Actuators for Robotics
A section of Actuators (ISSN 2076-0825).
Section Information
The Actuators for Robotics Section provides a wide and multidisciplinary vision on cutting-edge approaches, new methods, and advanced technologies to induce robot motion. Topics cover all levels of the development and scale of actuators, from transduction principles/phenomena (including constitutive equations) to advances in material/chemical aspects to enhance transduction and more complex actuation concepts to better exploit the transduction principle. Hardware of interest includes effectors, but also transducers integrated with efficient energy sources (autonomous effectors), with motion converters (motors), or both (autonomous motors). Actuation technologies of any kind are welcome, from more traditional technologies, such as those of an electromechanical, electromagnetic, and hydraulic/pneumatic nature, to innovative technologies based on piezoelectricity, shape memory materials, flexible fluidic actuators, electro-active polymers and supercoiled polymers (active), and electro-magnetorheological fluids/elastomers, jamming transition, and low-melting-point materials (semiactive). On the software side, topics of interest include novel control algorithms applied to actuators and actuation/motion control systems that are expected to improve robot abilities, from manual control and wireless to semiautonomous and fully autonomous approaches, including artificial intelligence, such as machine learning methods (deep learning, clustering, Bayesian methods, reinforcement learning, and genetic algorithms).
The audience of Actuators for Robotics is interested in all aspects of actuators, with implications for the robotic systems that they are integrated into, from components to complete systems and platforms deployed on real scenarios. Preference will be given to studies with solid and rigorous experimental validation on hardware.
Other areas covered by the Section include the following:
- Advanced design approaches and tools for modeling, including numerical approaches, bioinspiration/biomimetics, and embodied intelligence.
- Manufacturing and assembly techniques at all scales, especially those with a limited number of manual phases.
- Sustainability, recyclability, reusability, and disassembly.
- Benchmarking, test protocols, and standards.
Editorial Board
Special Issues
Following special issues within this section are currently open for submissions:
- Wearable E-Textile Technologies: Sensors, Actuators, and Integrated Systems—2nd Edition (Deadline: 25 September 2026)
- Smart Materials, Intelligent Actuation, and AI Control in Magnetoactive Soft Robotics and Mechatronic Systems (Deadline: 30 September 2026)
- Intelligent and Advanced Control for Human-Centric Robotic Actuation and Interaction (Deadline: 30 September 2026)
- Bioinspired Intelligence for Soft Actuators: Learning, Control, and Embodied Design (Deadline: 30 October 2026)
- Recent Advances in the Design and Applications for Pneumatic Actuators (Deadline: 30 October 2026)
- Parallel Kinematic Machines: Actuation, Design, and Applications (Deadline: 31 October 2026)
- Soft Actuators and Robotics—2nd Edition (Deadline: 31 October 2026)
- Hardware Foundations of Embodied Artificial Intelligence: Actuators, Sensors, and Mechanical Design for Physical Intelligence and Robot Learning (Deadline: 30 December 2026)
- Human-Centered Actuation: Algorithms, Design, and Robotic Applications (Deadline: 31 December 2026)
- Advanced Model Predictive Control and Intelligent Actuation for Multi-Agent and Complex Systems (Deadline: 31 December 2026)
- Flexible Sensors and Stretchable Electronics in Soft Actuators and Wearable Technologies (Deadline: 31 December 2026)
- Bio-Inspired Actuation for Embodied Intelligence in Robotics (Deadline: 30 January 2027)
- Advances in Soft Actuation: From Principles to Applications (Deadline: 30 January 2027)
- Intelligent Actuation and Control in Rehabilitation Robotic Systems (Deadline: 31 January 2027)
- Soft, Hybrid, and Wearable Actuation Technologies for Rehabilitation Robotics (Deadline: 20 February 2027)
- Human-Centric Intelligent Actuation Systems: Innovations in Control, Sensing, and Multidisciplinary Applications (Deadline: 28 February 2027)
- Innovations in Hydraulic Actuation for Vehicles and Manipulators (Deadline: 20 March 2027)
- Intuitive Actuation and Control for Assistive Robots and Exoskeletons for Workers (Deadline: 30 March 2027)
- Recent Developments in Actuators for Robotic Control (Deadline: 31 March 2027)
- Actuation Systems for Robot-Aided Rehabilitation: From Diagnostic Assessment to Therapeutic Intervention (Deadline: 31 March 2027)
- Design and Application of Actuators with Multi-DOF Movement-3rd Edition (Deadline: 15 April 2027)
- Actuation and Sensing of Intelligent Soft Robots—2nd Edition (Deadline: 30 April 2027)
- Advancing Soft Actuation Technologies: Reproducible Characterization and Benchmarking for Tactile-Driven Intelligent Systems (Deadline: 30 April 2027)
- Rehabilitation Robotics and Intelligent Assistive Devices (Deadline: 15 May 2027)
- Wearable and Soft Robotics for Rehabilitation Applications (Deadline: 20 July 2027)