There is a robotics revolution underway. A record 3.1 million robots are working in factories right now, doing everything from assembling computers to packing goods and monitoring air quality and performance. A far greater number of smart machines impact our lives in countless other ways—improving the precision of surgeons, cleaning our homes, extending our reach to distant worlds—and we’re on the cusp of even more exciting opportunities. In The Heart and the Chip, roboticist Daniela Rus and science writer Gregory Mone reframe the way we think about intelligent machines while weighing the moral and ethical consequences of their role in society. At once optimistic and realistic, they envision a world in which these technologies augment and enhance our skills and talents, both as individuals and as a species—a world in which the proliferation of robots allows us all to be more human.

Algorithms are a fundamental component of robotic systems. Robot algorithms process inputs from sensors that provide noisy and partial data, build geometric and physical models of the world, plan high-and low-level actions at different time horizons, and execute these actions on actuators with limited precision. The design and analysis of robot algorithms raise a unique combination of questions from many elds, including control theory, computational geometry and topology, geometrical and physical modeling, reasoning under uncertainty, probabilistic algorithms, game theory, and theoretical computer science. The Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR) is a single-track meeting of leading researchers in the eld of robot algorithms. Since its inception in 1994, WAFR has been held every other year, and has provided one of the premiere venues for the publication of some of the eld's most important and lasting contributions. This books contains the proceedings of the tenth WAFR, held on June 13{15 2012 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The 37 papers included in this book cover a broad range of topics, from fundamental theoretical issues in robot motion planning, control, and perception, to novel applications.

The International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER) is a series of bi-annual meetings which are organized in a rotating fashion around North America, Europe and Asia/Oceania. The goal of ISER is to provide a forum for research in robotics that focuses on the novelty of theoretical contributions validated by experimental results. This unique reference presents the latest advances in robotics, with ideas that are conceived conceptually and have been explored experimentally.

Algorithms that control the computational processes relating sensors and actuators are indispensable for robot navigation and the perception of the world in which they move. Therefore, a deep understanding of how algorithms work to achieve this control is essential for the development of efficient and usable robots in a broad field of applications. An interdisciplinary group of scientists gathers every two years to document the progress in algorithmic foundations of robotics. This volume addresses in particular the areas of control theory, computational and differential geometry in robotics, and applications to core problems such as motion planning, navigation, sensor-based planning, and manipulation.

Algorithms that control the computational processes relating sensors and actuators are indispensable for robot navigation and the perception of the world in which they move. Therefore, a deep understanding of how algorithms work to achieve this control is essential for the development of efficient and usable robots in a broad field of applications. An interdisciplinary group of scientists gathers every two years to document the progress in algorithmic foundations of robotics. This volume addresses in particular the areas of control theory, computational and differential geometry in robotics, and applications to core problems such as motion planning, navigation, sensor-based planning, and manipulation.

Algorithms are a fundamental component of robotic systems. Robot algorithms process inputs from sensors that provide noisy and partial data, build geometric and physical models of the world, plan high-and low-level actions at different time horizons, and execute these actions on actuators with limited precision. The design and analysis of robot algorithms raise a unique combination of questions from many elds, including control theory, computational geometry and topology, geometrical and physical modeling, reasoning under uncertainty, probabilistic algorithms, game theory, and theoretical computer science. The Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR) is a single-track meeting of leading researchers in the eld of robot algorithms. Since its inception in 1994, WAFR has been held every other year, and has provided one of the premiere venues for the publication of some of the eld's most important and lasting contributions. This books contains the proceedings of the tenth WAFR, held on June 13{15 2012 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The 37 papers included in this book cover a broad range of topics, from fundamental theoretical issues in robot motion planning, control, and perception, to novel applications.

The International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER) is a series of bi-annual meetings which are organized in a rotating fashion around North America, Europe and Asia/Oceania. The goal of ISER is to provide a forum for research in robotics that focuses on the novelty of theoretical contributions validated by experimental results. This unique reference presents the latest advances in robotics, with ideas that are conceived conceptually and have been explored experimentally.

Experimental robotics is at the core of validating robotics research for both its system science and theoretical foundations. Robotics experiments serve as a unifying theme for robotics system science and theoretical foundations. This book collects papers on the state of the art in experimental robotics. The papers were presented at the 2000 International Symposium on Experimental Robotics.