Systems, cybernetics, control, and automation (SCCA)are four interrelated and overlapping scientific and technological fields that have contributed substantially to the development, growth, and progress of human society. A large number of models, methods, and tools were developed that assure high efficiency of SCCA applied to practical situations. The real-life applications of SCCA encompass a wide range of man-made or biological systems, including transportations, power generation, chemical industry, robotics, manufacturing, cybernetics organisms (cyborgs), aviation, economic systems, enterprise, systems, medical/health systems, environmental applications, and so on. The SCCA fields exhibit strong influences on society and rise, during their use and application, many ethical concerns and dilemmas. This book provides a consolidated and concise overview of SCCA, in a single volume for the first time, focusing on ontological, epistemological, social impact, ethical, and general philosophical issues. It is appropriate for use in engineering courses as a convenient tutorial source providing fundamental conceptual and educational material on these issues, or for independent reading by students and scientists.Included in the book is:• Background material on philosophy and systems theory• Major ontological, epistemological, societal and ethical/philosophical aspects of the four fields that are considered in the book• Over 400 references and a list of 130 additional books in the relevant fields • Over 100 colored photos and 70 line figures that illustrate the text

In this chapter, the authors concentrate on decentralized estimation and control problems for linear discrete-time stochastic systems in a distributed-sensor network. They discusses an application of decentralized filtering, decentralized smoothing problems based on the two-filter form and a backward-pass fixed-interval smoother. The authors devote to the decentralized linear-quadratic-Gaussian control problem with a classic information pattern. Although two approaches based on local filtering and local smoothing are considered for solving the problems of decentralized smoothing, the authors are concerned only with the approach based on local smoothing. The authors assume that the estimation structure consists of a central processor (or station) and two local processors. An extension of the results to the case of m local stations is straightforward. Henceforth a different type of decentralized estimation and control must be examined further for the situation where the local measurement data are obtained sequentially by different sensors.

Dynamic control of robot manipulators is continuously receiving increased attention. This chapter presents a comprehensive survey of the field of adaptive, robust, and fuzzy control of industrial robots. It begins with some issues of robot dynamic modeling and techniques for estimating dynamic robot parameters. The chapter describes the three principal methodologies of adaptive robot control: model reference adaptive control (MRAC), the self-tuning control, and the model-based predictive control. It is devoted to robust robot control and includes four techniques. These techniques are the variable structure control technique, the combined computed-torque and MRAC technique, the robust control technique, which is based on parameter adaptation, and the MRAC robust technique, which does not include nonlinear feedback. The chapter also describes the fuzzy rule-based control approach and includes some fundamental concepts of fuzzy systems, the basic results of fuzzy control loops, and some more sophisticated results.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents a general theory for the analytic design of intelligent machines and robotic systems. It provides more details for the design, implementation, and testing of the supervisor level. The book deals with the skill-based level e.g., knowledge capture issues and examines locomotion systems as well as multifingered robot arms. It also presents a construction method of complicated robotic systems based on cells i.e., on functional elements used to build a robotic system from the viewpoint of biometrics. The book discusses the fundamental issue of how much manipulator dynamics information must be included in the dynamic model for controlling a robot using a proportional-plus-derivative controller. It includes a discussion of several supporting technology developments in artificial intelligence planning, control, human-machine interface, and computer architecture.

Broadly speaking, thermodynamics is the study of the relation of heat and other forms of energy (mechanical, electrical, radiant, etc), and the conversion of one form to another, as well as their relation to matter in the Universe. This chapter gives an overview of the major concepts, laws, and branches of thermodynamics that have been developed and studied over the years since the Carnot times. Specifically, this chapter defines the basic physical concepts of thermodynamics, with emphasis on the fundamental concept of entropy, and presents the four laws of thermodynamics. Particular aspects studied are the entropy interpretations (unavailable energy, disorder, energy dispersal, opposite to potential), the Maxwell demon, and the types of arrow of time (psychological, thermodynamic, cosmological, quantum, electromagnetic, causal, and helical arrows). This chapter ends with a number of seminal quotes on thermodynamics, entropy, and life that express the opinions of the founders and other eminent contributors and thinkers in the thermodynamics field.

