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Papers from a flagship conference reflect the latest developments in the field, including work in such rapidly advancing areas as human-robot interaction and formal methods. Robotics: Science and Systems VIII spans a wide spectrum of robotics, bringing together contributions from researchers working on the mathematical foundations of robotics, robotics applications, and analysis of robotics systems. This volume presents the proceedings of the eighth annual Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) conference, held in July 2012 at the University of Sydney. The contributions reflect the exciting diversity of the field, presenting the best, the newest, and the most challenging work on such topics as mechanisms, kinematics, dynamics and control, human-robot interaction and human-centered systems, distributed systems, mobile systems and mobility, manipulation, field robotics, medical robotics, biological robotics, robot perception, and estimation and learning in robotic systems. The conference and its proceedings reflect not only the tremendous growth of robotics as a discipline but also the desire in the robotics community for a flagship event at which the best of the research in the field can be presented.

The two volume set LNAI 7101 and 7102 constitute the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications, ICIRA 2011, held in Aachen, Germany, in November 2011. The 122 revised full papers presented were thoroughly reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. They are organized in topical sections on progress in indoor UAV, robotics intelligence, industrial robots, rehabilitation robotics, mechanisms and their applications, multi robot systems, robot mechanism and design, parallel kinematics, parallel kinematics machines and parallel robotics, handling and manipulation, tangibility in human-machine interaction, navigation and localization of mobile robot, a body for the brain: embodied intelligence in bio-inspired robotics, intelligent visual systems, self-optimising production systems, computational intelligence, robot control systems, human-robot interaction, manipulators and applications, stability, dynamics and interpolation, evolutionary robotics, bio-inspired robotics, and image-processing applications.

A multi-disciplinary look at the current state of knowledge regarding motor control and movement—from molecular biology to robotics The last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in the number of sophisticated tools and methodologies for exploring motor control and movement. Multi-unit recordings, molecular neurogenetics, computer simulation, and new scientific approaches for studying how muscles and body anatomy transform motor neuron activity into movement have helped revolutionize the field. Neurobiology of Motor Control brings together contributions from an interdisciplinary group of experts to provide a review of the current state of knowledge about the initiation and execution of movement, as well as the latest methods and tools for investigating them. The book ranges from the findings of basic scientists studying model organisms such as mollusks and Drosophila, to biomedical researchers investigating vertebrate motor production to neuroengineers working to develop robotic and smart prostheses technologies. Following foundational chapters on current molecular biological techniques, neuronal ensemble recording, and computer simulation, it explores a broad range of related topics, including the evolution of motor systems, directed targeted movements, plasticity and learning, and robotics. Explores motor control and movement in a wide variety of organisms, from simple invertebrates to human beings Offers concise summaries of motor control systems across a variety of animals and movement types Explores an array of tools and methodologies, including electrophysiological techniques, neurogenic and molecular techniques, large ensemble recordings, and computational methods Considers unresolved questions and how current scientific advances may be used to solve them going forward Written specifically to encourage interdisciplinary understanding and collaboration, and offering the most wide-ranging, timely, and comprehensive look at the science of motor control and movement currently available, Neurobiology of Motor Control is a must-read for all who study movement production and the neurobiological basis of movement—from molecular biologists to roboticists.

This book includes representative research from the state‐of‐the‐art in the emerging field of soft robotics, with a special focus on bioinspired soft robotics for underwater applications. Topics include novel materials, sensors, actuators, and system design for distributed estimation and control of soft robotic appendages inspired by the octopus and seastar. It summarizes the latest findings in an emerging field of bioinspired soft robotics for the underwater domain, primarily drawing from (but not limited to) an ongoing research program in bioinspired autonomous systems sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. The program has stimulated cross‐disciplinary research in biology, material science, computational mechanics, and systems and control for the purpose of creating novel robotic appendages for maritime applications. The book collects recent results in this area.

