Nonlinear Control and Neural Networks in Robotics

Dear Colleagues, 

Robotics is in the midst of a revolution spanning the last two decades because of the confluence of machine (deep) learning and AI, parallel realtime desktop/mobile processing due to advances in GPU and CPU architectures, access to cloud computing and data storage, creation of public-domain datasets, physics-based simulators, and last but not the least, major advancements in sensing (e.g., 2D/3D Vision, Haptics, Force/Torque Sensing) and actuation (e.g., Series Elastic Actuators). Nonlinear Control Theory in robotics had already made theoretical advances in the last decade of the 20th century such as Global Output Stability Results, Passivity Based Control, Impedance and Admittance Control, the theoretical treatment of Kinematically Redundant Robots, 2D/3D and 2.5D Visual Servoing, and several results in Rigid-Link Flexible Joint Robots which were the precursors for the Series Elastic Actuators of the day. A big line of theoretical research in Time Delay Systems in the controls community was largely motivated by the desire to teleoperate robots across large distances with bandwidth limited communication links. A happy marriage of all these systems theoretic advances to ubiquitously accessible real-time computation, advanced sensing, and accurate feedforward modeling based on the latest iterations of neural networks such as Multi-Layer Perceptrons, Convolutional Neural Networks, and Recurrent Neural Networks has led to situationally aware robots and cobots (collaborative robots) that have been able to shed their caged existence and merge/mingle with human-workers in a collaborative fashion.

This Special Issue is designed to capture some of these advances at the crossroads of nonlinear control theory and advanced feedforward modeling. Novel theoretical results are encouraged as are advancements in technology based on the underlying emerging techniques in controls and deep learning. We will also welcome review papers that will provide succinct coverage of the timeline of advancement in controls and robotics from the late 90s to the current iteration. 

Prof. Dr. Aman Behal
Dr. Rushikesh Kamalapurkar
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.