Even though the origin of robotics is in the industrial environment, today we can ensure that its future is far from factories. That future will be in the context of interactions with humans and in human activities, that is, in the so-called service robotics field. This means an enormous playground for robots: medicine, elder care, agriculture, gardening, self-driving cars, house cleaning, and even toys. This book represents a source that the robotic community was lacking, at least from a general and nontechnical perspective, in the field of social robots (a particular branch of service robotics). Specifically, this book describes both the foundations and the applications of social robots. Illustrative examples dealing with robots in the research phase and those successful robots in the market are given. Due to the nontechnical spirit of this manuscript, the tentative audience can be very wide and heterogeneous. In any case, the interested reader or specialist may enlarge their curiosity by checking the references available at the end of each chapter.

Chapter 1 provides a solid foundation; it introduces basic concepts and terminology. Chapter 2 explains the most well-known control architectures in the field of robotics, in particular those applied to social robots. Recall that the control architecture represents the framework where all the subsystems of a robot interact. Thus, it makes sense to read this chapter before continuing with the rest of the book. The two main ingredients of social robots are unfolded in chapters 3 and 4, that is, machine learning and human-robot interaction. Common techniques of those wide fields are briefly discussed. Typical human-robot interfaces are also described in chapter 4. The next four chapters highlight the conventional mechanical configurations associated with social robots: anthropomorphic design, wheeled robots, fixed place anthropomorphic torsos, and animal-like designs. A bunch of examples are provided for each mechanical configuration. Chapter 9 constitutes the real breakthrough of this book. Here, a detailed analysis explains the implications and the utility of social robots. Why are social robots necessary for human society? Numerous examples answer this question. Lastly, the book closes with some technological challenges and ethical aspects.