Robotics

Advances in robotics and digital technologies (including Artificial Intelligence) are continuing to enable the automation of a greater range of tasks. This includes the automation of physical tasks (such as factory production lines) as well as knowledge-based work (such as education and language translation).

The automation of routine and administrative tasks could cut costs to businesses and increase productivity, as well as safeguard humans from hazardous work settings and increase the potential of exploring otherwise unknown environments such as the sea ground. Robotics may also offer the potential to perform high-level human tasks to even greater accuracy in areas such as surgery and complement the work of humans in care settings such as in schools and hospital wards.

The purpose of this collection is to highlight the array of research focused on robotics and its impact and potential to advance existing human-based activities as well as offer unique solutions which would otherwise be impossible without the involvement of machines and artificial intelligence.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• The impact of robotisation on employment, productivity, and competitiveness
• Human-robot interaction
• Social and ethical impacts of robotics
• Robotics in education
• Education in robotics
• Robotics in medical and care environments
• Robotics in the exploration of new environments
• Robotics in hazardous environments
• Robotics for sensing and inspection
• Autonomous robotics

Collection advisors: Carmelo Mineo (Institute for High-Performance Computing and Networking (ICAR), Italy)