Robotics is undergoing a major transformation in scope and dimension. Starting from a predominantly industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the challenges of unstructured environments. The "Springer Handbook of Robotics" incorporates these new developments and therefore basically differs from other handbooks of robotics focusing on industrial applications. It presents a widespread and well-structured coverage from the foundations of robotics, through the consolidated methodologies and technologies, up to the new emerging application areas of robotics. The handbook is an ideal resource for robotics experts but also for people new to this expanding field such as engineers, medical doctors, computer scientists, designers; edited by two internationally renowned experts. Bruno Siciliano is Professor of Control and Robotics at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, President of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and a Fellow of both IEEE and ASME. Oussama Khatib is Professor at the prestigious Stanford University in the USA, President of the International Foundation of Robotics Research, and a recipient of the Japan Robot Association Award in Research and Development.