouped into four main sections:• Robots• Control and Intelligence• Sensing• Collaborative automationThe chapters have been structured to provide an easy to follow introduction to the topics that are addressed, including the most relevant references, so that anyone interested in this field can get started in the a