#1 - The five most relevant books in robotics research
Best of all - they are all available as free PDFs
In this briefing, I point out the most relevant books in the robotics field. The best part is that all the books are available online as free PDFs.
Each of the following five books has its own focus, but the following topics are basically introduces in every book:
Kinematics modelling
Dynamics modelling
Control theory
Motion planning
Because of this, you'll have to find out for yourself which of the books works best for you and what’s your focus.
For every book, you can find the link to the free PDF as well as a link to the printed version.
Robotics - Modelling, Planning and Control
Bruno Siciliano, Lorenzo Sciavicco, Luigi Villani, and Giuseppe Oriolo
The ultimate fundamentals book.
“The fundamental and technological aspects are mainly concentrated in the first six chapters of the book and concern the theory of manipulator structures, including kinematics, statics and trajectory planning, and the technology of robot actuators, sensors and control units.
The advanced aspects are dealt with in the subsequent six chapters and concern dynamics and motion control of robot manipulators, interaction with the environment using exteroceptive sensory data (force and vision), mobile robots and motion planning.” - Excerpt from the preface.
A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation
Richard M. Murray, Zexiang Li, and S. Shankar Sastry
Fundamentals of kinematics, dynamics, control, and manipulation of and with robots with a special mathematical focus.
“… we felt the need for a book which presents a slightly more abstract (mathematical) formulation of the kinematics, dynamics, and control of robot manipulators. The current book is an attempt to provide this formulation not just for a single robot but also for multifingered robot hands, involving multiple cooperating robots.” - Excerpt from the preface.
Robot modeling and control
Mark W. Spong, Seth Hutchinson, and Mathukumalli Vidyasagar
A book on the basics that is didactically well done.
“Based on the highly successful classic, Robot Dynamics and Control, by Spong and Vidyasagar (Wiley, 1989), Robot Modeling and Control offers a thoroughly up-to-date, self-contained introduction to the field. The text presents basic and advanced material in a style that is at once readable and mathematically rigorous.” - Excerpt from the preface.
Introduction to Robotic - Mechanics and Control
John J. Craig
Solid reference book with specialization in mechanics and control of robotic systems.
“This book introduces the science and engineering of mechanical manipulation. This subdiscipline of robotics has its foundations in several classical fields. The major relevant fields are mechanics, control theory, and computer science.” - Excerpt from the preface.
Planning Algorithms
Steven M. LaValle
All about motion planning - whether deterministic or stochastic.
“His book addresses the planning part of robotics, which includes motion planning, trajectory planning, and planning under uncertainty. This is only one part of the big picture in robotics, which includes issues not directly covered here, such as mechanism design, dynamical system modeling, feedback control, sensor design, computer vision, inverse kinematics, and humanoid robotics.” - Excerpt from the preface.