About this ebook
It is structured around three core pillars: Mechatronics, Cybernetics, and AI. Mechatronics introduces practical tools and materials for robot building, programming, and design, covering open-source hardware, sensors, actuators, embedded systems like ESP32, and middleware like ROS2. Cybernetics explores feedback, control, kinematics, and dynamics, enabling the execution of complex trajectories for robots such as drones, mobile robots, and robotic arms, grounded in linear algebra and Lagrangian mechanics. AI explores modern transformer-based models, including GPTs and diffusion models, teaching robots to perceive, learn, and plan using Bayesian probability, neural networks, and PyTorch programming. Together, these sections provide a comprehensive foundation for understanding and innovating in robotics.
Bridging foundational theory and real-world applications, this book is core course reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of robotics, mechatronics, and artificial intelligence. It is also a valuable resource for maker communities, equipping them with the skills needed to succeed in this cutting-edge field.
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About the author
Charles Fox is the Programme Leader of MSc Robotics and AI at the University of Lincoln, UK. The programme provides a unified approach linking traditional Computer Science and Engineering topics with modern AI. He served as the programme chair of the UK’s robotics and AI conference, TAROS, in 2021. Fox advises leading venture capital, investment bank, and private equity firms on AI strategy and implementation. He earned an MA in Computer Science at Cambridge, an MSc in Informatics at Edinburgh, and a DPhil in Information Engineering at Oxford. He has won teaching awards from students and universities and is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications and the book Computer Architecture: from the stone age to the quantum Age with No Starch Press.
Jonathan Aitken is Senior University Teacher in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Sheffield, UK, and a member of Sheffield Robotics. His research addresses autonomous robotics in GPS-denied and hazardous environments, including vision-based localisation and mapping (SLAM) for underground infrastructure inspection as part of the Pipebots initiative, alongside collaborative robotics and digital twins for industrial safety assurance. His teaching interests include robot manipulators and ROS2. He is a regular media commentator on robotics and AI for national broadcast and print outlets. Dr Aitken holds an MEng and PhD in Electronic Engineering, both awarded by the University of York, and previously worked in the Department of Computer Science's High Integrity Systems Engineering Group, on safety in Systems-of-Systems.
