Recent developments in advanced robotics and intelligent systems

An advanced robot is generally defined as a machine or system capable of accepting high-level mission-oriented commands, possibly of navigating to a workplace and performing complex tasks in a semi-structured environment with a minimum of human intervention. Such a semi-autonomous device can exhibit various attributes of intelligent operation, the totality and integration of which certainly challenge existing engineering capabilities. The application areas envisaged encompass aspects of industrial manufacturing and of product handling in the nuclear industry, space, underwater, construction and healthcare, as well as general service functions such as surveillance and cleaning. The development of architectures and the integration of the required enabling techniques of control, actuators, sensors and artificial intelligence provide some of the most interesting intellectual challenges in current engineering development. A broad introduction to the field is given, with some emphasis being placed on current application domains and emerging technologies.