During the period 1982-1985, six books of the series: Scientific Fun damentals of Robotics were published by Springer-Verlag. In chronolo gical order these were: Dynamics of Manipulation Robots: Theory and Application, by M. Vukobra tovic and V. Potkonjak, Control of Manipulation Robots: Theory and Ap plication, by M. vukobratovic and D. Stokic, Kinematics and Trajectory Synthesis of Manipulation Robots, by M. Vukobratovic and H. Kircanski, Real-Time Dynamics of Hanipulation Robots by M. Vukobratovic and N. Kircanski, Non-Adaptive and Adaptive Control of Manipulation Robots, by M. Vukobratovic, D. Stokic and N. Kircanski and Computer-Aided De sign and Applied Dynamics of Manipulation Robots, by M. Vukobratovic and V. Potkonjak. Within the series, during 1989, two monographs dealing with new sub jects will be published. So far, amongst the published monographs, Vol. 1 has been translated into Japanese, Volumes 2 and 5 into Russian, and Volumes 1-6 will appear in Chinese and Hungarian. In the author''s opinion, the afore mentioned monographs, in principle, cover with sufficient breadth, the topics devoted to the design of ro bots and their control systems, at the level of post-graduate study in robotics. However, if this material was also to apply to the study of robotics at under-graduate level, it would have to be modified so as to obtain the character of a textbook. With this in mind, it must be noted that the subject matter contained in the text cannot be simpli fied but can only be elaborated in more detail.
