Positioning systems play an important role in industrial and scientific applications, making their performance improvements and functional expansions crucial. Positioning systems generally consist of mechanisms, actuators, controllers, and sensors, with performances and functions depending on their integration. Accordingly, positioning technologies focus on these elements and their integration into the system. Actuators are fundamental and critical elements that characterize positioning systems. Electromagnetic actuators are the most widely used because of their high basic performance, and piezoelectric actuators are often used for fine movement. In addition, research on new actuators with unique characteristics is actively being pursued. In component integration, control technology plays a crucial role in effectively utilizing the characteristics of elements and addressing their drawbacks. With the recent advances in digital technology facilitating nonlinear representations and structural modifications, various control methods have been proposed and evaluated to benefit from these advances. In addition to proposing modeling methods, the effects of manufacturing processes on system performance have been evaluated.

This special issue contains 18 papers covering the design and characteristics of mechanisms and actuators, control technology, system design, and modeling, along with three review papers on positioning technology and its applications. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the authors for their excellent contributions to the special issue. We also thank the reviewers for their incisive efforts in editing this special issue. We hope that this special issue will help readers enhance their knowledge and understanding of positioning technology and its applications, thereby contributing to its progress.