The broad range of the presentations in the workshop can roughly be divided into three main categories: (A) Signal processing methods and architectures: This category is subdivided into: (1) modern signal processing, (2) signal processing architectures and the speech processing architectures, (3) image processing, recognition and analysis, and (4) implementation of signal processors. (B) Parallel processors: algorithms, languages, and architectures: This category is subdivided into: (1) systolic processors, (2) Fault tolerant computing structures, (3) reconfiguration and partitioning (4) numerical algorithms and arithmetics and (5) language and formal descriptions, and (C) VLSI and Signal processing: As the central theme of the workshop, this issue has been, at least partially, addressed by all the papers. However, there are several of them more directly confronting the issue. (Author).

The second edition of this handbook provides a state-of-the-art overview on the various aspects in the rapidly developing field of robotics. Reaching for the human frontier, robotics is vigorously engaged in the growing challenges of new emerging domains. Interacting, exploring, and working with humans, the new generation of robots will increasingly touch people and their lives. The credible prospect of practical robots among humans is the result of the scientific endeavour of a half a century of robotic developments that established robotics as a modern scientific discipline. The ongoing vibrant expansion and strong growth of the field during the last decade has fueled this second edition of the Springer Handbook of Robotics. The first edition of the handbook soon became a landmark in robotics publishing and won the American Association of Publishers PROSE Award for Excellence in Physical Sciences & Mathematics as well as the organization’s Award for Engineering & Technology. The second edition of the handbook, edited by two internationally renowned scientists with the support of an outstanding team of seven part editors and more than 200 authors, continues to be an authoritative reference for robotics researchers, newcomers to the field, and scholars from related disciplines. The contents have been restructured to achieve four main objectives: the enlargement of foundational topics for robotics, the enlightenment of design of various types of robotic systems, the extension of the treatment on robots moving in the environment, and the enrichment of advanced robotics applications. Further to an extensive update, fifteen new chapters have been introduced on emerging topics, and a new generation of authors have joined the handbook’s team. A novel addition to the second edition is a comprehensive collection of multimedia references to more than 700 videos, which bring valuable insight into the contents. The videos can be viewed directly augmented into the text with a smartphone or tablet using a unique and specially designed app. Springer Handbook of Robotics Multimedia Extension Portal: http://handbookofrobotics.org/

During his lifetime, L. K. Hua played a leading role in and exerted a great influence upon the development in China of modern mathematics, both pure and applied. His mathematical career began in 1931 at Tsinghua University where he continued as a professor for many years. Hua made many significant contributions to number theory, algebra, geometry, complex analysis, numerical analysis, and operations research. In particular, he initiated the study of classical groups in China and developed new matrix methods which, as applied by him as well as his followers, were instrumental in the successful attack of many problems. To honor his memory, a joint China-U.S. conference on Classical Groups and Related Topics was held at Tsinghua University in Beijing in May 1987. This volume represents the proceedings of that conference and contains both survey articles and research papers focusing on classical groups and closely related topics.

In this book, which is based on lectures given in Pisa under the auspices of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the distinguished mathematician Vladimir Arnold describes those singularities encountered in different branches of mathematics. He avoids giving difficult proofs of all the results in order to provide the reader with a concise and accessible overview of the many guises and areas in which singularities appear, such as geometry and optics; optimal control theory and algebraic geometry; reflection groups and dynamical systems and many more. This will be an excellent companion for final year undergraduates and graduates whose area of study brings them into contact with singularities.