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Pedro J. Sanz
Springer Handbook of Automation S.Y. Nof, Editor. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg. '2009. Print: 978-3-540-78830-0. Online: 9783-540-78831-7. In the 2008 September issue of IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, the Springer Handbook of Robotics (1,600 pages) was introduced by George A. Bekey, in which all aspects of robotics were covered from fundamental principles to applications. Now is the turn for the Springer Handbook of Automation. In fact, as the reader can find in the Preface, Editor S.Y. Nof states, ‘‘throughout the 94 chapters, divided into ten main parts, with 125 tables, numerous equations, 1,005 figures, and a vast number of references, with numerous guidelines, algorithms, and protocols, models, theories, techniques and practical principles and procedures, the 166 coauthors present proven knowledge, original analysis, best practices, and authoritative expertise. Plenty of case studies, creative examples, and unique illustrations, covering topics of automation from the basics and fundamentals to advanced techniques, cases and theories will serve the readers and benefit the students and researchers, engineers and managers, inventors, investors, and developers.’’ This handbook also contains a DVD with the complete PDF version of the book, providing the reader with a friendly and intuitive interactive access. Any topic of automation in which the reader might be interested has probably been included in this handbook and can be quickly retrieved by using the facilities available in this DVD. There are 93 chapters shared in nine different parts (the tenth part includes only the last chapter, number 94, devoted to ‘‘Automation Statistics’’). To clarify a bit more the covered topics included in this outstanding handbook, we can take a look at these nine aforementioned parts: 1) Development and Impact of Automation (Chapters 1–8) provides foundations for the entire handbook by explaining basic definitions of automation, its scope, impact, and meaning, from the views of prominent automation pioneers to a survey of concepts and applications around the world. 2) Automation Theory and Scientific Foundations (Chapters 9–18) gives theoretical aspects of automation from the basics to advanced models and techniques, also including the human role in automation. 3) Automation Design: Theory, Elements, and Methods (Chapters 19–30) details fundamental elements of mechatronics, Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2010.935797
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sensors, robots, among other components useful for automation, and how they are combined with control and automation software. 4) Automation Design: Theory and Methods for Integration (Chapters 31–39) provides real scenarios of applied automation, with the main focus being on integration aspects, including design for safety of automation and of automation for safety. 5) Automation Management (Chapters 40–47) discusses issues such as cost effectiveness and economic reasons for the design, feasibility analysis, implementation, rationalization, use, and maintenance of particular automation; quality of service, energy cost, reliability, safety, usability; and how to best prepare and qualify automation professionals. 6) Industrial Automation (Chapters 48–60) provides different kinds of machinery for production, manufacturing, and assembly. It includes guidelines and application of automation in the principal industries. 7) Infrastructure and Service Automation (Chapters 61–74) explains how automation is designed, selected, integrated, justified, and applied, its challenges and emerging trends in many different scenarios related with the service sector in the global economy. 8) Automation in Medical and Healthcare Systems (Chapters 75–82) provides foundations of control and automation in biological and biomedical systems and mechanisms are explained, including also those developed techniques for specific application areas such as implantable devices or medical robotics, among others. 9) Home, Office, and Enterprise Automation (Chapters 83– 93) provides all kind of e-activities, with demonstrations of their utility for all other functional areas of automation. It is also noticeable that several specific chapters deal with different topics of robotics, as something intrinsic to automation. However, this vision of robotics, shared in a few chapters along the handbook, is only complementary to the very complete approach compiled in the robotics handbook. The automation handbook defines clearly what automation is and how it differs from that of robotics: a superset or/and an intersecting set. The reader can appreciate, throughout the complete book, different topics of robotics, complementing different aspects of automation, from foundations to applications of any type. For instance, as paradigmatic example showing deep synergies between robotics and automation, we find the chapter 27 in Part C, devoted to ‘‘Teleoperation,’’ whose topics are closely related to the contents of other chapters such as those on ‘‘Communication in Automation’’ (Chapter 13), ‘‘Virtual Reality and Automation’’ (Chapter 15), and ‘‘Collaborative MARCH 2010
IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine
