This book contains mainly the selected papers of the First International Workshop on Medical and Service Robots, held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 2012. The high quality of the scientific contributions is the result of a rigorous selection and improvement based on the participants’ exchange of opinions and extensive peer-review. This process has led to the publishing of the present collection of 16 independent valuable contributions and points of view and not as standard symposium or conference proceedings.

The addressed issues are: Computational Kinematics, Mechanism Design, Linkages and  Manipulators, Mechanisms for Biomechanics, Mechanics of Robots, Control Issues for Mechanical Systems, Novel Designs, Teaching Methods, all of these being concentrated around robotic systems for medical and service applications.

The results are of interest to researchers and professional practitioners as well as to Ph.D. students in the field of mechanical and electrical engineering.

This volume marks the start of a subseries entitled “New Trends in Medical and Service Robots” within the Machine and Mechanism Science Series, presenting recent trends, research results and new challenges in the field of medical and service robotics.