Experimental Robotics VIII

Atthedawnofthenewmillennium, roboticsisundergoingamajortransformation inscopeanddimension.Fromalargelydominantindustrialfocus, roboticsisrapidly expanding into the challenges of unstructured environments. Interacting with, - sisting, serving, and exploring with humans, the emerging robots will increasingly touchpeopleandtheirlives. ThegoalofthenewseriesofSpringerTractsinAdvancedRobotics(STAR)isto bring, in a timely fashion, the latest advances and developments in robotics on the basisoftheirsigni?canceandquality.Itisourhopethatthewiderdisseminationof researchdevelopmentswillstimulatemoreexchangesandcollaborationsamongthe researchcommunityandcontributetofurtheradvancementofthisrapidlygrowing ?eld. Sinceitsinceptionsomefourteenyearsago, ISER, theInternationalSymposium on Experimental Robotics was published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences (LNCIS). With the launching of STAR, a more suitable homeisfoundforthisandotherthematicsymposiadevotedtoexcellenceinrobotics research. TheEightheditionofExperimentalRoboticseditedbyBrunoSicilianoandPaolo Dario offers in its ?fteen-chapter volume a collection of a broad range of topics in robotics.Thecontentsofthesecontributionsrepresentacross-sectionofthecurrent stateofroboticsresearchfromoneparticularaspect: experimentalwork, andhowit re?ectsonthetheoreticalbasisofsubsequentdevelopments.Experimentalvalidation ofalgorithms, designconcepts, ortechniquesisthecommonthreadrunningthrough thislargecollectionofwidelydiversecontributions. From its charming venue to its excellent program, ISER culminates with this unique reference on the current developments and new directions in the ?eld of experimentalrobotics atributetothecommitmentanddedicationofitshosts! California, USA OussamaKhatib November2002 STAREditor Preface The International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER) is a series of - annual meetings, which are organized in a rotating fashion around North Am- ica, EuropeandAsia/Oceania.PreviousvenueswereMontreal(Canada), Toulouse (France), Kyoto (Japan), Stanford (USA), Barcelona (Spain), Sydney (Australia), Honolulu (USA). The goal of these symposia is to provide a forum for research in robotics that focuses on theories and principles that are validated by experiments. Themeetingsareconceivedtobringtogether, inasmallgroupsetting, researchers fromaroundtheworldwhoareintheforefrontofexperimentalroboticsresearch. Thepost-symposiumExperimentalRoboticsproceedingshavetraditionallybeen published by Springer-Verlag. In addition to the proceedings, these symposia have produced compilation of video segments illustrating the reported research, which areavailableasvideoproceedings. The Eight International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER 02) was held in the charming sea village of Sant Angelo on the island of Ischia in the gulf ofNaples, Italyon8 11July2002.ThesymposiumwaschairedbyBrunoSiciliano andPaolo