VThis book mainly uses the first meaning of robot and focuses on things useful to making robots, but it also includes several references to mechanisms useful to both of the other types of robots. Robot and mobile robot are used interchangeably throughout the book. Autonomous, in this book, means acting completely independent of any human input. Therefore, autonomous robot means a self-controlled, self- powered, mobile vehicle that makes its own decisions based on inputs from sensors. There are very few truly autonomous robots, and no known autonomous robots with manipulators on them whose manipula- tors are also autonomous. The more common form of mobile robot today is semiautonomous, where the.
