About the Author: Dr. Adam ('Ad') Spiers is an Associate Research Scientist at the GRAB lab in Yale University (Connecticut, USA). The majority of this book represents research he carried out for his PhD (2007-2011) at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) and University of Bristol (UK) under the supervision of Dr. Guido Herrmann and Prof. Chris Melhuish. In addition to a PhD, he holds an MSc in Engineering and Information Sciences (2006) and BSc in Cybernetics and Control Engineering (2004), both from the University of Reading (UK). He currently conducts research into human movement, upper limb prosthetics, underactuated robot hands and shape-changing haptic navigation interfaces for pedestrian guidance. His other research work, outside that noted in this book, has included surgical robotics, tele-haptics, medical diagnostic simulators, robot gripper / sensor development, tactile displays, neural interfacing and enactive interfaces. He has also worked on remote handling robots at UK nuclear facilities and collaborated with several artists to create unique technology driven theater and art installations. He was an invited resident of the Pervasive Media Studio (Bristol, UK) from 2012-2014.
Dr Said G Khan is an Assistant Professor in Robotics and Control in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering Yanbu, Taibah University Al Madinah, Saudi Arabia. He has previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Queen's School of Engineering, University of Bristol. Dr. S G Khan is a member of the Nonlinear Robotics Control Group (NRCG) at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. He has completed his PhD at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England (and University of Bristol) in 2012 in Robotics and Control, specializing in "safe human-robot interaction via adaptive compliance control". He did his M.Sc. Robotics with Distinction from the University Of Plymouth, UK in 2006. He received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, First Division with Honours, from University of Engineering Technology (UET) Peshawar, Pakistan in October, 2003. He was a part-time lecturer in University of the West of England, Bristol, from September 2008 to October, 2011, and a Research Associate at Department of Mechanical Engineering, GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Pakistan, from March 2007 to July 2008.
Dr. Guido Herrmann is an accomplished control engineer and a Reader in Control and Dynamics at the University of Bristol with extensive experience in the development and implementation of novel control schemes for industrially relevant systems. He received the German degree 'Diplom-Ingenieur der Elektrotechnik' (with highest honours) from the Technische Universität zu Berlin. In 2001, he obtained a PhD from the University of Leicester. From 2001 to 2003, he worked in the mechatronics and micro-systems group of the A*Star Data Storage Institute (Singapore) doing research and consultancy for the data storage industry. From 2003 until February 2007, he was a Research Associate, Research Fellow and a Lecturer in the Department of Engineering at Leicester University. In March 2007, Dr Herrmann took up a permanent lecturing position at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Bristol. He was at several occasions a Visiting Lecturer and a Visiting Professor in Malaysia and Singapore; in September 2005, he was a Visiting Professor at the Data Storage Institute. He is leading the Nonlinear Robotics Control Group (NRCG) at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Fellow of the IET. He has been an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Social Robotics (since foundation in 2009) and a Technical Editor of the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (2009/2010-2014/2015 editorial cohort).