Abstract

Robotics has continuously witnessed paradigm shifts ever since robots appeared as "industrial tools." Over the years, the application domain of robotics has increased manifold, and the wide variety of new generation of robots nowadays include humanoids, rehabilitation and assistive robots, social robots, bio-robots, medical robots, and so on. As humanoids, they simulate the human structure and behavior; as exoskeletons or artificial limbs, they assist humans; as social robots, they enable human-robot interaction; as bio-robots, they help gain insight into the workings of biological systems; and as medical robots, they help carry out surgical interventions more accurately and less invasively. As compared with the human-controlled industrial robots that typically operate in "no humans" working zones, these new-generation robots are characterized by autonomous learning and close interaction with the environment (including humans). To meet these requirements, the robots are nowadays equipped with increasingly sensing components, and accordingly, they are also (to some extent) able to deal with high complexity and dynamics of the real world.