Automatica 38 (2002) 1261 – 1264
www.elsevier.com/locate/automatica
Book reviews
Modeling and control of robot manipulators
L. Sciavicco and B. Siciliano; Springer, Berlin, 2000,
ISBN: 1-85233-221-2
1. Introduction
I have always thought that writing a good textbook on
Robotics would be very di/cult. The Robotics 1eld itself
covers a variety of subjects such as kinematics, dynamics,
control, sensing, programming, and software=hardware. The
author or authors are required not only to know each subject
in-depth, but also have a well-balanced knowledge of each
subject. The book, Modeling and Control of Robot Manip-
ulators, 2nd edition by L. Sciavicco and B. Siciliano, meets
those requirements better than any other book I have read
on Robotics. In this article, I summarize my personal view
and experience of the book.
I encountered the 1rst edition of the book 1ve years ago
at a conference. At 1rst sight, I found it to be well orga-
nized, technically sound and up-to-date on newly developed
research results. I bought one for myself on the spot. Since
then, the book has become one of the most often-used ref-
erence for my research. As well, since having joined Ohio
University’s faculty, I have used the 1rst edition as supple-
mental material for an advanced graduate course “Robotics
II”. (OU o;ers two courses in Robotics under a 10-weeks
quarter system. The 1rst course, Robotics I, introduces
mainly mechanics such as forward=inverse kinematics,
Jacobian and dynamics. The second course, Robotics II
covers position=force control, advanced feedback controls
and experiments with hardware.) Having used this book
for the past three years in my classroom, recently I re-
ceived the second edition of the book from the editor for its
review.
I believe the most popular textbook in Robotics is
one by Craig (1989). It is an excellent textbook that is
self-explanatory. I usually recommend this book to those
who are interested in robotics, typically undergraduate se-
niors or 1rst year graduate students and to those who have
some idea of mechanics and control, but do not know how
to apply them to robotics. On the other hand, I would like
to recommend Modeling and Control of Robot Manipula-
tors, 2nd edition by L. Sciavicco and B. Siciliano, to those
who have some experience with robotics, but need to clar-
ify some confusing concepts, and extend their knowledge.
This does not mean that the book is di/cult to read or un-
derstand. The book builds up topics gradually from easy to
di/cult. However, the reader may not appreciate=remember
all the details and various perspectives of the book without
having some basic knowledge of Robotics.
2. A close look
The book, Modeling and Control of Robot Manipula-
tors, is divided into nine chapters and three appendices.
It follows a typical textbook order. Each chapter starts
with well written summarized introduction, describing the
motivation of each concept and outlining what is coming
up in the chapter. This is one of my favorite parts of the
book.
Here are a few highlights from the book by chapters.
Chapter 2 presents forward=inverse kinematics of both
open=closed chain manipulators with examples of seven
popular manipulators. Even unit quaternion and kinematic
calibration are discussed in detail. In Chapter 3, di;erence
of analytical and geometrical Jacobian is described, which
is very important but often missed in other textbooks. Uti-
lization of redundancy is discussed with pseudo-inverse
in the sense of optimization. Chapter 4 covers dynamics
of both Lagrange and Newton–Euler formulation con-
cisely with enough detail. It includes notable properties
of dynamics model which are critical for feedback con-
troller design later. Also, dynamic parameter identi1-
cation is discussed. Trajectory planning is presented in
Chapter 5. Time- and space-based trajectory planning are
described including dynamic scaling of trajectories. Chap-
ter 6 investigates=simulates a variety of feedback control
schemes as motion control such as PID, computed torque,
inverse dynamics, robust control, adaptive controllers with
in-depth theory. The controllers are based on the dynamic
model including actuators. More importantly, di;erence
of velocity- and torque-controlled actuators are explained.
Later in the chapter, the comparison of all the controllers
are simulated and discussed. In Chapter 7, interaction con-
trol strategy is divided into two groups based upon direct
and indirect force feedback. Compliance, impedance and
force control with detailed analysis is presented from es-
tablished research results. Practical information on actua-
tors and sensors, and control architecture are presented in
Chapters 8 and 9. Finally, appendices review fundamental
concept of linear algebra, rigid-body mechanics, and feed-
back control theory to help readers to understand the main
materials.
1262 Book reviews / Automatica 38 (2002) 1261–1264
3. What I like
Personally, 1rst, what impresses me most about this book
are the up-to-date materials and technical depth. Quality
research information that is typically published in journals
has been digested together and is summarized in this one
book. In addition, the book always starts from fundamental
concepts explaining necessary details and slowly building
up concepts to an advanced level. Average readers should be
able to grasp most of the concepts without referring to other
books. This is quite di;erent from other advanced books
in Robotics, which are often merely a collection of journal
articles or a copy of a Ph.D. thesis.
