Non destructive testing aimed at monitoring, structural identification and di- nostics is of strategic importance in many branches of civil and mechanical - gineering. This type of tests is widely practiced and directly affects topical issues regarding the design of new buildings and the repair and monitoring of existing ones. The load bearing capacity of a structure can now be evaluated using well established mechanical modelling methods aided by computing facilities of great capability. However, to ensure reliable results, models must be calibrated with - curate information on the...

This volume is a special Issue on "Dynamical Systems, Wave based computation and neuro inspired robots' DEGREES based on a Course carried out at the CISM in Udine (Italy), the last week of September, 2003. From the topics treated within that Course, several new ideas were f- mulated, which led to a new kind of approach to locomotion and p- ception, grounded both on biologically inspired issues and on nonlinear dynamics. The Course was characterised by a high degree of multi disciplinarity. In fact, in order to conceive, design and build neuro inspired machines, it is necessary to deeply scan...