Contemporary research in science and engineering is seeking to harness the versatility and sustainability of living organisms. By exploiting natural principles, researchers hope to create new kinds of technology that are self-repairing, adaptable, and robust, and to invent a new class of machines that are perceptive, social, emotional, perhaps even conscious. This is the realm of the 'living machine'. Living machines can be divided into two types: biomimetic systems, that harness the principles discovered in nature and embody them in new artifacts, and biohybrid systems in which biological entities are coupled with synthetic ones. Living Machines: A handbook of research in biomimetic and biohybrid systems surveys this flourishing area of research, capturing the current state of play and pointing to the opportunities ahead. Promising areas in biomimetics include self-organization, biologically inspired active materials, self-assembly and self-repair, learning, memory, control architectures and self-regulation, locomotion in air, on land or in water, perception, cognition, control, and communication. Drawing on these advances the potential of biomimetics is revealed in devices that can harvest energy, grow or reproduce, and in animal-like robots that range from synthetic slime molds, to artificial fish, to humanoids. Biohybrid systems is a relatively new field, with exciting and largely unknown potential, but one that is likely to shape the future of humanity. This book surveys progress towards new kinds of biohybrid such as robots that merge electronic neurons with biological tissue, micro-scale machines made from living cells, prosthetic limbs with a sense of touch, and brain-machine interfaces that allow robotic devices to be controlled by human thought. The handbook concludes by exploring some of the impacts that living machine technologies could have on both society and the individual, exploring questions about how we will see and understand ourselves in a world in which the line between the natural and the artificial is increasingly blurred. With contributions from leading researchers from science, engineering, and the humanities, this handbook will be of broad interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Researchers in the areas of computational modeling and engineering, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, artificial life, biorobotics, neurorobotics, and human-machine interfaces will find Living Machines an invaluable resource.

The present book discusses topics related to research and development of materials and devices at nanoscale size and their respective application in medicine and biomedicine. The individual chapters give a detailed state of the art overview to the distinct topic. Apparently disconnected fields - life sciences, biomedicine, chemistry, physics, medicine and engineering - will be bridged with a highly interdisciplinary view onto each subject.

The term "neuromechanics" defines an integrative approach that combines the neuromuscular control and the biomechanical aspects of physical behavior in humans and animals. Crucial to this approach is a detailed description and modeling of the interaction between the nervous system and the controlled biomechanical plant. Only then do we have the broader context within which to understand evolution, movement mechanics, neural control, energetics, disability and rehabilitation. In addition to enabling new basic science directions, understanding the interrelations between movement neural and mechanical function should also be leveraged for the development of personalized wearable technologies to augment or restore the motor capabilities of healthy or impaired individuals. Similarly, this understanding will empower us to revisit current approaches to the design and control of robotic and humanoid systems to produce truly versatile human-like physical behavior and adaptation in real-world environments. This Research Topic is therefore poised at an opportune moment to promote understanding of apparently disparate topics into a coherent focus.

Underlying most of the IWANN calls for papers is the aim to reassume some of the motivations of the groundwork stages of biocybernetics and the later bionics formulations and to try to reconsider the present value of two basic questions. The?rstoneis:“Whatdoesneurosciencebringintocomputation(thenew bionics)?” That is to say, how can we seek inspiration in biology? Titles such as “computational intelligence”, “arti?cial neural nets”, “genetic algorithms”, “evolutionary hardware”, “evolutive architectures”, “embryonics”, “sensory n- romorphic systems”, and “emotional robotics” are representatives of the present interest in “biological electronics” (bionics). Thesecondquestionis:“Whatcanreturncomputationtoneuroscience(the new neurocybernetics)?” That is to say, how can mathematics, electronics, c- puter science, and arti?cial intelligence help the neurobiologists to improve their experimental data modeling and to move a step forward towards the understa- ing of the nervous system? Relevant here are the general philosophy of the IWANN conferences, the sustained interdisciplinary approach, and the global strategy, again and again to bring together physiologists and computer experts to consider the common and pertinent questions and the shared methods to answer these questions.