Feedback and control, the third fundamental element of life and society, is inherent in any stable and successfully operating system in the natural, biological, technological, or societal world. It is the fundamental mechanism that assures the achievement of system equilibrium and homeostasis. Very broadly speaking, we can say that feedback is any response or information about the result of a process that is achieved via available sensing elements. This chapter starts with an outline of the 'feedback' concept, illustrated by a set of biological examples, and followed by an exposition of the historical landmarks of feedback and control, including the achievements made from ancient times to the present. Then, an overview of the classical control methodologies is provided in a conveniently simple and coherent way. Specifically, the following concepts and methods are discussed with minimum mathematical detail: basic negative-feedback loop, stability, time-domain specifications, root locus, Nyquist, Bode and Nichols plots, frequency-domain specifications and stability criteria, compensator design in the time and frequency domains, and nonlinear systems analysis via the describing functions and phase-plane concepts. Actually, the chapter offers a good review of the field to enable the reader to see the role of feedback as a pillar of life and society, and it can be used as a quick reference source for all scientists interested in the field of feedback and classical control.

This chapter is devoted to three modern subfields of information, namely information science, information technology, and information systems. These fields have an enormous impact on modern society and its development. Information science is generally concerned with the processes of storing and transferring information via the merging of concepts and methodologies of computer science, linguistics, and library science. Information technology (IT) or “infotech” covers all methodologies and technologies which are used for the production, storage, processing, transmission, and dissemination of information. Information systems use information science and information technology concepts and tools in the everyday operation of enterprises and organizations that needs the cooperation (symbiosis) of technology with human-controlled processes and actions. This chapter starts with a discussion of the fundamental general issues of information science including several classification schemes (knowledge maps), and continues with a guided tour to computer science, computer engineering, internet/www, and web-based multimedia. Finally, this chapter provides a general discussion of information systems which include their fundamental concepts, general structure, types, and development.

Information is a basic element of life and society involved in all areas of human, scientific, technological, economic, and developmental activity. Information storage, flow, and processing are inherent processes in nature and living organisms. Information transmission and communication/networking techniques contribute to the development of modern society, including social, economic, business, scientific, and technological operations and activities. This chapter covers at a conceptual level the following issues of information: definition, historical landmarks of its manifestations, communication models, modulation/demodulation, computer networks, multimedia, informatics/telematics, Shannon information entropy, source and channel coding/decoding, and theorems of information theory. The above sets of information/communication models, techniques, and technologies are affecting, and will continue to increasingly affect, the social, economic/business, and developmental activities of people in the short- and long-term future.

Information is present in all natural, living, and technological systems, and is recognized as the third basic universal quantity after energy and matter. For this reason, information manifestations in both natural and man-made systems have attracted the interest of humans through the historical evolution of the humankind. On the life and biological side of information there are two axes of study, namely: (i) the study of the underlying natural/biological mechanisms of storing, processing, and transmission of information from cells to entire organisms, and (ii) the use of biological mechanisms of computation in the design and implementation of new types of man-made computational systems. On the technological side, information and communication technology (ICT) is increasingly entering to the "heart" of large-scale competitive policies, due to its capacity as a key player in the ongoing human growth, development, and modernization. This chapter is concerned with the role and application of information to life and society. Regarding the life side the issues of the substantive role and the transmission sense of information in biology, the natural information principles, and biocomputation, are discussed. On the society side, the application of IT to office automation, power generation and distribution, computer-integrated manufacturing, robotics, business and electronic commerce, education, medicine, and transportation, is investigated. This chapter ends with a look at the issues of social networking, and ethics of IT (infoethics).

