First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.

Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) considers how people can interact with robots in order to enable robots to best interact with people. HRI presents many challenges with solutions requiring a unique combination of skills from many fields, including computer science, artificial intelligence, social sciences, ethology and engineering. We have specifically aimed this work to appeal to such a multi-disciplinary audience. This volume presents new and exciting material from HRI researchers who discuss research at the frontiers of HRI. The chapters address the human aspects of interaction, such as how a robot may understand, provide feedback and act as a social being in interaction with a human, to experimental studies and field implementations of human–robot collaboration ranging from joint action, robots practically and safely helping people in real world situations, robots helping people via rehabilitation and robots acquiring concepts from communication. This volume reflects current trends in this exciting research field.

This book presents the most recent advances in the research and applications of reconfigurable mechanisms and robots. It collects 93 independently reviewed papers presented at the Third ASME/IFToMM International Conference on Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots (ReMAR 2015) held in Beijing, China, 20-22 July 2015. The conference papers are organized into seven parts to cover the reconfiguration theory, topology, kinematics and design of reconfigurable mechanisms including reconfigurable parallel mechanisms. The most recent results on reconfigurable robots are presented including their analysis, design, simulation and control. Bio-inspired mechanisms are also explored in the challenging fields of rehabilitation and minimally invasive surgery. This book further addresses deployable mechanisms and origami-inspired mechanisms and showcases a wide range of successful applications of reconfigurable mechanisms and robots. Advances in Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots II should be of interest for researchers, engineers and postgraduate students in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and mathematics.

The focus of this volume differs from what is suggested by the series title, for it is on muscle contraction and movement rather than on behavior. The lone overnight flight of a ruby-throated hummingbird across the Gulf of Mexico is a migratory behavior mediated through an incredibly lengthy, repetitive series of wing move ments, each movement being produced by a complex sequence of muscle contrac tions. It is significant that these same movements may be used to mediate other behaviors, and that these same muscle contractions, in different sequence, may be used to produce other movements. The immense journey of white-bearded gnus across the Serengeti plains to suitable calving grounds is likewise a migratory behavior mediated through rather more varied, yet repetitive, limb movements, each produced by a complex sequence of muscle contractions. Again, these same movements may be used to mediate other behaviors, and again, the details of each limb movement may be varied through variations in the strength and the sequence of muscle contractions. A laboratory rat may learn to perform an escape behavior in a shuttle box, bringing its performance to a high level of efficiency by modifying its movement on successive trials. After intraperitoneal injection of pentobarbital sodium in an amount sufficient to render the animal severely incoordinated, the escape behavior is still performed, albeit through a different sequence of move ments, even to "rolling" out of the compartment in response to the warning signal.