Robots moving closer to humans( Robots today are making a considerab...)

Robots today are making a considerable impact on many aspects of modern life, from industrial manufacturing to healthcare. Reaching for the human frontier, robotics is also vigorously engaged in the growing challenges of new emerging domains. Interacting, exploring, and working with humans, the new generation of robots will increasingly touch peoples lives. The prospect of practical robots among humans follows half a century of robotic developments that established robotics as a modern scientific discipline.

At the pinnacle of these developments, new Springer Handbook of Robotics is making its debut at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), in Pasadena, CA, USA, in May 2008. The handbook provides a comprehensive collection of the international accomplishments in the field and presents the very latest research in robotics. From the foundations to the social and ethical implications of robotics, the handbook sets new standards for future developments and challenges in this scientific discipline.

Designed for research and practice, the handbook is edited by the internationally renowned robotics experts Bruno Siciliano and Oussama Khatib. This mammoth task was supported by an outstanding team of seven part editors on: Robotics foundations; Robot structures; Sensing and perception; Manipulation and interfaces; Mobile and distributed robotics; Field and service robotics; and Human-centered and life-like robotics. A total of 165 authors worked on this authoritative handbook, the result of five years of editing work and more than 10,000 emails to the editors mailboxes.

Bruno Siciliano is Professor of Control and Robotics and Director of the PRISMA Lab in the Department of Computer and Systems Engineering at the University of Naples, Italy. His current research is in force control, visual servoing, dual-arm/hand manipulation, lightweight flexible arms, human-robot interaction and service robotics. Professor Siciliano
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