This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th Conference on Advances in Autonomous Robotics, TAROS 2013, held in Oxford, UK, in August 2013. The 36 revised full papers presented together with 25 extended abstracts were carefully reviewed and selected from 89 submissions. The papers cover various topics such as artificial intelligence, bio-inspired and aerial robotics, computer vision, control, humanoid and robotic arm, swarm robotics, verification and ethics.

This book introduces concepts in mobile, autonomous robotics to 3rd-4th year students in Computer Science or a related discipline. The book covers principles of robot motion, forward and inverse kinematics of robotic arms and simple wheeled platforms, perception, error propagation, localization and simultaneous localization and mapping. The cover picture shows a wind-up toy that is smart enough to not fall off a table just using intelligent mechanism design and illustrate the importance of the mechanism in designing intelligent, autonomous systems. This book is open source, open to contributions, and released under a creative common license.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, TAROS 2023, held in Cambridge, UK, during September 13–15, 2023. The 40 full papers presented in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 70 submissions. They cover a wide range of different topics such as: agri-food robotics; autonomy; collaborative and service robotics; locomotion and manipulation; machine vision; multi-robot systems; soft robotics; tactile sensing; and teleoperation.

The volume LNAI 13054 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 22th Annual Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, TAROS 2021, held in Lincoln, UK, in September 2021.*The 45 full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 66 submissions. Organized in the topical sections "Algorithms" and "Systems", they discuss significant findings and advances in the following areas: artificial intelligence; mechatronics; image processing and computer vision; special purpose and application-based systems; user interfaces and human computer interaction. * The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

An introduction to the science and practice of autonomous robots that reviews over 300 current systems and examines the underlying technology. Autonomous robots are intelligent machines capable of performing tasks in the world by themselves, without explicit human control. Examples range from autonomous helicopters to Roomba, the robot vacuum cleaner. In this book, George Bekey offers an introduction to the science and practice of autonomous robots that can be used both in the classroom and as a reference for industry professionals. He surveys the hardware implementations of more than 300 current systems, reviews some of their application areas, and examines the underlying technology, including control, architectures, learning, manipulation, grasping, navigation, and mapping. Living systems can be considered the prototypes of autonomous systems, and Bekey explores the biological inspiration that forms the basis of many recent developments in robotics. He also discusses robot control issues and the design of control architectures. After an overview of the field that introduces some of its fundamental concepts, the book presents background material on hardware, control (from both biological and engineering perspectives), software architecture, and robot intelligence. It then examines a broad range of implementations and applications, including locomotion (wheeled, legged, flying, swimming, and crawling robots), manipulation (both arms and hands), localization, navigation, and mapping. The many case studies and specific applications include robots built for research, industry, and the military, among them underwater robotic vehicles, walking machines with four, six, and eight legs, and the famous humanoid robots Cog, Kismet, ASIMO, and QRIO. The book concludes with reflections on the future of robotics—the potential benefits as well as the possible dangers that may arise from large numbers of increasingly intelligent and autonomous robots.

The volume LNAI 12228 constitute the refereed proceedings of the 21th Annual Conference "Towards Autonomous Robotics," TAROS 20120, held in Nottingham, UK, in September 2020.* The 30 full papers and 11 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 63 submissions. The papers present and discuss significant findings and advances in autonomous robotics research and applications. They are organized in the following topical sections: soft and compliant robots; mobile robots; learning, mapping and planning; human-robot interaction; and robotic systems and applications. * The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two volumes LNAI 11649 and 11650 constitute the refereed proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference "Towards Autonomous Robotics", TAROS 2019, held in London, UK, in July 2019. The 87 full papers and 12 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 101 submissions. The papers present and discuss significant findings and advances in autonomous robotics research and applications. They are organized in the following topical sections: robotic grippers and manipulation; soft robotics, sensing and mobile robots; robotic learning, mapping and planning; human-robot interaction; and robotic systems and applications.