A video abstract can help the reader to have a clear understanding of the paper. We are pleased to announce that the Robotics 2021–2022 Best Video Abstract Award is open for applications. Authors are encouraged to provide a video abstract when submitting their manuscripts in order to improve the accessibility of papers. The winner will be selected through a vote by our readers and Award Committee from the papers published in Robotics.

Timeline:

– Deadline for video abstract submission: 31 December 2022;
– Voting period: 1 January 2023–31 January 2023;
– Date for announcement of the winner: 28 February 2023.

Prize:

There will be one awardee for this award, and the winner will receive the following:
– CHF 500 (Swiss francs);
– A waiver to publish a paper in Robotics (submitted before the end of 2023);
– An electronic certificate.

Who can participate?

Authors who have written articles and reviews published in 2021–2022 with a video abstract.

Eligibility and requirements:

– The video abstract should be under (or a maximum of) 5 minutes;
– The video abstract should introduce the topic of the article. The presentation should highlight the main results and conclusions and discuss future potential developments in the field as a result of the work if it is an abstract for a research article;
– The presentation should be understandable and accessible to users outside of the immediate field of the article in English;
– The video abstract must include a soundtrack providing a clear verbal narration of the visual content without any music;
– The video must conclude with the “Robotics 2021–2022 Video Abstract Awards” slide;
– Please be aware that figures/animations or any other materials included in the video abstract must have no potential conflicts or copyright issues;
– Terms and conditions regarding the use and distribution of video abstracts will apply in line with the copyright statement (https://www.mdpi.com/authors/rights) of Robotics;
– The video file must be in MP4 format and should not exceed 200 MB.

Selection method:

– Research article: Whether the presentation explains the idea of the paper accurately and precisely. The video quality will also be assessed (the lighting, the sound, the background, etc.);
– Review paper: The novelty and also the video quality;
– Readers’ votes.

PLEASE NOTE: All video abstracts will be assessed for editorial suitability and quality by the editorial team.

Please upload your video abstract when submitting your manuscript if you are interested in the award. For the authors of published papers, please send a video and a manuscript link to the Robotics Editorial Office ([email protected]) if you would like to apply for the award.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the application period is now open for the Robotics 2021 Travel Award. Applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Robotics Editorial Board.

Candidate Requirements:

– Holds a Ph.D. or is enrolled as a Ph.D. student (proof required);
– Plans to attend an international conference between August and December 2021 (oral presentation or poster).

Required Application Documents:

– Information on the conference the applicant is planning to attend and the abstract that will be submitted;
– Curriculum Vitae and list of publications;
– Justification letter describing the focus of the research (max. 800 words);
– Letter of recommendation from at least 1 supervisor.

The winner (one awardee) will each be awarded 800 CHF and a certificate.

Please submit your applications for the Robotics 2021 Travel Award no later than 30 June 2021. Prizes will be awarded at the end of July 2021 and announced on the Robotics website.

Kind regards,
Robotics Editorial Office

We are pleased to announce the winner of the Robotics 2020 Best Paper Award. Nominations were made by the Editorial Board from all papers published in Robotics in 2018. After a review process by the Editorial Board, the following research article was chosen as the winner:

The Development of Highly Flexible Stretch Sensors for a Robotic Hand
Robotics 2018, 7(3), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics7030054
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2218-6581/7/3/54

Congratulations to the authors, who will receive a bonus prize of 500 CHF and an offer to publish a paper free of charge in Robotics (subject to the normal peer review process).

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Robotics 2020 Young Investigator Award is Dr. Matteo Laffranchi.

Dr. Laffranchi is the R&D Coordinator of the Rehab Technologies Lab, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. His expertise lies in the development of novel mechatronic systems in the robotics field.

Dr. Laffranchi received his PhD in 2011 and has an outstanding publication record, comprising over 50 publications in peer-reviewed international journals and 13 international patents. Dr. Laffranchi’s Scopus Scientific Citation number is 1810 and his Hirsch index is 16. He is clearly a rising star in the field of mechatronics and robotics. As a single applicant, Dr. Laffranchi has secured funding of more than EUR 21 million since 2017. Alone this is an outstanding achievement, and especially so in today’s competitive environment. Please kindly join us in congratulating Dr. Laffranchi for his notable achievements.

