The modern definition of artificial intelligence (or AI) is "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions which maximise its chances of success. AI research uses tools and insights from many fields, including computer science, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, operations research, economics, control theory, probability, optimisation and logic. AI research also overlaps such fields as robotics, control systems, scheduling, data mining, logistics, speech recognition, facial recognition and many others. This book presents recent and important research in the field.