Marvelous and unique, this book is designed to make the field of robotics accessible to readers from, perhaps, age 12 through graduate school. It captures the excitement about robots that many of us old-time roboticists feel, and presents the material in a lively, conversational style that is neither pedantic nor condescending. While designed, indeed, to be a primer for readers from a variety of backgrounds, the book is neither simple nor elementary. It does not avoid difficult subjects, such as simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), nonholonomic systems, dynamic stability, reconfigurable robots, and multiple robot systems, but provides intuitive rather than mathematical explanations. Only someone like Mataric, who has deep knowledge of and broad experience with robotics, could have written such a book.

There are 22 short chapters, covering material from sonars and actuators to learning and multiple robot systems. By keeping the chapters short, it is possible to concentrate on a fairly narrow topic, and to do so well. The chapter headings reflect the author’s intent in making the book not only readable, but also enjoyable. The chapter on manipulation is titled “Grasping at Straws.” Sensors are addressed in “What’s Going On?” and learning is discussed in the chapter titled “Things Keep Getting Better.” Each chapter ends with three short sections: “To Summarize” encapsulates the major ideas in pithy statements that capture the essence of the chapter; “Food for Thought” raises questions about the broader implications of the material, and could be used by teachers or professors to guide discussion; and “Looking for More” provides references to some of the sources for material in the chapter, as well as leads to related and broader material.

There are no mathematical symbols in the book, but this does not mean that fundamental concepts are omitted. In fact, quite the contrary: the fundamental issues of stability, observability, and uncertainty are treated with great care. A major asset of the book is that it is accompanied by a free, Web-based programming workbook (http://roboticsprimer.sourceforge.net/workbook). As the author points out in the preface, this workbook provides step-by-step guidance and example problems to make robot programming available and accessible to anyone with interest in the subject. It is written with the same direct, conversational style as the book. Most of the exercises are based on the use of the iRobot CREATE system, which is a programmable and controllable version of the popular iRobot ROOMBA vacuum cleaning robot, and the iRobot Command Module, which contains a microcontroller and ports for attaching external sensors and actuators. A second option replaces the Command Module with a Gumstix X-scale computer capable of running Linux and wireless communications. Finally, some exercises make use of the Microsoft Robotics Studio software, which can be run using Windows XP, along with Bluetooth communications.

In summary, the author has made a major contribution to the field of robotics by writing this amazing textbook, which is beautifully written, marvelously illustrated, and surprisingly deep. While fifth graders can use parts of it, I believe it will be most useful in high school and undergraduate teaching. I highly recommend it to both teachers and students of robotics.