Present and Future of Gravitational Wave Experiments

Direct detection of gravitational waves from cosmic sources is one of the great challenges of contemporary experimental physics. The principles of operation and the status of the present detectors and of the main future projects will be reported. The recent results of a search for gravitational wave bursts, using the data collected by the ROG Collaboration cryogenic bar detectors EXPLORER (at CERN) and NAUTILUS (at LNF), will be discussed.