Book Review

摘要

Robotics is one of those curious subjects with the capability to engage people from all walks and stages of life. There is something about the struggles of an inanimate object to deal with the complexities of the real world that touches something in many of us, whether the object is R2-D2 chirruping to his companions, a Sony aibo struggling to score a goal in a robot soccer game, or the humble Roomba vacuum cleaner. As a result, robotics researchers find themselves both at the cutting edge of a new science, a science with increasingly impressive achievements, and at the center of a lot of attention from the general public. This, in turn, means that there is a large audience for literature on robotics, most of which is not well-served by robotics researchers, who typically write for their peers, rather than the segment of the general population that makes up the bulk of those who are interested in robotics.