AI and Robotics in Digital Preservation of Cultural Heritage

Dear Colleagues,

Cultural heritage sites, collections, and institutions face increasing pressures from environmental change, ageing infrastructure, and growing conservation demands. As these pressures intensify, robotics and artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly relevant to heritage preservation, offering new ways to inspect and monitor inaccessible or hazardous environments, streamline digitisation and diagnostic imaging workflows, analyse large and heterogeneous datasets, and support documentation, interpretation, and access. However, their integration into everyday heritage practice remains uneven, raising technical, methodological, organisational, social, and ethical questions. Stronger dialogue is therefore needed between technology developers, heritage professionals, conservators, curators, museum practitioners, and researchers.

This Special Issue aims to examine how AI- and robotics-assisted approaches can support the documentation, monitoring, conservation, management, and public engagement of cultural heritage. In line with the scope of Heritage, it welcomes interdisciplinary contributions that connect technological innovation with heritage science, conservation practice, museum practice, digital heritage, and the social and human dimensions of technological adoption.

We welcome original research articles, review articles, and case studies on themes including, but not limited to:

• Robotics and AI for heritage inspection and monitoring in terrestrial, underwater, and aerial contexts, particularly where manual access is difficult or hazardous;
• AI- and robotics-assisted automation of digitisation and diagnostic workflows, from data acquisition to processing, post-processing, and classification, improving efficiency, consistency, and scalability;
• AI and robotics applications in museums and cultural institutions, including collections management, storage and logistics, curatorial workflows, and audience engagement;
• AI-supported 3D reconstruction, virtual reality, and immersive technologies for heritage documentation, accessibility, and remote engagement;
• Acceptance, trust, and adoption of AI and robotics among heritage professionals, institutions, and audiences;
• Ethical issues related to AI and robotics in cultural heritage, including authenticity, data governance, bias, transparency, and their responsible integration into conservation and curatorial decision-making.

Manuscripts addressing related or emerging topics within this scope are also welcome.

Dr. Ferdinando Cannella
Dr. Arianna Traviglia
Dr. Gabriele Marchello
Dr. Selene Frascella
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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage 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 1800 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.