A famous French writer, Anatole France, liked to say, "The future is a convenient place to position our dreams" (1927). Indeed, this remark gains full meaning when one considers the history of what we call today "Robotics." For more than 3000 years, mankind has dreamt ofthe possibility of arti ficial machines that would have all the advantages of human slaves without any of their drawbacks. With the developments in technology since the end of World War II, mainly with the explosive progress of computers, it was thought we might at last succeed in transforming this everlasting dream into reality. In the mind of scientists of the 1950's, to make such intelligent and autonomous machines before the year 2000 seemed a small challenge: it was obvious, thanks to computers and Artificial Intelligence. But, in spite of progress in some directions, we must admit that the dream remains a dream and that the basic problems denying us a successful issue are not solved. In fact, if we except industrial robots, only calling for classical automata theory, the main advanced result concerning autonomous and intelligent machines is related to some understanding of reasons why we have failed during the past years.

The HMM2004 International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms is the second event of a series that has been started in 2000 as main activity of the IFToMM Permanent Commission for History of MMS, Mechanism and Machine Science. The aim of the HMM Symposium is to be a forum to exchange views, opinions, and experiences on History of MMS from technical viewpoints in order to track the past but also to look at future developments in MMS. The HMM Symposium Series is devoted to the technical aspects of historical deve- pments and therefore it has been addressed mainly to the IFToMM Community. In fact, most the authors of the contributed papers are experts in MMS and related topics. This year HMM Symposium came back to Cassino, after the challenging first event in 2000. The HMM2004 International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms was held at the University of Cassino, Italy, from 12 to 15 May 2004. These Proceedings contain 29 papers by authors from all around the world. These papers cover the wide field of the History of Mechanical Engineering and particularly the History of MMS. The contributions address mainly technical aspects of historical developments of Machines and Mechanisms. History of IFToMM, the International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science is also outlined through the historical activities of some of its Commissions.

Advances in Robotic Systems, Part 2 is the second of a companion set of two volumes on advances in robotic systems dynamics and control. This book comprises nine chapters, with the first focusing on kinesthetic feedback techniques in teleoperated systems. The succeeding chapters then delve into topics such as parallel algorithms and fault-tolerant reconfigurable architecture for robot kinematics and dynamics computations; trajectory planning for robot control; and a control systems perspective. Other chapters cover simplified techniques for adaptive control of robotic systems; theory and applications of configuration control for redundant manipulators; nonlinear feedback for force control of robot manipulators; systolic architectures for dynamic control of manipulators; inverse dynamics; and forward dynamics. This book will be of interest to practitioners in the fields of computer science, systems science, and mathematics.

From traditional topics that form the core of industrial electronics, to new and emerging concepts and technologies, The Industrial Electronics Handbook, in a single volume, has the field covered. Nowhere else will you find so much information on so many major topics in the field. For facts you need every day, and for discussions on topics you have only dreamed of, The Industrial Electronics Handbook is an ideal reference.