Second, I like the clear presentation of the concepts and
examples that follow. Diagrams, pictures and tables illus-
trate well where they are necessary. There are more than
50 examples throughout the book which are very helpful
to solidify basic concepts. Speci1cally, computer simulation
results=graphs are presented e;ectively to demonstrate the
concepts. Unfortunately, I could not 1nd any examples of
Matlab=Simulink code explicitly in the book.
Later, following the solution manual of the book, I was
able to download many samples of end-of-chapter program-
ming problems from the ftp site:
ftp://ftp.mathworks.com/pub/books/scilliano.
Authors call the samples Modeling and Control of Robot
Manipulators toolbox. These programs are well written,
modular and quite useful. It can be easily customized to
simulate various systems. I am wondering why these pro-
grams are not included in the book. It would be much
more helpful to students. By going through programming
examples, students will experience insight of various al-
gorithms and will be able to compare=design=test them for
themselves. From an educational point of view, ability to
simulate a dynamic system should be emphasized, although
I agree that Matlab=Simulink is not a main focal point of the
book.
4. What is missing?
I agree with the previous review by de Oliveira (2001) de
Oliveira and Jamshidi (2001). The book lacks programming
examples. Today, use of computer=software is a critical
part of education in engineering and science speci1cally
in robotics. Furthermore, use of symbolic computational
tool (e.g. Matlab and Mathematica) is inevitable in forward
kinematics or modeling for feedback controller design.
Introducing symbolic computation with programming ex-
amples would make the book much more useful. Also,
many of the graphs and plots in the book seem to be sim-
ulated with Matlab=Simulink. Showing some of the source
codes itself could be good programming examples. (On the
other hand, I understand why some authors are reluctant
to include programming examples in their textbook. Since
commercial software gets updated every year, programming
examples may become obsolete in 3– 4 years.)
Second, the control chapters need more examples. Notice
Chapter 6; there are no examples other than a simulation
comparison in Section 6:7 towards the end of the chapter.
It would be more helpful to the reader if some examples
were provided right after each control scheme is introduced
instead of delivering them at the end.
5. What’s new?
So, how di;erent is it between the 1rst and second edi-
tion? According to the authors, more material has been
added to the 1rst edition such as unit quaternion, kinematics,
kineto-statics duality and dynamics of closed-chain manip-
ulators, vision sensors, etc. Consequently, more problems
and references are updated due to the expansion. But, there
are no changes on the control chapters as far as I know.
6. Conclusion
De1nitely, the book provides a lot of information with
clear presentation. As a reviewer, I had a di/cult time to
1nd any weakness of the book. The book summarizes recent
advancements in Robotics research and incorporates them
into a textbook format with adequate examples. Success-
fully, the authors raise the standard for Robotics textbooks.
It will be di/cult for others to follow. As one of my fa-
vorite books, I highly recommend this book to others who
are teaching or researching in Robotics.
On second thought, however, as a textbook, the authors
need to clearly explain what is used in industry today,
what is widely accepted in the research community, and
what is accepted but still under discussion (because it may
not be wrong, just impractical). Otherwise, introducing all
the information together at once to students could confuse
them rather than informing them. Maybe, that is why I
adopt the book Modeling and Control of Robot Manip-
ulators as a reference, not as the main textbook in my
class.
References
Craig, J. (1989). Introduction to robotics: mechanics and control (2nd
ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
de Oliveira, M., & Jamshidi, M. (2001). Modeling and control of robot
manipulators. 2001. Book Reviews=Automatica, 37, 1681–1682.
Jae Lew
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Ohio University, 259 Stocker Center,
Athens, OH 45701, USA
E-mail address: jlew@bobcat.ent.ohiou.edu
 Book reviews / Automatica 38 (2002) 1261–1264
About the reviewer
Jae Young Lew is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Me-
chanical Engineering, Ohio University. He received the M.Eng. degree
from Carnegie–Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA in 1987, and the Ph.D.
degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA in 1993,
respectively, both in Mechanical Engineering. From 1993 to 1997, he
PII: S 0 0 0 5 - 1 0 9 8 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 3 0 1 - 6
Introduction to robotics in CIM systems, fourth edition
James A. Rehg; Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cli;s, NJ, 2000,
ISBN: 0-13-90120-7
Robotics has interdisciplinary characteristics with its great
diversity of application 1elds. At least, engineers who work
in robotics areas are required to possess both a mechanical
and an electrical engineering background. This is also true
for manufacturing automation with its variety in subjects,
problems, approaches, and application areas. Therefore, the
study of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) systems
with robots is a 1eld of great challenge for engineers. This
book by James A. Rehg, which is reviewed here, certainly
does not target a reader who would like to learn the sub-
jects of kinematics, dynamics, and control theory of robots.
