ROBOTICS: STATE OF THE ART AND FUTURE CHALLENGES

by George A. Bekey

This book presents the results of an assessment of the state of robotics in Japan, South Korea, Western Europe and Australia and a comparison of robotics R&D programs in these countries with those in the United States. The comparisons include areas like robotic vehicles, space robotics, service robots, humanoid robots, networked robots, and robots for biological and medical applications, and based on criteria such as quality, scope, funding and commercialization. This important study identifies a number of areas where the traditional lead of the United States is being overtaken by developments in other countries.

152 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2008

About the author

George A. Bekey was an American roboticist and the professor of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California.
Bekey was born in Bratislava in 1928 before immigrating at the beginning of WW2 to Bolivia before moving to the United States five years later at the age of 17 in 1945.
In 1989, Bekey became a member of the National Academy of Engineering for pioneering work in computer sciences contributing to biomedical engineering, man-machine systems, and robotics. He was also a Fellow of various professional societies.
Bekey is best known for his achievements across multiple technical fields, for which he was designated a USC University Professor, which honors the university's most accomplished, multi-disciplinary faculty. He was also affiliated with the College of Engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where he taught a course on world religions.
His most recent book is Autonomous Robots: From Biological Inspiration to Implementation and Control from MIT Press.