Maja J. Matarić Books
Maja J. Matarić is a professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics at the University of Southern California.
Known for: The Robotics Primer
Books by Maja J. Matarić
The Robotics Primer
Robotics is often imagined as a field of futuristic machines, but The Robotics Primer shows that it is really a disciplined way of thinking about intelligence, action, and interaction in the physical world. In this accessible introduction, Maja J. Matarić explains how robots sense their surroundings, represent information, make decisions, learn from experience, and act in ways that produce useful outcomes. Rather than overwhelming readers with dense mathematics, she builds a conceptual foundation that makes the logic of robotics understandable to students, curious general readers, and anyone interested in artificial intelligence embodied in machines. What makes the book especially valuable is its balance between breadth and clarity. It introduces the major components of robotics—sensors, actuators, control, perception, planning, learning, and human-robot interaction—while also showing how these pieces connect in real systems. Matarić writes with the authority of a leading researcher whose work spans computer science, neuroscience, and socially assistive robotics. The result is a primer that does more than define technical terms: it reveals robotics as an interdisciplinary field that forces us to ask profound questions about intelligence, design, autonomy, and the future relationship between humans and machines.
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Robotics Lives Between Many Disciplines
A robot is never just a machine; it is a meeting point of many kinds of knowledge. One of the book’s most important insights is that robotics cannot be understood through a single discipline alone. To build even a modest autonomous system, you need the mechanics of movement, the computation of decis...
From The Robotics Primer
From Automatons to Autonomous Machines
Our dreams of intelligent machines are far older than modern computers. Matarić places robotics in a historical arc that begins with myths of artificial beings and mechanical servants, continues through ingenious automata built for entertainment or demonstration, and culminates in modern autonomous ...
From The Robotics Primer
Sensors, Actuators, and Control Form the Core
No robot can be intelligent if it cannot sense, move, and regulate itself. At the heart of robotics lies a simple but powerful loop: sensors gather information, actuators produce movement or other physical effects, and control systems connect the two. Matarić uses this triad to explain how robots be...
From The Robotics Primer
Perception Turns Raw Data Into Meaning
Seeing is not the same as understanding. One of the most important lessons in The Robotics Primer is that perception in robotics is not merely collecting sensor readings; it is transforming raw data into usable information about the world. Cameras produce pixels, lidars return distance points, and m...
From The Robotics Primer
Planning Means Choosing Under Real Constraints
Intelligence becomes visible when a robot must decide what to do next. After perception and representation come planning: selecting actions that move the system from its current state toward a goal. Matarić shows that planning in robotics is not abstract chess-like reasoning alone. It is decision-ma...
From The Robotics Primer
Action and Learning Create Adaptable Robots
A robot becomes truly useful when it can do more than execute fixed routines. Matarić explores how action and learning enable robots to adapt to variation, improve performance, and cope with environments that cannot be fully anticipated in advance. This is a central step from automation toward auton...
From The Robotics Primer
About Maja J. Matarić
Maja J. Matarić is a professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics at the University of Southern California. She is a leading researcher in robotics and human-robot interaction, known for her work on socially assistive robotics and robot learning. Matarić has authored numerous academic...
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Maja J. Matarić is a professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics at the University of Southern California. She is a leading researcher in robotics and human-robot interaction, known for her work on socially assistive robotics and robot learning. Matarić has authored numerous academic...
Maja J. Matarić is a professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics at the University of Southern California. She is a leading researcher in robotics and human-robot interaction, known for her work on socially assistive robotics and robot learning. Matarić has authored numerous academic papers and books that bridge robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-centered design.
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Maja J. Matarić is a professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics at the University of Southern California.
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