Explore the world's most fascinating historical and contemporary buildings, from ancient pyramids to high-tech skyscrapers, in this essential guide to architecture.

Manipulation using dextrous robot hands has been an exciting yet frustrating research topic for the last several years. While significant progress has occurred in the design, construction, and low level control of robotic hands, researchers are up against fundamental problems in developing algorithms for real-time computations in multi-sensory processing and motor control. The aim of this book is to explore parallels in sensorimotor integration in dextrous robot and human hands, addressing the basic question of how the next generation of dextrous hands should evolve. By bringing together experimental psychologists, kinesiologists, computer scientists, electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers, the book covers topics that range from human hand usage in prehension and exploration, to the design and use of robotic sensors and multi-fingered hands, and to control and computational architectures for dextrous hand usage. While the ultimate goal of capturing human hand versatility remains elusive, this book makes an important contribution to the design and control of future dextrous robot hands through a simple underlying message: a topic as complex as dextrous manipulation would best be addressed by collaborative, interdisciplinary research, combining high level and low level views, drawing parallels between human studies and analytic approaches, and integrating sensory data with motor commands. As seen in this text, success has been made through the establishment of such collaborative efforts. The future will hold up to expectations only as researchers become aware of advances in parallel fields and as a common vocabulary emerges from integrated perceptions about manipulation.

Beginning in the mid 1980's, VLSI technology had begun to advance in two directions. Pushing the limit of integration, ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration) represents the frontier of the semiconductor processing technology in the campaign to conquer the submicron realm. The application of ULSI, however, is at present largely confined in the area of memory designs, and as such, its impact on traditional, microprocessor-based system design is modest. If advancement in this direction is merely a natural extrapolation from the previous integration generations, then the rise of ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) is an unequivocal signal that a directional change in the discipline of system design is in effect. In contrast to ULSI, ASIC employs only well proven technology, and hence is usually at least one generation behind the most advanced processing technology. In spite of this apparent disadvantage, ASIC has become the mainstream of VLSI design and the technology base of numerous entrepreneurial opportunities ranging from PC clones to supercomputers. Unlike ULSI whose complexity can be hidden inside a memory chip or a standard component and thus can be accommodated by traditional system design methods, ASIC requires system designers to master a much larger body of knowledge spanning from processing technology and circuit techniques to architecture principles and algorithm characteristics. Integrating knowledge in these various areas has become the precondition for integrating devices and functions into an ASIC chip in a market-oriented environment. But knowledge is of two kinds.

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This book is the collection of the contributions offered at the International Symposium on Electromagnetic Fields in Electrical Engineering, ISEF '87, held in Pavia, Italy, in September 1987. The Symposium was attended by specialists engaged in both theoretical and applied research in low-frequency electromagnetism. The charming atmosphere of Pavia and its ancient university provided a very effective environment to discuss the latest results in the field and, at the same time, to enjoy the company or colleagues and friends coming from over 15 countries. The contributions have been grouped into 7 chapters devoted to fundamental problems, computer programs, transformers, rotating electrical machines, mechanical and thermal effects, various applications and synthesis, respectively. Such a classification is merely to help the reader because a few papers could be put in several chapters. Over the past two decades electromagnetic field computations have received a big impulse by the large availability of digital computers with better and better performances in speed and capacity. Many various methods have been developed but not all of them appear convenient enough for practical engineering use. In fact, the technical and industrial challenges set some principal attributes and criteria for good computation methods. They should be relatively easy to use, fit into moderately sized computers, yield useful design data, maintain flexibility with m1n1mum cost in time and effort.

Pulsed power technology, in the simplest of terms, usually concerns the storage of electrical energy over relatively long times and then its rapid release over a comparatively short period. However, if we leave the definition at that, we miss a multitude of aspects that are important in the ultimate application of pulsed power. It is, in fact, the application of pulsed power technology to which this series of texts will be foc~sed. Pulsed power in today's broader sense means "special power" as opposed to the traditional situation of high voltage impulse issues related to the utility industry. Since the pulsed power field is primarily application driven it has principally engineering flavor. Today's applications span those from materials processing, such as metal forming by pulsed magnetic fields, to commercial applications, such as psychedelic strobe lights or radar modulators. Very high peak power applica­ tions occur in research for inertial confinement fusion and the Strategic Defense Initiative and other historical defense uses. In fact it is from this latter direction that pulsed power has real­ ized explosive growth over the past half century. Early thrusts were in electrically powered systems that simulated the environment or effects of nuclear weapons detonation. More recently it is being utilized as prime power sources for directed energy weapons, such as lasers, microwaves, particle beam weapons, and even mass drivers (kinetic energy weapons).

This project had its beginnings in the Fall of 1980. At that time Robert Wagner suggested that I investigate compiler optimi­ zation of data organization, suitable for use in a parallel or vector machine environment. We developed a scheme in which the compiler, having knowledge of the machine's access patterns, does a global analysis of a program's operations, and automatically determines optimum organization for the data. For example, for certain architectures and certain operations, large improvements in performance can be attained by storing a matrix in row major order. However a subsequent operation may require the matrix in column major order. A determination must be made whether or not it is the best solution globally to store the matrix in row order, column order, or even have two copies of it, each organized differently. We have developed two algorithms for making this determination. The technique shows promise in a vector machine environ­ ment, particularly if memory interleaving is used. Supercomputers such as the Cray, the CDC Cyber 205, the IBM 3090, as well as superminis such as the Convex are possible environments for implementation.