Special Issue on Industrial Robotics and Systems

Recent technological advancements have expanded the range of applications and possibilities for industrial robots. Therefore, this special issue focuses on a wide range of topics, from reports of successful practical applications to ambitious proposals that could have a significant impact on the field in the future. These topics concern the automation of manual work, such as material handling in factories, logistics, commercial facilities, and public facilities, as well as elemental technologies and system integration for new work methods, such as collaboration and remote operation. Specifically, this issue contains 20 papers. These include studies on elemental technologies, including traditional technologies such as sensing, computer vision, grasping, manipulation, mechatronics, control methods, robot hands, mechanisms, and robot programming; application technologies for the automation of picking and assembling; and proposals for the future with challenging technologies such as human-machine interaction, virtual reality, cyber-physical systems, foundation models, deep learning, soft robotics, systems integration, humanoids, and new automation system applications. The editors hope that all readers will enjoy the selected papers. They would also be pleased if they could expand this topic area and promote further contributions inspired by this issue, and thank the authors and reviewers for their dedicated time and effort.