This book aims at serving the researchers and practitioners in related fields with a timely dissemination of the recent progress on robotics and artificial intelligence. This book is based on a collection of papers presented at the 9th International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications (RiTA), held at KAIST in Daejeon, Korea, in a hybrid format, on December 16–17, 2021. Humankind is getting through the third year of COVID-19 pandemic. While this pandemic has made everyone’s life so challenging, it has also expedited transition of our everyday lives into a new form, often called “the new normal.” Although many people often use the terminology, perhaps we still do not have a consensus about what it is and what is should be like. One thing that is clear is that robotics and artificial intelligence technologies are playing critical roles in this phase transition of our everyday lives. We see last-mile delivery robots on the street, AI-embedded service robots in the restaurants, uninhabited shops, non-face-to-face medical services, conferences and talks in metaverses and AI-based online education programs. For better readability, the total of 53 papers are grouped into four chapters: Chapter I: Motion Planning and Control; Chapter II: Design and Robot Application; Chapter III: Sensing, Perception and Recognition; and Chapter IV: Cognition, Autonomy and Intelligence. For those who have research on robot intelligence technology, we believe this book will help them understand the recent robot technologies and applications and enhance their study.