Special Issue on Robot Authentication Call For Papers Summary The goal of this Special Issue is to concentrate specifically on unique aspects of automatic identification of artificial entities (robots, bots, avatars, etc.) and complementary problem of human recognition by such artificial agents. The issue concentrates on all aspects of human/robot recognition, which spans the fields of robotics, as well as biometrics, security, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, cognitive science, virtual reality and many other domains. The Scope There are numerous recent advancements devoted to all aspects of development and deployment in everyday life of advanced domestic and industrial robots (soldier-robots, robots museum guides, human-like biped robots, office robots, androids, etc.), as well as artificial entities (such as intelligent software agents and avatars). These developments, in turn, lead to advanced research on program recognition, robot behavior recognition, robot behavior prediction, robot detection and robot self-recognition, as well as attempts to use biometric research for avatar and robot synthesis. This special issue addresses a natural question of an automatic, fast, secure, and accurate identification of artificial entities in robotics, as well as biometrics, security, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, cognitive science and virtual reality fields. Recently, there has been significant increase in variety of biometric methods, utilizing learning approaches (i.e. AdaBoost), advanced image analysis (PCA and derivatives), geometric pattern recognition (Voronoi Diagram based matching), and information fusion (rank, decision and match score level), that can fairly successfully recognize human identities. New research in the area of robots recognizing humans utilizes the set of biometric methods for motion, face, gesture, gait and voice identification. However, another area appears on the rise that looks into how computer programs, bots, robots and avatars could be detected, identified and behaviorally profiled by humans with the help of advanced technology. Examples of situations where such recognition might provide to be crucial include an unauthorized super-intelligent bot participating illegally in an on-line game and pretending to be a real human; a military autonomous device with control system has been hacked; or a recreational human assistant robot that has been malfunctioning and could become dangerous as a result. While the theoretical contributions on the subject are of importance, it is the practical application of the results to real-world problems, as well as emerging areas of computer science, that are key aspects of the proposed special issue. Special Issue Planning Original, high-quality unpublished contributions are invited to one of the following topics devoted to robotic authentication: (i) Automatic, fast and accurate identification of artificial entities by humans, and vice versa, utilizing visual biometrics, pattern matching, learning algorithms, spatio-temporal analysis, computational geometry, 3D rendering and machine learning; (ii) Behavior pattern recognition in simple and multi-robot systems, including cooperative behavior, robot to robot or robot to human interaction, self-localization, replication, and other patterns; (iii) All aspects of pattern recognition and authentication as applied to intelligent machines, mobile robots, human-like robots, androids, avatars and intelligent software agents. Articles addressing other aspects of identification of artificial entities in robotics, as well as biometric, security, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, cognitive science and virtual reality fields, including but not limited to the list below, will also be considered: • complex pattern analysis based on visual, interactive and behavioral components of appearance of a robot/avatar/bot; • utilizing advanced image/signal matching combined with AI learning algorithms and training (such as AdaBoost); • performing cognitive informatics analysis to identify normal/abnormal behavior; • rendering spatial images from 3D models and vice versa for emotions and behavior analysis in humans and robots/avatars; • matching common reaction to a set of related tasks, including quizzing visual or audio information or designing special interaction tests; • incorporating implicit tests into the robot to robot or robot to human communication. Guest Editors Marina L. Gavrilova Roman V. Yampolskiy University of Calgary Speed School of Engineering, Univ. of Louisville All papers must be submitted e-mail:
[email protected] e-mail:
[email protected] via the Papercept online url: www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~marina url: https://louisville.edu/speed/faculty/yampolskiy/ submission and review Important Dates website. For instructions see • Call for Papers December 10, 2009 http://www.ieee-ras.org/ram/ • Deadline for Submissions May 1, 2010 • 1st Review July 15, 2010 • Final Review August 15, 2010 • Publication December, 2010 Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2010.936360
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Human-Automation Decision Making’’ (Chapter 26). It is worth mentioning that another similar chapter (31) entitled ‘‘Telerobotics’’ appears in the previous handbook about robotics, with similar historical perspective but complementary contents. Something similar happens with those chapters in both handbooks that deal with ‘‘Medical Robotics,’’ bearing in mind that the Handbook of Automation offers a broader scope about this topic than the Robotics Handbook, comprising eight
T U R N I N G
different chapters under Part H (‘‘Automation in Medical and Healthcare Systems’’), and including two chapters specifically dealing with robotics. This example shows clearly that automation is both a superset and an intersecting set with robotics. In summary, this is an outstanding handbook, covering automation from all kinds of perspectives, applied scenarios, and new trends, which will be, without doubt, very useful for our community. Congratulations to Nof and coworkers for a very good job.
