In addition to the contributions presented at the 2018 International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER 2018), this book features summaries of the discussions that were held during the event in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These summaries, authored by leading researchers and session organizers, offer important insights on the issues that drove the symposium debates. Readers will find cutting-edge experimental research results from a range of robotics domains, such as medical robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles, mobile robot navigation, mapping and localization, field robotics, robot learning, robotic manipulation, human-robot interaction, and design and prototyping. In this unique collection of the latest experimental robotics work, the common thread is the experimental testing and validation of new ideas and methodologies. The International Symposium on Experimental Robotics is a series of bi-annual symposia sponsored by the International Foundation of Robotics Research, whose goal is to provide a dedicated forum for experimental robotics research. In recent years, robotics has broadened its scientific scope, deepened its methodologies and expanded its applications. However, the significance of experiments remains at the heart of the discipline. The ISER gatherings are an essential venue where scientists can meet and have in-depth discussions on robotics based on this central tenet.

In addition to the contributions presented at the 2018 International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER 2018), this book features summaries of the discussions that were held during the event in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These summaries, authored by leading researchers and session organizers, offer important insights on the issues that drove the symposium debates. Readers will find cutting-edge experimental research results from a range of robotics domains, such as medical robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles, mobile robot navigation, mapping and localization, field robotics, robot learning, robotic manipulation, human-robot interaction, and design and prototyping. In this unique collection of the latest experimental robotics work, the common thread is the experimental testing and validation of new ideas and methodologies. The International Symposium on Experimental Robotics is a series of bi-annual symposia sponsored by the International Foundation of Robotics Research, whose goal is to provide a dedicated forum for experimental robotics research. In recent years, robotics has broadened its scientific scope, deepened its methodologies and expanded its applications. However, the significance of experiments remains at the heart of the discipline. The ISER gatherings are an essential venue where scientists can meet and have in-depth discussions on robotics based on this central tenet.

By the dawn of the new millennium, robotics has undergone a major tra- formation in scope and dimensions. This expansion has been brought about bythematurityofthe?eldandtheadvancesinitsrelatedtechnologies.From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the challenges of the human world. The new generation of robots is expected to safely and dependably co-habitat with humans in homes, workplaces, and communities, providingsupportinservices, entertainment, education, heal- care, manufacturing, and assistance. Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has produced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across - verse research areas and scienti?c disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neurosciences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are pr- ing an abundant source of stimulation and insights for the ?eld of robotics. It is indeed at the intersection of disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The goal of the series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is to bring, in a timely fashion, the latest advances and developments in robotics on the basis of their signi?cance and quality. It is our hope that the wider dissemination of research developments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this rapidly growing ?

This book is a collection of scienti c papers presented at the German Workshop on Robotics-a convention of researchers from academia and industry working on mathematical and algorithmic foundations of robotics, on the design and ana- sis of robotic systems as well as on robotic applications. As a new event of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur .. Robotik (DGR, German Robotics Society), the workshop took place at the Technische Universitat .. Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig on June 9-10, 2009. Covering some of the most important ongoing robotics research topics, this v- ume contains 31 carefully selected and discussed contributions. All of them were presented at the workshop that was attended by 80 researchers representing a wide range of research areas within robotics. The papers are organized in ten scienti c tracks: Kinematic and Dynamic Modeling, Motion Generation, Sensor Integration, Robot Vision, Robot Programming, Humanoid Robots, Grasping, Medical Rob- ics, AutonomousHelicopters,andRobotApplications.Two invitedtalksbyAntonio Bicchi and Atsuo Takanishi presented surveys of research activities in the elds of human-robotinteraction and humanoid robotics. The Program Committee was comprised of Karsten Berns, Oliver Brock, W- fram Burgard, Martin Buss, Thomas Christaller, Ru ..diger Dillmann, Bernd Fin- meyer, Martin Hagel .. e, Bodo Heimann, Dominik Henrich, Gerd Hirzinger, Alois Knoll, Helge-Bjorn .. Kuntze, Gisbert Lawitzky, Jur .. gen Rossmann, Roland Siegwart, Markus Vincze, and Heinz Worn...After an extensive review and discussion process, the committee met at February 17, 2009, and composed the scienti c program from a pool of 49 submissions.

By the dawn of the new millennium, robotics has undergone a major tra- formation in scope and dimensions. This expansion has been brought about bythematurityofthe?eldandtheadvancesinitsrelatedtechnologies.From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the challenges of the human world. The new generation of robots is expected to safely and dependably co-habitat with humans in homes, workplaces, and communities, providingsupportinservices, entertainment, education, heal- care, manufacturing, and assistance. Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has produced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across - verse research areas and scienti?c disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neurosciences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are pr- ing an abundant source of stimulation and insights for the ?eld of robotics. It is indeed at the intersection of disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The goal of the series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is to bring, in a timely fashion, the latest advances and developments in robotics on the basis of their signi?cance and quality. It is our hope that the wider dissemination of research developments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this rapidly growing ?

This book is a collection of scienti c papers presented at the German Workshop on Robotics-a convention of researchers from academia and industry working on mathematical and algorithmic foundations of robotics, on the design and ana- sis of robotic systems as well as on robotic applications. As a new event of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur .. Robotik (DGR, German Robotics Society), the workshop took place at the Technische Universitat .. Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig on June 9-10, 2009. Covering some of the most important ongoing robotics research topics, this v- ume contains 31 carefully selected and discussed contributions. All of them were presented at the workshop that was attended by 80 researchers representing a wide range of research areas within robotics. The papers are organized in ten scienti c tracks: Kinematic and Dynamic Modeling, Motion Generation, Sensor Integration, Robot Vision, Robot Programming, Humanoid Robots, Grasping, Medical Rob- ics, AutonomousHelicopters,andRobotApplications.Two invitedtalksbyAntonio Bicchi and Atsuo Takanishi presented surveys of research activities in the elds of human-robotinteraction and humanoid robotics. The Program Committee was comprised of Karsten Berns, Oliver Brock, W- fram Burgard, Martin Buss, Thomas Christaller, Ru ..diger Dillmann, Bernd Fin- meyer, Martin Hagel .. e, Bodo Heimann, Dominik Henrich, Gerd Hirzinger, Alois Knoll, Helge-Bjorn .. Kuntze, Gisbert Lawitzky, Jur .. gen Rossmann, Roland Siegwart, Markus Vincze, and Heinz Worn...After an extensive review and discussion process, the committee met at February 17, 2009, and composed the scienti c program from a pool of 49 submissions.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots, SIMPAR 2014, held in Bergamo, Italy, in October 2014. The 49 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 62 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on simulation, modeling, programming, architectures, methods and tools, and systems and applications.