Progress in Autonomous Robot Research

This book presents new and important research on autonomous robots which are robots which can perform desired tasks in unstructured environments without continuous human guidance. Many kinds of robots have some degree of autonomy. Different robots can be autonomous in different ways. A high degree of autonomy is particularly desirable in fields such as space exploration, where communication delays and interruptions are unavoidable. Some modern factory robots are "autonomous" within the strict confines of their direct environment. The exact orientation and position of the next object of work and (in the more advanced factories) even the type of object and the required task must be determined. This can vary unpredictably (at least from the robot''s point of view). One important area of robotics research is to enable the robot to cope with its environment whether this be on land, underwater, in the air, underground, or in space.