Concise Encyclopedia of Robotics

This well-written book is not an introduction to robotics–there is no "history" article, and no article titled "Robot" or "Robotics"–but it is likely to be a useful reference for students and hobbyists. Summing Up: Recommended.
Robotics contains elements of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science. One of the challenges in reading a robotics text or entering the field as a hobbyist is the variety of concepts and terminology one must know. This book, a "how things work" for the robotics field, provides about 400 brief articles explaining concepts from "acoustic proximity sensor" to "zooming." Some entries are very short; "Guidance System," for example, requires only two sentences and refers to other articles. A longer article like "Logic Gate" is a page and a half long, including a diagram and table. Most topics are technical, but some are philosophical, such as "Jungian World Theory."