As the awardee, Dr. Laffranchi will receive an honorarium of CHF 1000, an offer to publish a paper free of charge before the end of 2021 in Robotics after peerreview, and an engraved plaque.

We would like to warmly thank all the nominators from various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee Members for their evaluation of the abundant excellent nominations.

Robotics Editorial Office
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Robotics, it is my pleasure to announce the winner of the 2020 Travel Award sponsored by Robotics.

The award has been granted to Dr. Gabriele Costante, Ph.D. at the Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy. His research interests are exploring and devising solutions for Robot Perception and Action Planning through Computer Vision and Deep Learning techniques.

With so many high-quality applicants, the evaluation process and final decision were challenging. We would like to thank all the applicants for submitting their work, collectively covering a diverse and fascinating range of research topics. On behalf of the assessment committee, I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the winner on his accomplishment.

Prof. Dr. Marco Ceccarelli
Editor-in-Chief

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Evaluation Committee, we are pleased to announce the winners of the 2019 Robotics Travel Award, which has been granted to:

Lawrence Kim, a PhD Student in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. His research focuses on designing and studying interactions with ubiquitous swarms of robots, leveraging their physical presence. He will present his work, “SwarmHaptics: Haptic Display with Swarm Robots”, at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2019 in Glasgow, UK from 4–9 May 2019.

As the awardee, Lawrence Kim will receive an honorarium of 800 CHF and an offer to publish a paper free-of-charge in Robotics in 2019.

We would like to thank all applicants for submitting their diverse and fascinating range of research topics. It was a difficult decision with such high-quality applications for the Award.

Prof. Dr. Huosheng Hu
Editor-in-Chief of Robotics

Dear Colleagues,

The Robotics Editorial Board would like to gratefully acknowledge the contributions made by reviewers in assessing the manuscripts submitted to the journal. With their great support, many high-quality papers have been published in Robotics and a quick peer review process has been maintained.

The following referee has been selected by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Huosheng Hu, to be awarded “Robotics 2018 Outstanding Reviewer” for the timeliness and quality of his reviews in 2018. He will receive 500 CHF and a certificate for the outstanding review work:

Antonio Loria
CNRS, Laboratoire de Signaux et Systemes Cantrale Supelec, France

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Evaluation Committee, we are pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 Robotics Travel Awards, which have been granted to:

Martin Garrad, a PhD Student from Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol & University of the West of England will attend the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), from May 21–25, 2018, in Brisbane, Australia, to present his paper “Shaping Behaviour with Adaptive Morphology”.

Benjamin Shih, a PhD Student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab at UC San Diego. His research interests include soft robotics, bioinspiration, and control. Specifically, he focuses on sensing capabilities for soft robots and how they can be applied to soft manipulation. His work will be presented at the IEEE/RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) 2018 in Livorno, Italy, from April 24–28, 2018.

It was a difficult decision with such high quality applications for the awards and we would like to thank all applicants for submitting their diverse and fascinating range of research topics. We congratulate the winners for their accomplishments.

Prof. Dr. Huosheng Hu
Editor-in-Chief

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of the Evalution Committee, we are pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 Robotics Travel Award, which has been granted to:

Piyamate Wisanuvej, a PhD Candidate in Medical Robotics at the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, Imperial College London. His recent work on single access transanal surgical system is the development of customised master interface for teleoperation of highly flexible surgical instruments. The work was presented in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017) in Vancouver, Canada, September 24–28, 2017.

Jinoh Lee, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Humanoid and Humancentered Mechatronics Laboratory, Advanced Robotics Department, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). His professional is about humanoid robotics and control engineering which include human-like level reactive loco-manipulation and advanced compliant system control for safe human-robot interaction. He will attend 2017 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, November 15-17, 2017, Birmingham, UK, to present his paper and to organize a workshop titled, “Can we build Baymax? Part III: Design and Control for Soft Human-Robot Interaction” collaborating with Disney Research, CMU, and AIST.

Prof. Dr. Huosheng Hu
Editor-in-Chief