The Path to Autonomous Robots: Essays in Honor of George A. Bekey

This collection of technical articles, written by leading international researchers in robotics, presents threads of modern robotics research. Also included are brief reminiscences of the former students of Professor George A. Bekey, reflecting on his remarkable 50-year career as an innovative educator and authority on Autonomous Robots. Together, these words pay tribute to Bekey’s stature as a pioneer in the field, particularly in the areas of medical and rehabilitation robotics, human robot interaction and robot ethics. Topics explored in these chapters include:

• Mobile robots in extreme environments
• Autonomous spacecraft
• The design of networked robotic systems
• Robotic grasping using inputs from vision systems
• Advances in manipulation and mobility inspired by human control systems
• New directions in human-robot interaction
• A biomimetic approach to autonomous robot design
• Applying multi-task learning to inverse dynamics

Researchers and students will be inspired both by these contributions and Professor Bekey’s accomplishments, and the volume will undoubtedly spur further reading and research in the field.