The field of robotics continues to flourish and develop. In common with general scientific investigation, new ideas and implementations emerge quite spontaneously and these are discussed, used, discarded or subsumed at con ferences, in the reference journals, as well as through the Internet. After a little more maturity has been acquired by the new concepts, then archival publication as a scientific or engineering monograph may occur. The goal of the Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics is to publish new developments and advances in the fields of robotics research - rapidly and informally but with a high quality. It is hoped that prospective authors will welcome the opportunity to publish a structured presentation of some of the emerging robotics methodologies and technologies. The monograph written by Gianluca Antonelli is focused on an impor tant class of robotic systems, namely underwater vehicle-manipulator sys tems. These offer a challenging field for investigation of motion planning and control problems of robots operating in unstructured environments. In such a scenario, the importance of providing the control system with both mo tion and force control capabilities becomes crucial for successful execution of complex tasks and missions.
