From the Back Cover
This book presents an overview of the fundamental principles, problems and issues of the modern field of "human and nature-minding automation and industrial systems". The ultimate goal of "symbiosis" of automation and technology between humans and nature is to assure global technological, environmental and economic sustainability.
Human-minding automation is possible by employing concepts and techniques from the human factors field, including job satisfaction, human-friendly interfaces and human values. Nature-minding industrial activity and human development can be achieved by considering as a whole the human, economic, natural and cultural resources in the short and long term. In particular, nature-minding design selects the production methods and technologies that have minimum impact to the environment.
The book provides a comprehensive tutorial introduction in all these problems and solution methodologies. It is suitable for students, scientists and professionals interested in the human and environmental issues of the use of technology and automation in modern society. The depth of presentation is kept at a level sufficient for the reader to get a clear picture of the problems and their solutions. The book gives more than 700 references and related web sites.
Spyros G. Tzafestas received the B.Sc. in Physics (1963) and Graduate Diploma in Electronics (1965) from Athens University, Diploma of Electrical Engineering, from Imperial College (1967), M.Sc. (Eng.) in Control from London University (1967) and Ph.D. in Systems and Control from Southampton University, England (1969). From 1969 to 1973 he was Research Leader at the Computer Science Division of the Nuclear Research Center "Demokritos", Athens. From 1973 to 1984 he was Professor of Automatic Control at the University of Patras, and from 1985 to 2006 he was Professor of Control and Robotics at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. Temporary visiting teaching and / or research positions include: University of Calabria, Italy (1985, 1987), University of Delft, The Netherlands (1991) and MIT, USA (1992). He is currently Director of the Institute of Communication and Control Systems, and as a Professor Emeritus he is leading the Intelligent Automation Systems Research Group engaged with research carried out in ICCS-NTUA mainly in the framework of national and European projects.
Dr Tzafestas is the Recipient of D.Sc. of Southampton University (1978), and Honorary Doctorates of the Technical University of Munich (Dr.-Ing. E.h., 1997) and the Ecole Centrale de Lille (Dr. Ing.-Honoris Causa, 2003). He has published 30 edited research books, 60 book chapters and over 700 Journal and Conference technical papers in the field of control, robotics and Intelligent Systems. He has been the coordinator of national and EU projects in the fields of IT, Intelligent systems, robotics, control and CIM. He is an associate editor of 15 Journals, and he was the Editor - in - Chief of the Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems (1988-2006) and of the Book Series "Micro processor - Based and Intelligent Systems Engineering, Kluwer (1993-2006). Presently, he is the Editor of the Springer book series on Intelligent Control and Automation Systems.
He is a Fellow of IEE, now IET (London), a Life Fellow of IEEE (New York) and a Member of ASME, NYAS and the Hellenic Technical Chamber (TEE). He received the Greek Society of Writers' Award and the Ktesibios Award from the IEEE Mediterranean Control Association (2001). Dr Tzafestas has over the years organized and / or chaired several international conferences (IEEE, IMACS, SIRES, IASTED, EUCA).
