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:
- Design and Control of Soft Assistive Wearable Robots (Deadline: 15 May 2026)
- Human-Centered Actuation: Algorithms, Design, and Robotic Applications (Deadline: 20 May 2026)
- Human-Centric Intelligent Actuation Systems: Innovations in Control, Sensing, and Multidisciplinary Applications (Deadline: 31 May 2026)
- Actuators for Haptic and Tactile Stimulation Applications (Deadline: 15 June 2026)
- Wearable and Soft Robotics for Rehabilitation Applications (Deadline: 20 July 2026)
- Intuitive Actuation and Control for Assistive Robots and Exoskeletons for Workers (Deadline: 30 July 2026)
- Micro- and Nanorobotics for Biomedical Applications (Deadline: 15 August 2026)
- Rehabilitation Robotics and Intelligent Assistive Devices (Deadline: 15 August 2026)
- Actuation and Sensing of Intelligent Soft Robots—2nd Edition (Deadline: 20 August 2026)
- Machine Learning for Actuation and Control in Robotic Joint Systems (Deadline: 25 August 2026)
- Harnessing Morphological Computation for Intelligent Actuated Systems (Deadline: 30 August 2026)
- Intelligent Actuation and Control Systems for Electrified Mobility and Robotics (Deadline: 31 August 2026)
- Soft, Hybrid, and Wearable Actuation Technologies for Rehabilitation Robotics (Deadline: 31 August 2026)
- Mechanical, Optical, and Acoustic Metamaterials and Anisotropic Design for Dynamic Control in Actuators and Sensors (Deadline: 31 August 2026)
- Cutting-Edge Advancements in Robotics and Control Systems (Deadline: 15 September 2026)
- Soft Robotics: Actuation, Control, and Application—2nd Edition (Deadline: 15 September 2026)
- Wearable E-Textile Technologies: Sensors, Actuators, and Integrated Systems—2nd Edition (Deadline: 25 September 2026)
- Intelligent and Advanced Control for Human-Centric Robotic Actuation and Interaction (Deadline: 30 September 2026)
- Smart Materials, Intelligent Actuation, and AI Control in Magnetoactive Soft Robotics and Mechatronic Systems (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)
- Soft Actuators and Robotics—2nd Edition (Deadline: 31 October 2026)
- Parallel Kinematic Machines: Actuation, Design, and Applications (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)
- 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)