There is an increasing range of applications in which a robot has to operate in large unstructured and uncertain environments - including military cross country missions, fire fighting, construction, nuclear plant inspections, inspecting and repairing subsea structures, assembling space stations, as well as in intelligent automobiles. Uncertainty dominates the problem domain for intelligent autonomous vehicles (IAVs) through sensing the environment and vehicle state, interpreting the data, assessing the situation, adapting to changes in the environment or tasking, replanning, navigation and piloting.
IFAC, recognising the industrial, technical and economic significance of IAV research, established an International Working Party to promote research and dissemination of results in IAV systems. The IAV-93 Southampton Workshop and these resulting proceedings exemplify the vitality and significant progress made by leading IAV researchers worldwide.
