Advances in Perception and Mixed-Reality for Human-Robot Interactive Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Advanced technologies for perception (e.g., 3D/depth cameras) and mixed reality enhance present-day opportunities and future perspectives in the context of human–robot interactive applications, in particular in the fields of manufacturing, surgery, aerospace, and mobile robotics. Indeed, strict safety requirements arise when robots have to share a common workspace with humans, or when robots have to provide assistance interacting with humans while accomplishing a common desired task. As a matter of fact, machine vision plays a fundamental role in achieving an effective human-robot collaboration, allowing the robot to plan its motions being aware of the human presence and intents, which could be often unpredictable. Another important consequence of the recent development in machine vision technologies and algorithms is the growth of opportunities within the scope of augmented and mixed reality that can be more easily incorporated into human–robot interactive applications to decrease the cognitive workload required to the user or to improve the usability of the system. Indeed, challenging scenarios that can be enabled by the integration of mixed reality in robotics comprise, e.g., the design of new interfaces for programming robots and safely interacting with them during the debugging, the deployment, and the execution of the desired application, as well as the creation of immersive 3D visualizations and simulations of robotic work-cells, to be used as test-bench for the training of human operators or of the robot itself.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions focused on the analysis, the design, and the implementation of innovative methods which involve the integration of machine vision and augmented/mixed reality within human–robot interactive applications.

Dr. Saverio Farsoni
Dr. Marcello Bonfè
Guest Editors

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