During the period 1982-1985, six books of the series: Scientific Fun­ damentals of Robotics were published by Springer-Verlag. In chronolo­ gical order these were: Dynamics of Manipulation Robots: Theory and Application, by M. Vukobra­ tovic and V. Potkonjak, Control of Manipulation Robots: Theory and Ap­ plication, by M. vukobratovic and D. Stokic, Kinematics and Trajectory Synthesis of Manipulation Robots, by M. Vukobratovic and H. Kircanski, Real-Time Dynamics of Hanipulation Robots by M. Vukobratovic and N. Kircanski, Non-Adaptive and Adaptive Control of Manipulation Robots, by M. Vukobratovic, D. Stokic and N. Kircanski and Computer-Aided De­ sign and Applied Dynamics of Manipulation Robots, by M. Vukobratovic and V. Potkonjak. Within the series, during 1989, two monographs dealing with new sub­ jects will be published. So far, amongst the published monographs, Vol. 1 has been translated into Japanese, Volumes 2 and 5 into Russian, and Volumes 1-6 will appear in Chinese and Hungarian. In the author's opinion, the afore mentioned monographs, in principle, cover with sufficient breadth, the topics devoted to the design of ro­ bots and their control systems, at the level of post-graduate study in robotics. However, if this material was also to apply to the study of robotics at under-graduate level, it would have to be modified so as to obtain the character of a textbook. With this in mind, it must be noted that the subject matter contained in the text cannot be simpli­ fied but can only be elaborated in more detail.

Global Analysis of Nonlinear Dynamics collects chapters on recent developments in global analysis of non-linear dynamical systems with a particular emphasis on cell mapping methods developed by Professor C.S. Hsu of the University of California, Berkeley. This collection of contributions prepared by a diverse group of internationally recognized researchers is intended to stimulate interests in global analysis of complex and high-dimensional nonlinear dynamical systems, whose global properties are largely unexplored at this time.

“The human body is a machine whose movements are directed by the soul,” wrote René Descartes in the early seventeenth century. The intr- sic mechanisms of this machine gradually became clear through the hard work of Renaissance scientists. Leonardo da Vinci is one such scientist from this period of enlightenment. In pursuit of knowledge, Leonardo dissected the bodies of more than 30 men and women. He sawed the bones lengthwise, to see their internal structure; he sawed the skull, cut through the vertebrae, and showed the spinal cord. In the process, he took extensive notes and made carefully detailed sketches. His drawings d- ferentiated muscles that run across several joints from those muscles that act on a single joint. “Nature has made all the muscles appertaining to the motion of the toes attached to the bone of the leg and not to that of the thigh,” wrote Leonardo in 1504 next to one of his sketches of the lower extremity, “because when the knee joint is flexed, if attached to the bone of the thigh, these muscles would be bound under the knee joint and would not be able to serve the toes. The same occurs in the hand owing to the flexion of the elbow. ” Another Renaissance scholar who made fundamental contributions to the physiology of movement is Giovanni Alfonso Borelli. Born in 1604 in Naples, Borelli was a well-respected mathematician.

Diffusion in solids at moderate temperatures is a well-known phenomenon. However, direct experimental evidence about the responsible atomic-scale mechanisms has been scarce, due to difficulties in probing the relevant length- and time-scales. The present thesis deals with the application of X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) for answering such questions. This is an established method for the study of slow dynamics on length-scales of a few nanometres. The scattered intensity in the diffuse regime, i.e. corresponding to atomic distances, is very low, however, and so it has so far been considered impossible to use XPCS for this problem.

The Earth's atmosphere is often portrayed as a thin and finite blanket covering our planet, separate from the emptiness of outer space. In reality, the transition is gradual and a tiny fraction of the atmophere gases is still present at the altitude of low orbiting satellites. The very high velocities of these satellites ensure that their orbital motion can still be considerably affected by air density and wind. This influence can be measured using accelerometers and satellite tracking techniques.

This book is to serve as a text for engineering students at the senior or beginning graduate level in a second course in dynamics. It grew out of many years experience in teaching such a course to senior students in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. While temperamentally disinclined to engage in textbook writing, I nevertheless wrote the present volume for the usual reason-I was unable to find a satisfactory English-language text with the content covered in my inter­ mediate course in dynamics. Originally, I had intended to fit this text very closely to the content of my dynamics course for seniors. However, it soon became apparent that that course reflects too many of my personal idiosyncracies, and perhaps it also covers too little material to form a suitable basis for a general text. Moreover, as the manuscript grew, so did my interest in certain phases of the subject. As a result, this book contains more material than can be studied in one semester or quarter. My own course covers Chapters 1 to 5 (Chapters 1,2, and 3 lightly) and Chapters 8 to 20 (Chapter 17 lightly).

When the temperature of a gas is not too high and the density of a gas is not too low, the transfer of heat by radiation is usually negligibly small in comparison with that by conduction and convection. However, in the hypersonic flow of space flight, particularly in the re-entry of a space vehicle, and in the flow problem involving nuclear reaction such as in the blast wave of nuclear bomb or in the peaceful use of the controlled fusion reaction, the temperature of the gas may be very high and the density of the gas may be very low. As a result, thermal radiation becomes a very important mode of heat transfer. A complete analysis of such high temperature flow fields should be based upon a study of the gasdynamic field and the radiation field simultaneously. Hence during the last few years, considerable efforts have been made to study such interaction problems between gasdynamic field and radiation field and a new title, Radiation Gasdynamics, has been suggested for this subject. Even though radiative transfer has been studied for a long time by astro­ physicists, the interaction between the radiation field and the gadsynamic field has been only extensively studied recently.

The content of this book is based, largely, on the core curriculum in geophys­ ical fluid dynamics which I and my colleagues in the Department of Geophysical Sciences at The University of Chicago have taught for the past decade. Our purpose in developing a core curriculum was to provide to advanced undergraduates and entering graduate students a coherent and systematic introduction to the theory of geophysical fluid dynamics. The curriculum and the outline of this book were devised to form a sequence of courses of roughly one and a half academic years (five academic quarters) in length. The goal of the sequence is to help the student rapidly advance to the point where independent study and research are practical expectations. It quickly became apparent that several topics (e. g. , some aspects of potential theory) usually thought of as forming the foundations of a fluid-dynamics curriculum were merely classical rather than essential and could be, however sadly, dispensed with for our purposes. At the same time, the diversity of interests of our students is so great that no curriculum can truly be exhaust­ ive in such a curriculum period. It seems to me that the best that can be achieved as a compromise is a systematic introduction to some important segment of the total scope of geophysical fluid dynamics which is illustrative of its most fruitful methods.