Special Issue "Collaborative Robotics: Prospects, Challenges and Applications"

Dear Colleagues,

Cobots, also known as collaborative robots, are designed to collaborate with humans in a shared workspace. There are numerous potential applications for collaborative robotics in industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics. Utilizing collaborative robots can increase productivity, enhance safety, and reduce labor expenses.

Collaborative robots equipped with artificial intelligence and powerful parallel computing hardware can process complex information from multiple sensors and make autonomous decisions in unpredictably complex environments.

Nevertheless, collaborative robotics presents several challenges. Among these are ensuring safety, integrating with existing systems, and preserving reliability. In addition, workers must be trained to effectively collaborate with robots, and ethical and social implications such as job displacement and privacy concerns, as well as new work organization and the need for new skills, must be addressed.

The potential applications of collaborative robotics are vast despite these challenges. In the manufacturing industry, for instance, collaborative robots can perform dangerous or repetitive tasks while allowing humans to focus on more complex tasks. In the healthcare industry, collaborative robots can aid medical professionals with patient care and physical therapy.

Overall, the application of collaborative robotics is a dynamic and rapidly developing field with numerous growth and innovation opportunities. As technology continues to advance, it is likely that collaborative robotics will play a greater role in a variety of industries.

Dr. Alberto Borboni
Dr. Giuseppe Carbone
Dr. Matteo Claudio Palpacelli
Prof. Dr. Roberto Pagani
Guest Editors

Antonio Arbore
Guest Editor Assistant

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• cobots
• collaborative robots
• manufacturing
• healthcare
• logistics
• productivity
• safety
• artificial intelligence
• ethics
• innovation