History and tradition

1^st International Symposium on Adaptive Motion in Animals and Machines (AMAM 2000) took place in Montreal (Canada) August 8-12, 2000. During five days unforgettable to all 40 participants who took part in it, due to the help of Martin Bühler an improvised workshop in an University Club changed into a conference at McGill University.

Due to overwhelming response, in Montreal already the 2^nd International Symposium on Adaptive Motion in Animals and Machines was planned to be held at Kyoto (Japan) in 2003. Under the General Chair of Prof. K. Tsuchiya and the hospitable organisation of Prof. H. Kimura and his co-workers AMAM 2003 with some 90 participants successfully took place at Campus Plaza Kyoto from March 4^th – 8^th, 2003.

3^rd International Symposium on Adaptive Motion in Animals and Machines (AMAM 2005) shall make this sequence become a tradition under the scope outlined below. Essential for AMAM International Organizing Committee is to keep the workshop character of the conference (“Symposion” = we come together and we put our ideas together), even if the number of participants is increasing. This means:

• Each participant should have the opportunity to take part in all activities. Consecutively no parallel sessions compete with one each other.

• There has to be sufficient time to discuss posters substantially, and to exchange with the exhibitors of the robot zoo.