Product Description
The Robotics Primer offers a broadly accessible introduction to robotics for students at pre-university and university levels, robot hobbyists, and anyone interested in this burgeoning field. The text takes the reader from the most basic concepts (including perception and movement) to the most novel and sophisticated applications and topics (humanoids, shape-shifting robots, space robotics), with an emphasis on what it takes to create autonomous intelligent robot behavior. The core concepts of robotics are carried through from fundamental definitions to more complex explanations, all presented in an engaging, conversational style that will appeal to readers of different backgrounds.

The Robotics Primer covers such topics as the definition of robotics, the history of robotics ("Where do Robots Come From?"), robot components, locomotion, manipulation, sensors, control, control architectures, representation, behavior ("Making Your Robot Behave"), navigation, group robotics, learning, and the future of robotics (and its ethical implications). To encourage further engagement, experimentation, and course and lesson design, The Robotics Primer is accompanied by a free robot programming exercise workbook.

The Robotics Primer is unique as a principled, pedagogical treatment of the topic that is accessible to a broad audience; the only prerequisites are curiosity and attention. It can be used effectively in an educational setting or more informally for self-instruction. The Robotics Primer is a springboard for readers of all backgrounds—including students taking robotics as an elective outside the major, graduate students preparing to specialize in robotics, and K-12 teachers who bring robotics into their classrooms.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 1 review)

Excellent Introduction and Survey of Robotics

Based on years of course notes, Dr. Mataric has written a wonderfully accessible introduction to and survey of the entire field of robotics. Much collective wisdom from the history of this emerging discipline is contained in these pages. And the on-line workbook, with hands-on programming exercises, is a huge plus. Nothing else like this book exists in the robotics literature.

However, the reader should be warned that the book is rife with misprints. It is as if the book were not edited at all. MIT Press should be embarrassed at letting this book out the door in the state that it is in. Let's hope later printings correct the legion of errors. Were it not for the constant misprints, I would have given it 5 stars.
June 01, 2008

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