Advances in Robots for Hazardous Environments in the UK

Dear Colleagues,

Hazardous environments can be found in many industrial application areas, including nuclear, oil and gas, space and mining. The inspection, maintenance and repair of assets in these environments can often only be achieved using robotic platforms due to safety or access restrictions. For many of these application areas, the adoption of robotic technology is likely to secure long-term commercial and sustainable viability.

A significant amount of research is being conducted in the UK to develop robotic solutions to overcome some of the challenges faced in these hazardous environments through the four-year Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s “Robotics for a Safer World” scheme. This Special Issue aims to disseminate and promote the advanced research developments generated by this scheme in the areas of robotics, autonomous systems, integrated sensing and mission planning with an emphasis on real-world deployments.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Design of ground, aerial and aquatic robots for inspection, maintenance or repair;
• Human–robot interaction (HRI) systems for robot tele-operation;
• Advanced sensing and sensor fusion;
• Autonomous systems for navigation and exploration;
• Field trials of robotic systems.

Prof. Dr. Simon Watson
Prof. Dr. Barry Lennox
Prof. Dr. Manuel Giulianni
Prof. Dr. Maurice Fallon
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-blind 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.