Advances in Inspection Robotic Systems

Dear Colleagues,

The inspection and monitoring of sites, structures, and infrastructure have become a crucial issue for their sustainability and maintenance. Although these tasks are repetitive and time-consuming, classical approaches still rely largely on human activity. The development of reliable mechatronic and robotic agents can be considered as an efficient solution for the monitoring and inspection tasks, because they can be effective in exploring dangerous or inaccessible sites at a relatively low cost with an important reduction of the time required.

Through the dissemination of advanced research developments in robotics, mechatronics, and integrated management systems, this Special Issue aims to promote and reinforce collaborations, research, and technical solutions among researchers of different disciplines; and contribute to the advancements in the integration of robotics, automation, and information technologies in the area of management of constructed and new facilities and infrastructure.

The Special Issue seeks to collect recent research on all the topics listed below. Review papers are also welcome.

This Special Issue will contain extended versions of selected papers presented at the 14th International Workshop on Advanced Smart Materials and Smart Structures Technology ANCRISST 2019.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Design and modelling of ground, aerial, and climbing robots for inspection;
• Autonomous or tele-operated robots for in-situ interventions;
• Collaborative robots for performing complex tasks in structured/unstructured environments;
• Smart mechatronics, including end-effectors, and sensing that enable robotic in-situ interventions;
• Intelligent behaviours to improve robot performance and survivability;
• Manipulation for in-situ interventions;
• Novel sensors and actuators for inspection robotics;
• Sensing and sensor fusion;
• Autonomous search and rescue;
• Automated visual inspection;
• Enhanced monitoring and automated procedure for self-inspection and maintenance;
• Image processing, defects, and damage evaluation.

Dr. Erika Ottaviano
Prof. Hoon Sohn
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. Robotics 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.