P O I N T
(continued from page 136) Probably, as I hinted before, the main thing was the people. There was a strong culture of challenging discussions and of critiquing each others’ ideas and writing. I was extraordinarily lucky in my choice of classmates. One of my earliest memories in graduate school was when an older student, Marc Raibert, offered to help me rewrite a paragraph that I thought was perfectly fine to begin with. We spent over an hour crafting a far superior paragraph, which to me was a revelation. Today, if you Google good writing, the first hit is the essay that Raibert was destined to write ten years later. Even with the benefit of hindsight, I don’t think I could choose a better group to learn from. Finally, I think it was just time for those ideas to crystallize. My work on compliant motion and force control was not really such a dramatic departure from the earlier work by Lou Paul, Bruce Shimano, and Takase and Inoue in Japan, among others. The attention I received is still a little mystifying to me, and I listen carefully whenever somebody tries to identify my contribution. Quite often, I am given credit for things that I took from others. PIC: The field of robotics is huge now and probably daunting to somebody starting out today. What advice do you have for them? MM: That’s true, robotics is huge, but I think the daily experience—trying to find good problems, trying to understand what others have done, and trying to make progress on your own contributions—has not changed. For me, the biggest challenge is to find a great problem. You want a problem that has broad implications, that will sustain your interest through several years of grueling work, and that you can actually make progress on. How do you find that great problem? The easiest way is to borrow somebody else’s problem. That’s not as satisfying as finding something really new, but it is important to get started, to get engaged, which may ultimately lead to something really new. A great way to start is to read somebody else’s paper, 132 IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine
analyze it very carefully, identify hidden assumptions, look for unmotivated choices, identify failure modes, implement it, and so on. At first, it may seem that a great paper has covered all the bases and closed the problem, but that is seldom the case. Be prepared for false starts. More than half of my projects ultimately fail. My interest fades, or I just cannot get any traction. So I keep a few projects going in parallel. Even if you do have traction on one problem, it’s good to do the early thinking on the next project or a couple of projects. Pressure can become a problem for some graduate students. I think it’s important to recognize the source of that pressure: it comes from within. You should take deliberate control of it, channel it, and make it serve your purposes. It starts when you set a challenging goal for yourself. Every research goal implicitly includes a personal goal as well. If your research goal is to design a great robot hand, the implicit personal goal is to transform yourself into the person who can design a great robot hand. Choose challenges carefully. Failure is not unacceptable. If the challenge you have set for yourself ultimately becomes counterproductive, it’s time to reexamine your choices and either rededicate yourself or change your goals. If you never fail, you should set the bar higher. To meet a great challenge, the most important thing is to surround yourself with great people and to work well with them. You need people with high expectations, who will listen, analyze, critique, and challenge your work. And of course, you should be doing the same thing for them. PIC: Thanks a lot, Matt. Matt Mason received his B.S. degree in computer science in 1976 and his M.S. degree and Ph.D. degree in artificial intelligence (AI) from MIT. MARCH 2010
