Control engineering and instrumentation engineering have significantly contributed to the improvement of industrial productivity, saving of resources and energy, and enrichment of our lives. They have become important cross-cutting study fields not only covering engineering but also having strong relations with the environment, society, and economy. Therefore, various studies have been conducted on the educational methods of related technologies at educational institutes and companies. With this background, we planned this special issue with the latest studies on the instruction and evaluation methods for education on control engineering, instrumentation engineering, and control technologies, expecting its contribution to further development in the future.

The special issue, “Machine Learning for Robotics and Swarm Systems,” is focused on machine learning techniques and its application to the field of robotics including swarm systems. Swarm systems were born in a field of robotics as a kind of distributed autonomous robotic systems with the concept of the emergent methodology for extremely redundant systems. They typically consist of homogeneous autonomous robots, similar to living animals that build swarms. Recently, machine learning, such as deep learning, has been more remarkable for controlling the behaviors of these robots in real world. The topics included in this special issue are not only recent advances of machine learning techniques and its applications in the field of robotics and swarm systems, but also the controlling mechanism for multi-robots, such as evolutionary computation or other soft computing methods. Proposals involving new ideas or methods in this field are also welcome.

To realize intelligent mobile robots, self-localization, map generation, and autonomous exploration of unknown environments are necessary. Probabilistic processing can be applied to overcome the problems of uncertainties in movement and measurement errors. Probabilistic robotics and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technologies are thus strongly related, and have been the focus of several extant studies. Owing to the increasing practical applications such as automatic driving and cleaning robots, the applicability of these techniques is increasing. To facilitate innovation, various papers pertaining to these topics are called for, including those on the development of practical technologies.

Robots consist of many elements, such as actuators, sensors, computers, and mechanical components. Nowadays, progress of AI field induced by the tremendous improvements in computer processing capabilities, has been allowing robots to behave in more sophisticated manner, and this has drawn considerable attention. On the other hand, “the mechanism,” which directly produces robot movements, sometimes brings out abilities that cannot be provided solely by computer control through sensor feedback. “Integrated Knowledge on Innovative Robot Mechanisms” is a knowledge system for robot mechanisms that bring forth useful and innovative functions and values. In this special issue, papers related to robot mechanisms that will widely contribute to robotics development are welcome to be submitted.

[in Japanese]
Journal of Robotics and Mechatronicsでは、大学の研究者による研究論文だけではなく、企業の技術者や大学・高専の学生による開発報告も募集しています。ロボティクス・メカトロニクスのシステム・技術を開発してみたが学術研究としてはまとめづらい場合であっても、自分たちの開発成果を読者に紹介したいという場合には、開発報告を書いてください。掲載されるとオンラインで無料公開され、世界中の読者に対して自分たちの成果を発信できます。英文誌ですが、英語で書くのが苦手な方でも、日本語で書いて出版社で翻訳することも可能です。開発現場での製品開発やロボット競技会での活動を通して達成した成果を、ぜひとも開発報告として投稿してください。

[in English]
The Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics (JRM) is calling for not only research papers from university researchers but also development reports from corporate engineers and university or college students. If you would like to present to our readers a system or technology you have developed in the field of robotics and mechatronics, you are encouraged to write a development report, even if you find difficulty in writing a research paper. Once published, your report will appear online free of charge and be shared with readers all over the world. JRM is an English journal, but if you are not confident in your English skills, you can write your report in Japanese and we will translate it for you. We are looking forward to receiving your development reports on, such as, product development in your company or an achievement in a robotics competition.
<PDF>: https://www.fujipress.jp/main/wp-content/uploads/JRM_CFP_Development.pdf

[in Japanese]
近年、3Dプリンタが急速に注目を集めています。高性能化と低価格化を背景に、一般家庭でも3Dプリンタを所有できる時代になり、個人でも容易にデジタルデータからオリジナルの立体造形物を作り出すことが可能になりました。ものづくり革命の到来とも言われています。JRMでは、3Dプリンタによるものづくりの革新を特集するため、革新的な造形技術やモデリング技術、理工系教育への応用、などロボット・メカトロニクス分野への応用が期待される3Dプリンタの技術の報告を募集します。投稿者と読者の間でモデリングデータやノウハウを共有し、創造的アイデアのネットワークを形成していくことも狙いの１つです。大学や研究機関からはもちろん、企業からも、皆様の投稿をお待ちしております。

[in English]
The high performance and low price of 3D printers have made them available to ordinary homes and individuals. Nowadays original 3D objects can be easily produced by individuals using 3D printers. To focus on the innovation of manufacturing using 3D printers, we are calling for technical reports introducing 3D printer technologies applied to robotics and mechatronics fields. Examples include innovative shaping and modeling technology, scientific and technological education, and so on. One of our aims is to form a creative network among authors and readers through the sharing of modeling data and technical knowledge. Submissions are welcome from both academic institutions such as universities and laboratories and from commercial and other enterprises.
Details are given in the following PDF.
https://www.fujipress.jp/main/wp-content/uploads/JRM_3DPrinter_CFP_En.pdf

Regular paper submission is always welcome.