Abstract
Robotics is undergoing a major transformation in scope and dimension. Starting from a predominantly industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the challenges of unstructured environments. This book incorporates these new developments and therefore basically differs from other handbooks of robotics focusing on industrial applications. It presents a widespread and well-structured coverage from the foundations of robotics, through the consolidated methodologies and technologies, up to the new emerging application areas of robotics. The handbook is an ideal resource for robotics experts but also for people new to this expanding field such as engineers, medical doctors, computer scientists, designers. Reaching for the human frontier, robotics is vigorously engaged in the growing challenges of new emerging domains. Interacting, exploring, and working with humans, the new generation of robots will increasingly touch people and their lives. The credible prospect of practical robots among humans is the result of the scientific endeavour of a half a century of robotic developments that established robotics as a modern scientific discipline. The book brings a widespread and well-structured compilation of classic and emerging application areas of robotics. From the foundations to the social and ethical implications of robotics, the handbook provides a comprehensive collection of the accomplishments in the field, and constitutes a premise of further advances towards new challenges in robotics.
