Robotic systems have proved themselves to be of increasing importance and are widely adopted to substitute for humans in repetitive or hazardous situations. Their diffusion has outgrown the limits of industrial applications in manufacturing systems to co ver all aspects of exploration and servicing in hostile environments such as undersea, outer space, battlefields and nuclear plants. Complex robotic systems - ie robotic systems with a complex structure and architecture - are gaining increasing attention from both the academic community and industrial users. The modelling and control problems...