It is clearly aimed at educating engineers and technicians
so that they can acquire the skills to design, develop, im-
plement, and support automated production systems with
robots. Robots are no longer stand-alone production de-
vices. It is no exaggeration to say that current automated
production systems and CIM cannot be organized without
robots. Integration of robots into manufacturing systems
is the key to attain enhanced production e/ciencies. This
textbook covers all the relevant aspects of industrial automa-
tion emphasizing an e/cient orientation of robotics to man-
ufacturing systems, and combines all the topics under one
cover. Also, the book is presented in professional breadth
and depth comprising safety and economical aspects of au-
tomation systems. This is an excellent one for industrialists
who would like to design and implement automation sys-
tems with robots and for undergraduate students who are
interested in manufacturing automation.
In order to explain major changes and additions to the
forth edition of the book, it might be better to quote the
gist from the cover of the book. This edition “includes not
only robots as the primary focus of the text; emphasis is
also placed on the hardware and software that support the
implementation of automated work cells and manufacturing
systems. This text has been thoroughly updated to include
the latest developments in the 1eld. Further, it has been ex-
panded signi1cantly—with quantitative problems described
in detail, a large problem set at the end of each chapter, work
cell design problems, additional case studies, new safety
information, an appendix containing links to Internet sites
for numerous automation hardware vendors, and a compre-
hensive glossary of terms”. The notable point of the text as
a source of teaching material is the use of real problems and
examples described in the West-Electric (W-E) case study
1263
worked as a research scientist at Paci1c Northwest National Laboratory,
Richland, WA developing robotics technology related to nuclear waste
handling. His research interests include linear=nonlinear large structure
control, human–robot interactive control, force=impedance control, and
dynamic path planning. He is a member of ASME and IEEE.
in Chapter 12 for class discussions. Parts of the W-E case
study can be used as an activity at the end of each chapter.
Also, classroom instruction is supported with questions, an
expanded problem set, and new case projects at the end of
each chapter. In implementation, readers follow the progress
of an industrial design team as they automate one part of the
manual production system. Readers are also invited to join
in the design process and create an automated cell for an
adjacent manual production process. The whole work shows
the great teaching experience of the author on this subject.
In terms of content, the book is divided into 12 chap-
ters and three appendices. Looking brieMy at each chapter:
Chapter 1 introduces the historical background of industrial
robots, and the de1nitions of robotics and Computer Inte-
grated Manufacturing are presented. Also, the basic robot
systems are explained. In Chapter 2 robot systems are clas-
si1ed from the aspects of arm geometry, power sources,
applications, control techniques, and path control. The
chapter also provides a new section Drive Systems which
includes belts, chains, gear drives, ball screw drives, and
harmonic drives. This reviewer wonders about the intention
of the author and why he inserted this section in the chapter
Robot Classi6cation because it seems that the author does
not clearly classify the robot systems in terms of the di;er-
ences of drive systems. However, the section itself is superb.
Illustrative 1gures and numerical examples for the calcu-
lation problems make it easy for readers to understand the
mechanism of these drive systems. After reading this chap-
ter, readers have an overview of all types of robot systems.
Chapter 3 covers automated work cells and CIM sys-
tems. The chapter starts with an explanation for the CIM
implementation process that includes assessment, simpli1-
cation, and implementation. Two case studies are presented
as actual examples of automated systems. The chapter
closes with an explanation for the implementation of au-
tomated work cells. Two major issues are addressed in
the design process: the use of current production hard-
ware versus the purchase of new process machines, and
the adoption of 1xed versus Mexible automation. Chapter
4 discusses end-of-arm, or end-e;ector, tooling. The chap-
ter also describes compliance, and collision systems. The
author classi1ed the tooling into three categories: (1) stan-
dard mechanical pressure grippers, tooling using vacuum
for holding or lifting, and magnetic devices, (2) drills,
welding guns and torches, paint sprayers, and grinders, (3)
special-purpose grippers and compliance devices. Many
di;erent kinds of end-of-arm tooling used in a robot work
cell are introduced. However, this reviewer found lack of