Introduction

Abstract

Robots find applications in automobile, electronics, chemical and many other industries. The field of robotics has evolved since the development of industrial robots, which have mainly fixed base with serial-chain architecture. Since then many new applications like maintenance task of industrial plants, operations in dangerous and emergency environments, surveillance, maneuvering in unknown terrains, tele-surgery, human care, grasping and manipulation of complex objects, multi-point force and tactile feeling, etc. have come into existence. As a result, multiple-chain tree-type robotic systems such as multi-fingered robotic arm, legged vehicle, humanoid robot, etc. have emerged. They are referred to as tree-type robotic systems in this book. Trajectory planning, dynamic analysis, obtaining stability criterion, and control are some of the basic issues with such systems. Research in these areas has growing interest and is active field of the robotics.