This chapter is concerned with the use and impact of energy on life and society. All activities of life and society are energy-based and energy-handling processes. The energy for all life on Earth comes from the Sun. Living organisms consume the available high-quality energy and return lower quality energy as specified by thermodynamics. Nonliving entities also consume energy over time, but life processes are more efficient in consuming energy. The three dominant stages of energy domestication in human societies are the survival stage, the stage of increased energy depletion, and the present stage of more efficient use of Earth’s energy resources (exhaustible and non-exhaustible). This chapter starts with a discussion of the three primary biochemical pathways, i.e., full series of energy-handling chemical reactions that take place in living organisms, namely, photosynthesis, respiration, and metabolism (catabolism, anabolism). Then, it examines the energy flow (food chains, food webs) in ecosystems including the efficiency of this flow. This chapter continues with a number of issues of the energy role in human society, namely the evolution of energy resources, the relation of energy with economy, the management of energy such that to achieve energy saving, the demand management which leads to “peak demand” minimization, and the use (consumption) of energy including relevant statistical data for the different parts of the Earth. The above issues and problems show the critical role of energy both for the life and the society, by providing the fuel needed for their existence, activity, and sustainability.

This paper focuses on the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) design and implementation of intelligent control system applications on a chip, specifically fuzzy logic and genetic algorithm processing units. Initially, an overview of the FPGA technology is presented, followed by design methodologies, development tools and the use of hardware description languages (HDL). Two FPGA design examples with the use of Hardware Description Languages (HDLs) of parameterized fuzzy logic controller cores are discussed. Thereinafter, a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) designed by the authors in previous work and realized on FPGA featuring a Digital Fuzzy Logic Controller (DFLC) and a soft processor core for the path tracking problem of mobile robots is discussed. Finally a Genetic Algorithm implementation (previously published by the authors) in FPGA chip for the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is also discussed.

field production, smart robotics, smart manufacturing, and smart factory).

The aim of this paper is to provide a global overview of mobile robot control and navigation methodologies developed over the last decades. Mobile robots have been a substantial contributor to the welfare of modern society over the years, including the industrial, service, medical, and socialization sectors. The paper starts with a list of books on autonomous mobile robots and an overview of survey papers that cover a wide range of decision, control and navigation areas. The organization of the material follows the structure of the author’s recent book on mobile robot control. Thus, the following aspects of wheeled mobile robots are considered: kinematic modeling, dynamic modeling, conventional control, affine model-based control, invariant manifold-based control, model reference adaptive control, sliding-mode control, fuzzy and neural control, vision-based control, path and motion planning, localization and mapping, and control and software architectures.

The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the role of adaptation and self-organization in life and society. The range of adaptation is very wide and includes, among others, animal physiology adaptation, immigrant adaptation, animal fertility adaptation, emotional adaptation, adaptation to stress, etc. Self-organization is an intrinsic process taking place in both biological and societal systems. In both cases, the rules of self-organization are determined on the basis of local information only, without information from a global level. Examples of self-organizing biological systems or patterns include a raiding column of army ants, a termite mound, pigmentation patterns on shells, etc. This chapter illustrates the presence of adaptation and self-organization through a number of representative examples, namely: adaptation of animals, adaptation of ecosystems, adaptation of immune systems, adaptation of socio-ecological and general societal systems, self-organization of knowledge management, and self-organization of technological and man-made systems (traffic lights control, WWW, multiagent robotic systems, bio-inspired systems). The above examples demonstrate clearly that adaptation and self-organization are fundamental processes for the survival of living organisms and societies, and the optimal operation of hard and soft man-made systems.

