Abstract
Robots! Robots on Mars and in oceans, in hospitals and homes, in factories and schools; robots fighting fires, making goods and products, saving time and lives. Robots today are making a considerable impact on many aspects of modern life, from industrial manufacturing to healthcare, transportation, and exploration of the deep space and sea. Tomorrow, robots will be as pervasive and personal as today’s personal computers. This chapter retraces the evolution of this fascinating field from the ancient to the modern times through a number of milestones: from the first automated mechanical artifact (1400 BC) through the establishment of the robot concept in the 1920s, the realization of the first industrial robots in the 1960s, the definition of robotics science and the birth of an active research community in the 1980s, and the expansion towards the challenges of the human world of the twenty-first century. Robotics in its long journey has inspired this handbook which is organized in three layers: the foundations of robotics science; the consolidated methodologies and technologies of robot design, sensing and perception, manipulation and interfaces, mobile and distributed robotics; the advanced applications of field and service robotics, as well as of human-centered and life-like robotics.
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Abbreviations
- 3-D:
-
three-dimensional
- AI:
-
artificial intelligence
- EURON:
-
European Robotics Research Network
- GPS:
-
global positioning system
- ICAR:
-
International Conference on Advanced Robotics
- ICRA:
-
International Conference on Robotics and Automation
- IEEE:
-
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- IFR:
-
International Federation of Robotics
- IFRR:
-
International Foundation of Robotics Research
- IROS:
-
Intelligent Robots and Systems
- ISER:
-
International Symposium on Experimental Robotics
- ISRR:
-
International Symposium of Robotics Research
- MIT:
-
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- RAC:
-
Robotics and Automation Council
- RAS:
-
Robotics and Automation Society
- RSJ:
-
Robotics Society of Japan
- RSS:
-
Robotics Science and Systems
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Robots – A 50 year journey available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/01/videodetails/805
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Robots – The journey continues available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/01/videodetails/812
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© 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Siciliano, B., Khatib, O. (2016). Robotics and the Handbook. In: Siciliano, B., Khatib, O. (eds) Springer Handbook of Robotics. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32552-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32552-1_1
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
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Online ISBN: 978-3-319-32552-1
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