At the dawn of the new millennium, robotics is undergoing a major transfor- tion in scope and dimension. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics is rapidly expanding into the challenges of unstructured environments. Inter- ting with, assisting, serving, and exploring with humans, the emerging robots will increasingly touch people and their lives. The goal of this new series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics is to bring,inatimelyfashion,thelatestadvancesanddevelopmentsinroboticsonthe basisoftheirsigni?canceandquality. Itisourhopethatthegreaterdissemination of research developments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this rapidly growing ?eld. As one of robotics pioneering symposia, ISRR, the "International Sym- sium on Robotics Research," has established over the