Book excerpt: Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) are adaptive systems inspired by the biological immune system and applied to problem solving. This book provides an accessible introduction that will be suitable for anyone who is beginning to study or work in this area. It gives a clear definition of an AIS, sets out the foundations of the topic (including basic algorithms), and analyses how the immune system relates to other biological systems and processes. No prior knowledge of immunology is needed - all the essential background information is covered in the introductory chapters. Key features of the book include: - A discussion of AIS in the context of Computational Intelligence; - Case studies in Autonomous Navigation, Computer Network Security, Job-Shop Scheduling and Data Analysis =B7 An extensive survey of applications; - A framework to help the reader design and understand AIS; - A web site with additional resources including pseudocodes for immune algorithms, and links to related sites. Written primarily for final year undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Artificial Intelligence, Evolutionary and Biologically Inspired Computing, this book will also be of interest to industrial and academic researchers working in related areas.