Book excerpt: Methods of contro1151 Mechanical master-slave telemanipulators 151 Powered telemanipulators 152 Servo control of unilateral telemanipulators 152 Bilateral servo manipulators 155 Special characteristics of teleoperators 158 Design criteria for teleoperators 159 Vehicles and transporters 160 Applications of teleoperators 161 Remote handling of radioactive materials 161 Remote handling of explosive and toxic materials 161 Telemanipulation of heavy objects 163 Underwater teleoperation 163 Teleoperation in space and planetary exploration 164 Telemanipulators for the disabled 164 Computer assisted teleoperation 166 Bibliographic notes 170 Chapter 9: Mobile robots 171 Introduction 171 Land surface robots 171 Arrangements of wheels and tracks 171 Unusual wheel and track arrangements 172 Navigation for land vehicles 174 Teleoperation 174 Dead reckoning 175 Inertial navigation 175 Tracking from a fixed base; beacons 175 Satellite navigation 175 Map matching 175 Wall following 176 Route planning 176 Control and communication 176 Sensors for mobile robots 177 Body orientation and angular rates 1 77 Body position, speed and acceleration 177 Terrain scanning 178 Types and applications of mobile robots 179 Education and research 179 Remote handling 183 Military mobile robots 183 Fire-fighting and rescue 187 Construction 188 Mining 188 Planetary exploration 188 Legged robots 188 Comparison of legs and wheels 189 Leg number and arrangement 189 Leg number 189 Leg disposition 190 Relative leg length 190 Leg construction 190 Control 191 Climbing robots 195 Robot submersibles 196 Uses of submersible robots 199 Robots in air and space 201 Space 202 Bibliographic notes 204 Chapter 10: Automated guided vehicles 205