This book offers to the reader a charming voyage from the origins to the near future of the role of robots in human life. What converts this manuscript from “another book about robots” to a delightful reference is that it tells a story not only about robots, but also about people. It shows an atypical view of robotics, a humanization of robots.

Another outstanding element is that this book covers the key topics that are being addressed in the offices of all of the important centers related to robotics nowadays, such as social robots, robots taking care of the elderly, robots helping disabled people, self-driving vehicles, delivery drones, and military drones minimizing the number of boots-on-the-ground military troops. It also addresses the current legal and ethical (even political) aspects in current state-of-the-art robotic technology.

To complete this big picture, let me add that two usually taboo issues for the robotics community are actually described here: sex robots and armed military robots. Controversial questions about those applications are precisely analyzed.

This book is definitely a must-read reference either for someone so immersed in robotics from an engineering standpoint that he has forgotten the human-robot perspective or for someone who just wants to receive a fresh outlook on the human side of robotics.