148 BOOK REVIEWS
ment values, network parameters, sensitivities
and tuning. A handy reference collection.
The filter functions tabulated in Chapter 10
cover the variety of functions described in
Chapter 3. Limits to function order of 7, ripple
factors and attenuation steps, only allow a
representative selection to be presented, a
designer might experience frustration with the
limits imposed.
A thoroughly interesting book which should
prove a valuable aid to the engineer and those
already experienced in the art of filter design. The
absence of problems at the end of the major
chapters will possibly limit its attraction to
INTKODUCTION TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, E.
Charniak and D. McDermott, Addison-Wesley
Publ., 1985, ISBN 0-201-1 1946-3.
This book is intended for use in introductory
undergraduate Artificial Intelligencc (AI) courses.
The material covered reflects the authors views on
what constitutes a balanced and comprehensive
coverage of the field. In particular, they aim to
provide three features: inclusion of the enduring
aspects of Al research, a coherent presentation of
ideas and methods, through the use of a uniform
conceptual framework and, finally, detailed
coverage of the background theory, as well as an
introduction to the classic programs in the field.
The major application areas covered include
vision, language comprehension, and robot plan-
ning. The main recurring theme which underlies
the whole book and which ties these areas
together is the problem of internal representation
of facts and rules, which arises in almost all sub-
areas of AI. The main areas of background
theory which are given close attention include
mathematical logic for knowledge representation
and inference, and linguistics for language com-
prehension. Indeed, the coverage of background
material is so complete that the only prerequisite
demanded of the reader is some experience in pro-
gramming. Even this requirement is offset to
some extent by the inclusion of a chapter on the
Lisp symbol-manipulation language which allows
the reader to try the large number of programm-
ing examples which are scattered throughout the
book (it should also be possible to use some other
symbol-manipulation language such as Prolog, if
preferred).
The idea of internal representation is first in-
troduced in Chapter 1 through a presentation of
the various standard notations (semantic nets,
student readership as will the price of US$64. An
interesting and useful development would be t o
embody all of the work described into a computer
workstation for the synthesis of active RC filter
networks. This would remove some of the tedious
calculations described and allow extension t o
higher order approximations and realizations.
The synthesis software could be coupled with rele-
vant analysis software to form a complete design
tool.
J . I. SEWELL
Dept. of Electronics and Electrical Engineering,
The University,
Glasgow, Scotland.
frames etc.) used for this purpose. The predicate
calculus is reviewed as a vehicle for representation
and inference.
Chapter 2 is a brief introductory course in Lisp
(Franz Lisp is the particular dialect chosen).
Chapter 3, Vision, examines the translation of
visual information into internal representation.
This chapter gives a detailed account of one of the
most intensively studied senses. The emerging
solution to the vision problem has two stages:
early and late visual processing, both of which are
described in some detail. In early processing the
raw image is examined and as much ‘useful infor-
mation’ as possible extracted. The result of early
processing is the ‘intrinsic image’ which quantifies
the properties of the discretized image. In late
processing a scene description is produced from
the intrinsic image.
In Chapter 4 (Parsing Language) the problem
of translating language into internal represen-
tation is studied. The chapter describes the role of
syntax and semantics is going from a typed
sentence to an internal representation, and is
essentially a background to linguistic analysis.
The approach taken is to divide the syntactic and
semantic analyses into two sequential tasks: the
language sentence is first parsed to produce a
‘syntactic tree’, and then a semantic interpreta-
tion of the tree leads to the internal
representation.
The topic of Chapter 5 is search, or scheduling.
The chapter provides an introduction to a tool to
be used in subsequent chapters, namely the con-
cept of a goal tree. The object of the search is to
proceed from some initial state to a goal state, by
a set of choices. The search problem can be to
find the set of choices which lead to any solution,
o r those which lead to an ‘optimal’ solution.
 BOOK REVlEWS
The two chapters which follow, 6 and 7, form
the central core of the book. In these chapters the
ideas briefly touched on in Chapter 1 on internal
representation and reasoning are expanded.
Earlier chapters discussed the importance of these
two concepts and concentrated in particular on
the production of representations from inputs:
firstly visual (Chapter 3) and then linguistic
(Chapter 4). Chapters 6 and 7 concentrate on the
manipulation of these representations for deduc-
tive reasoning once they have been obtained.
The authors define two levels of representation:
the abstract and the concrete. Chapter 6 (Logic
and Deduction) concentrates on the use of the
predicate calculus at the abstract representation
level, i.e. the expressive representation of the
actual facts and rules. In Chapter 7 the concrete
level of representation (i.e. the data structures
and techniques used for memory management)
are studied.
The final four chapters, 8-1 1, study four topics
of considerable practical importance. Chapter 8
looks at the problem of uncertainty in abductive
reasoning, with particular reference to expert
systems. A brief coverage of probability theory is
given as a means of addressing the uncertainty
problem.
Chapter 9, Managing Plans of Action, looks at
the problem of robot planning. This is decom-
posed into two problems: plan generation (which
INrERACTlON WITH THE E N V I K O N M E N T - ROBOT
TECHNOLOGY VOLUME 2, P. Coiffet, Kogan Page
Ltd., London, 1983, ISBN 0-85038-534-2, f32.50,
29OPP
This is the second of a series of texts, translated
from the French and concerning the development
of advanced robotic systems. It is concerned with
the hardware and software techniques which
enable a robot to interact with its environment
and adapt its actions appropriately. Artificial
Intelligence techniques are specifically not includ-
ed since they are dealt with in a separate volume.
The book begins with a useful introductory sec-
tion summarizing essential material and basic
definitions. Characteristics of robots able to
adapt to environmental variation are then discus-
sed, setting the scene for the remaining chapters
which survey i n detail the various sensors and
sense parameters which can be used to enhance
manipulator performance. Detection of stress and
associated force control together with various
examples is sensibly given a chapter separate from
149
is treated as a deductive problem) and planning
decisions.
In Chapter 10 the authors return once again to
abductive inference, this time with regard to
Language Comprehension. This chapter takes the
language problem further than the coverage given
in Chapter 4 where the process is taken only to the
stage of translation into internal representation.
The final chapter, Chapter 11, discusses the
question which is perhaps the essence of in-
telligence, namely the learning ability.
Each chapter is supplemented by a compre-
hensive set of examples, many of which give the
reader the chance to experiment with solving pro-
blems using Lisp. Throughout all of the chapters
the authors include short interjections which give
an historical overview of each topic under
discussion.
Overall, the authors have given a very com-
prehensive introduction to both the background
theoretical and the practical aspects of AI. In
addition to the stated objective of providing a
useful course text the book serves as a good
general introduction for practising engineers and
scientists in many different fields who require an
introduction to the various aspects of AI.
KENNETHJ . HUNT
BBN Laboratories Limited,
Heriot- Watt Research Park,
Edinburgh, Scotland
the more general topic of tactile sensors in terms
of tactile arrays. This latter is the one section of
the book which I feel has been overtaken by re-
cent research with work at the University of
Sussex and Aberystwyth leading to much higher
resolution ‘skins’ than those mentioned. A brief
discussion of simple proximity sensors is provided
and finally about the last third of the volume is
concerned with robot vision culminating in an
overview of vision systems available for industrial
robots.
There is a tremendous amount of material in
this book. It is presented clearly and compactly
with plentiful use of well thought out diagrams
and should certainly find a place on the bookshelf
of every engineer, in industry or academia, who is
involved in equipping robots and/or more general
flexible manufacturing cells with sensors.
G. E. TAYLOK
Department of Electronic Engineering,
University of Hull, Hull, U.K.