The aim of this chapter is to illustrate the role of feedback, negative and positive, in biological and societal systems and applications (technological, behavioral). Feedback, the third fundamental element of life and society, is a process which is based on energy, and exploits the information existing or generated in each particular case. The mathematical analysis of feedback is more easy to be made successfully for well-defined simple or complex man-made systems, and more difficult or incomplete for living and society systems. For the convenience of the reader the material of this chapter is presented via a number of selected biological, societal, and technological examples. These examples demonstrate that both negative and positive feedback is present and efficiently used by living organisms and human societies. Negative feedback offers the means for achieving stability and the goals of each case. Positive feedback is used whenever a purposeful oscillatory behavior is the desired goal. Negative feedback biological examples considered in this chapter are: temperature regulation, water regulation, sugar regulation, and hydrogen ion (pH) regulation. Positive biological feedback is illustrated by autocatalysis and auto-reproduction chemical reactions. Mathematical models and controllers in biological systems are provided for enzyme operation, biological rhythmic movement, insulin-glucose balancing, and cardiovascular-respiratory system. On the societal side, this chapter discusses four technological (hard) systems (process control, manufacturing systems control, air-flight control, and robotic systems control), and two types of soft systems, namely management control and economic system control. In hard systems, the control means include prime movers and end effectors, whereas in soft systems, the means of control are regulation laws and rules posed by rulers, managers, and government.

The aim of the law is to maintain social order, peace, and justice in society, whereas the aim of ethics is to provide codes of ethics and conduct that help people to decide what is wrong, and how to act and behave. Laws provide a minimum set of standards for obtaining good human behavior. Ethics often provides standards that exceed the legal minimum. Therefore, for the best behavior, both law and ethics should be respected. The Internet of Things (IoT) involves a large number of objects and humans that are connected via the Internet 'anytime' and 'anyplace' to provide homogeneous communication and contextual services. Thus, it creates a new social, economic, political, and ethical landscape that needs new enhanced legal and ethical measures for privacy protection, data security, ownership protection, trust improvement, and the development of proper standards. This survey and opinion article is concerned with the ethics and legislation of the IoT and provides an overview of the following: definition and history of the IoT; general ethical principles and theories that are available for application in the IoT; the role of governments in the IoT; regulations in the European Union (EU) and United States for the IoT' IoT characteristics that have the potential to create ethical problems; IoT ethical questions and principles; IoT security, privacy, and trust aspects; and the ethical culture of IoT-related companies.

Modern control has decisively contributed to the human society development providing the means for successful control and efficient and safe operation of complex technological and non-technological systems such as computer-based systems, aircrafts, robots, automation systems, managerial systems, decision support systems, economic systems, etc. It is based on the concepts of “system state vector” and “state-space models” which are applicable to time-varying, multivariable, and nonlinear systems in both continuous-time and discrete-time representations. In this chapter, we present the fundamental concepts, principles, and methodologies covering most developments at an introductory level. Specifically, the following topics are considered: state-space modeling, Lyapunov stability, controllability and observability, optimal, stochastic, adaptive, predictive, robust, nonlinear, and intelligent control. Also, the following classes of dynamic models, that cover a wider range of natural and man-made systems, are briefly discussed: large-scale, distributed-parameter, time delay, finite state, and discrete event models. The field of modern control is still expanding offering new challenges in research and real-life bioengineering and technological applications.

Many recent studies (e.g., IFR: International Federation of Robotics, 2016) predict that the number of robots (industrial, service/social, intelligent/autonomous) will increase enormously in the future. Robots are directly involved in human life. Industrial robots, household robots, medical robots, assistive robots, sociable/entertainment robots, and war robots all play important roles in human life and raise crucial ethical problems for our society. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the fundamental concepts of robot ethics (roboethics) and some future prospects of robots and roboethics, as an introduction to the present Special Issue of the journal Information on “Roboethics”. We start with the question of what roboethics is, as well as a discussion of the methodologies of roboethics, including a brief look at the branches and theories of ethics in general. Then, we outline the major branches of roboethics, namely: medical roboethics, assistive roboethics, sociorobot ethics, war roboethics, autonomous car ethics, and cyborg ethics. Finally, we present the prospects for the future of robotics and roboethics.