The field of robotics continues to flourish and develop. In common with general scientific investigation, new ideas and implementations emerge quite spontaneously and these are discussed, used, discarded or subsumed at c- ferences, in the reference journals, as well as through the Internet. After a little more maturity has been acquired by the new concepts, then archival publication as a scientific or engineering monograph may occur. The goal of the Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics is to publish new developments and advances in the fields of robotics research - rapidly and informally but...