Better understanding motion planning: A compared review of “Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementations”, by H. Choset et al. Pablo Jim´ enez Institut de Rob` otica i Inform` atica Industrial (CSIC - UPC) Llorens i Artigas 4-6, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain Abstract The textbook on Motion Planning “Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementations”, by H. Choset et al., MIT Press, appeared on June 2005, is reviewed and compared to other two textbooks on the same subject, from 1991 and 2006 respectively. The ground-breaking developments over the last decade justify the necessity of the newer textbooks, that appear to be complementary, despite some overlap in the contents. Key words: Robot Motion Planning PACS: 45.40.Ln 1 Overview 1.1 Presenting the book The book under review, Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementations, by H. Choset et al. [1] (from now on, we will refer to it as the Principles ), appeared on June 2005. It is a textbook on Robot Motion Planning, thus covering not only the geometrical aspects of Path Planning, but also Control related issues. It begins with the very simple bug algorithms, as elemental but in many settings quite effective motion strategies, integrating these two main aspects of motion planning: geometry and sensor-based control. Email address: pjimenez@iri.upc.edu (Pablo Jim´ enez). Preprint submitted to Elsevier 17 May 2007