This volume provides a general picture of the current trends in the area of automatic control, with particular emphasis on practical problems in the mechanical field. For this reason, besides theoretical contributions, it presents selected lectures on recent developments interesting from an industrial point of view, such as automotive, robotics, motion control, and electrical drives.Contents:Interconnected Mechanical Systems, Part I: Geometry of Interconnection and Implicit Hamiltonian SystemsInterconnected Mechanical Systems, Part II: The Dynamics of Spatial Mechanical NetworksA Network-Theoretical and Diakoptical Approach to Multi-Body SystemsReview of Results on Variable Structure Control for Application to Mechanical SystemsOn the Controllability and Observability Function of Nonlinear ControlPassivity-Based Control of Euler–Lagrange Systems: Applications to Robots, AC Motors and Power ConvertersThe Analysis of Motorcycle Dynamics and ControlA Mechanical Network Approach to Performance Capabilities of Passive SuspensionsFuzzy Logic Control of a Variable Displacement Hydraulic PumpExperimental Identification of Robot ManipulatorsSome Results in the Control of Flexible Mechanical SystemsThe Perfect Tracking Problem for Nonminimum Phase Systems: Applications to Flexible-Link RobotsOn Some Structural Properties of General Manipulation SystemsDesign of Parallel Force/Position Controllers and Observers for Robot ManipulatorsMotion Equations of Mechanical Systems Subject to ImpactsHybrid Feedback Strategies for the Control of Juggling RobotsInvariant Manifolds: A Tool for StabilisationInvariant Manifold Techniques for Control of Underactuated Mechanical SystemsDiscontinuous Control of the Nonholonomic IntegratorComputational Models for the Simulation of Contact Phenomena in Multibody SystemsReadership: Engineers (automatic control).