To date, robotics comprises a mature theoretical field where some of those theoretical contributions have been mostly demonstrated in laboratory conditions. However, nowadays, robotics is experiencing a boom much like personal computers did in the early ’80s. It means robots must demonstrate reliable capabilities in real environments, for instance, cooperating with humans and working in cluttered and challenging scenarios. In order to accomplish a true degree of autonomy and success, several challenges must be properly addressed. This volume contains extended versions of the 42 contributions presented at the 2014 Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics. Some methods dealing with the cutting-edge research in robotics are covered in this book:

• Uncertainty constitutes a key element in the current application of robots. In this sense, stochastic motion planners are explained in this book in order to cope with noisy sensors and imprecise location, among other sources.
• Sampling-based planning also means a notable research focus in the current robotic context. Numerous variants of the well-known RRT algorithm are proposed (for example, T-RRT, RRTx, fast marching method, discrete-RRT).
• Control strategies devoted to multi-robot systems constitute another hot topic in this field. Interesting applications include aerial robots, multi-robot systems in cluttered environments, collaborative strategies involving humans and robots, and multi-robot delivery systems, among others.
• Because of the high interaction between robots and humans and the presence of robots in urban environments, obstacle avoidance strategies are also a key research focus. Some approaches dealing with obstacle-free trajectories and improvements to the traditional potential field algorithm are provided in this volume. Identification and avoidance of pedestrians is tackled in this book as well.
• Another significant issue in the current scenario is related to improving the efficiency of algorithms/programs. This volume introduces some approaches dealing with efficient planning algorithms.

Finally, a common property of these contributions is that they clearly motivate and explain the algorithmic procedure and the mathematical background for each proposed method. This fact will be welcome when an interested reader tries to replicate those algorithms.

In a nutshell, this is a fairly suitable reference for someone who wants to know the cutting-edge robotics research trends, with a special emphasis on the application of robots to real environments.