EDITORIAL SPECIAL ISSUE: Intelligent Robotics (1/2)

Abstract

Although robotics has been studied for several decades, this research topic still plays a key role in various areas and receives increasing attention, which should be attributed to the fact that robotics is a basis that spans a variety of applications in different domains, including industry, education, entertainment, military, and medical/health care. Therefore, there are always novel and encouraging developments in the robotic community, making this research field more and more attracting. These emerging technologies are often presented in conferences related to robotics. In 2012, one of the leading conferences in the robotics community, the International Symposium on Robotics (ISR) was held in Taipei, Taiwan, where 250 papers from more than 20 different countries were presented. Among the papers presented, 40 papers were recommended to the International Journal of Automation and Smart Technology for possible publication after a rigorous selection by Dr. Han-Pang Huang, the Program Chair of ISR. After a further peer-review process, only 15 papers were accepted by this journal. The aim of this special issue of the International Journal of Automation and Smart Technology is to provide a collection of the best papers from ISR 2012, and share the emerging technologies related to intelligent robotics proposed in these collected and accepted papers. This special issue is divided into two parts, which are published in December, 2012, and March, 2013, respectively. There are seven  papers in the first part, while the rest will be published in the second part. An overview of the first part of this special issue is provided below.