Robots, and more generally mechanical systems, are types of a physical
system. This is why it is important to study and control these systems
using information about their particular structure that describes their
particular nature.
In discussing physical systems, concepts like energy, interconnection
and interaction, become of substantial importance. Furthermore, during
the modeling and control tasks, the results we obtain should be
independent from artificial co-ordinates that people use to analyse the
results of their work. This has lead to the concept of co-ordinate free
description and tensors that have been used a lot in the theory of
relativity.
Throughout this book emphasis is placed on the intrinsic description of
the results reported.
The book describes the modeling and control of robotic systems subject
to interaction. It covers everything from basic concepts of differential
geometry to real robotics. Physics and the geometric interconnection of
arts play a major role throughout the work.