Planetary Robot Design, Development, and Control

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Editorial Board of Aerospace, it is my honor to inform you about our upcoming Special Issue on Planetary Robot Design, Development and Control. Robots for planetary exploration have had, and still play, a fundamental role in the in-situ exploration of extraterrestrial planets and celestial bodies. Recent examples include the exploration of Mars by NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Science Laboratory and Mars 2020, as well as China's Mars rover Zhurong; and the exploration of the Moon by China’s Yutu rovers. A growing interest in in-situ operations for the exploration of planetary bodies is demonstrated by the many robotic missions planned for the coming years, such as ESA ExoMars, ROSCOSMOS Luna-25, and DLR/JAXA Mars Moons eXploration. Within the framework of NASA’s Artemis program, robots will be a fundamental asset for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) and astronaut-assistance tasks.

Join our efforts to share and extend the latest advancements in the design, development, and control of planetary robots, as regards their locomotion and manipulation abilities, sampling tools, sensors, control and navigation techniques, and strategies for mission operations. Please let us know if you can submit a manuscript by the end of December, or inform us of your feasible submission timeline. We look forward to your favorable response.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Design, development, and control of new locomotion systems for planetary rovers.
• Design, development, and control of robotic arms and sampling tools.
• Concept operations of planetary robotic missions.
• Optimal on-board/on-ground control for energy-efficient operations.
• Perception and navigation in GNSS-denied environments.
• LiDAR-based and vision-based navigation and mapping for planetary robots.
• Instrumentation and sensing for navigation in planetary environments.
• Metrological evaluation and characterization of machine learning approaches for autonomous spacecraft and vehicles for space applications and planetary exploration.
• Perception and manipulation for in situ analysis and sample collection.
• Motion and interaction control for planetary cooperating robots.
• Testing facilities for space environment reproducibility.
• Exploration by means of rover swarms.

Dr. Sebastiano Chiodini
Dr. Riccardo Giubilato
Dr. Enrico Ferrentino
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.