By the dawn of the new millennium, robotics has undergone a major tra-
formation in scope and dimensions. This expansion has been brought about
bythematurityofthe?eldandtheadvancesinitsrelatedtechnologies.From a
largely dominant industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding
into the challenges of the human world. The new generation of robots is
expected to safely and dependably co-habitat with humans in homes,
workplaces, and communities, providingsupportinservices, entertainment,
education, heal- care, manufacturing, and assistance. Beyond its impact
on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has produced is
revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across - verse
research areas and scienti?c disciplines, such as: biomechanics,
haptics, neurosciences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and
sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new
emerging areas are pr- ing an abundant source of stimulation and
insights for the ?eld of robotics. It is indeed at the intersection of
disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The goal of the
series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is to bring, in a
timely fashion, the latest advances and developments in robotics on the
basis of their signi?cance and quality. It is our hope that the wider
dissemination of research developments will stimulate more exchanges and
collaborations among the research community and contribute to further
advancement of this rapidly growing ?