This book deals with the growing challenges of using assistive robots in our everyday activities along with providing intelligent assistive services. The presented applications concern mainly healthcare and wellness such as helping elderly people, assisting dependent persons, habitat monitoring in smart environments, well-being, security, etc. These applications reveal also new challenges regarding control theory, mechanical design, mechatronics, portability, acceptability, scalability, security, etc.

The increasingly widespread implementation and use of intelligent assistive technologies (IATs) is reshaping dementia care. This volume provides an up-to-date overview of the current state of IATs for dementia care. The new essays collected here examine what IATs will mean for clinical practice and the ethical and regulatory challenges they will pose.

Through expanded intelligence, the use of robotics has fundamentally transformed a variety of fields, including manufacturing, aerospace, medicine, social services, and agriculture. Continued research on robotic design is critical to solving various dynamic obstacles individuals, enterprises, and humanity at large face on a daily basis. Robotic Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a vital reference source that delves into the current issues, methodologies, and trends relating to advanced robotic technology in the modern world. Highlighting a range of topics such as mechatronics, cybernetics, and human-computer interaction, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for robotics engineers, mechanical engineers, robotics technicians, operators, software engineers, designers, programmers, industry professionals, researchers, students, academicians, and computer practitioners seeking current research on developing innovative ideas for intelligent and autonomous robotics systems.

The multidisciplinary issues involved in the development of biologically inspired intelligent robots include materials, actuators, sensors, structures, functionality, control, intelligence, and autonomy. This book reviews various aspects ranging from the biological model to the vision for the future.

This two volume set LNAI 9834 and 9835 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications, ICIRA 2016, held in Tokyo, Japan, in August 2016. The 114 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 148 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections such as Robot Control; Robot Mechanism, Robot Vision and Sensing; Planning, Localization, and Mapping; Interactive Intelligence; Cognitive Robotics; Bio-Inspired Robotics; Smart Material Based Systems; Mechatronics Systems for Nondestructive Testing; Social Robotics; Human Support Robotics; Assistive Robotics; Intelligent Space; Sensing and Monitoring in Environment and Agricultural Sciences; Human Data Analysis; Robot Hand.

This open access book contains observations, outlines, and analyses of educational robotics methodologies and activities, and developments in the field of educational robotics emerging from the findings presented at FabLearn Italy 2019, the international conference that brought together researchers, teachers, educators and practitioners to discuss the principles of Making and educational robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education. The editors’ analysis of these extended versions of papers presented at FabLearn Italy 2019 highlight the latest findings on learning models based on Making and educational robotics. The authors investigate how innovative educational tools and methodologies can support a novel, more effective and more inclusive learner-centered approach to education. The following key topics are the focus of discussion: Makerspaces and Fab Labs in schools, a maker approach to teaching and learning; laboratory teaching and the maker approach, models, methods and instruments; curricular and non-curricular robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education; social and assistive robotics in education; the effect of innovative spaces and learning environments on the innovation of teaching, good practices and pilot projects.

This book illustrates the rapid pace of development in intelligent assistive technology in recent years, and highlights some salient examples of using modern IT&C technologies to provide devices, systems and application software for persons with certain motor or cognitive disabilities. The book proposes both theoretical and practical approaches to intelligent assistive and emergent technologies used in healthcare for the elderly and patients with chronic diseases. Intelligent assistive technology (IAT) is currently being introduced and developed worldwide as an important tool for maintaining independence and high quality of life among community-living people with certain disabilities, and as a key enabler for the aging population. The book offers a valuable resource for students at technical, medical and general universities, but also for specialists working in various fields in which emergent technologies are being used to help people enjoy optimal quality of life.

This book aims at serving the researchers and practitioners in related fields with a timely dissemination of the recent progress on robotics and artificial intelligence. This book is based on a collection of papers presented at the 9th International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications (RiTA), held at KAIST in Daejeon, Korea, in a hybrid format, on December 16–17, 2021. Humankind is getting through the third year of COVID-19 pandemic. While this pandemic has made everyone’s life so challenging, it has also expedited transition of our everyday lives into a new form, often called “the new normal.” Although many people often use the terminology, perhaps we still do not have a consensus about what it is and what is should be like. One thing that is clear is that robotics and artificial intelligence technologies are playing critical roles in this phase transition of our everyday lives. We see last-mile delivery robots on the street, AI-embedded service robots in the restaurants, uninhabited shops, non-face-to-face medical services, conferences and talks in metaverses and AI-based online education programs. For better readability, the total of 53 papers are grouped into four chapters: Chapter I: Motion Planning and Control; Chapter II: Design and Robot Application; Chapter III: Sensing, Perception and Recognition; and Chapter IV: Cognition, Autonomy and Intelligence. For those who have research on robot intelligence technology, we believe this book will help them understand the recent robot technologies and applications and enhance their study.

This book constitutes a carefully arranged selection of revised papers on assistive technology, first presented at related AAAI workshops between 1995 and 1998. The book is devoted to the advancement and use of AI stimulated technology that can help users extend their current range of cognitive and sensory abilities or overcome their motor disabilities. Among various issues in the interdisciplinary area of assistive technology, the papers address topics from natural language processing, planning, robotics, user interface design, computer vision, and learning.

This volume explores the ethical questions that arise in the development, creation and use of robots that are capable of semiautonomous or autonomous decision making and human-like action. It examines how ethical and moral theories can and must be applied to address the complex and critical issues of the application of these intelligent robots in society. Coverage first presents fundamental concepts and provides a general overview of ethics, artificial intelligence and robotics. Next, the book studies all principal ethical applications of robots, namely medical, assistive, socialized and war roboethics. It looks at such issues as robotic surgery, children-robot and elderly-robot therapeutical/social interactions and the use of robots, especially autonomous lethal ones, in warfare. In addition, a chapter also considers Japanese roboethics as well as key intercultural and robot legislation issues. Overall, readers are provided with a thorough investigation into the moral responsibility (if any) of autonomous robots when doing harm. This volume will serve as an ideal educational source in engineering and robotics courses as well as an introductory reference for researchers in the field.