Special Journal Issue to Focus on Mechanisms and Robots for Safe Human-Robot Physical Interaction

The ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics is now accepting manuscripts for a special issue concentrating on mechanisms and robots for safe human-robot physical interaction. The deadline for authors to submit a paper for the issue, which will be published in August 2019, is Feb. 28, 2019.

Humans and robots are increasingly expected to coexist and interact in a number of industrial, medical, rehabilitation and assisted-living environments. The physical proximity and interactions between humans and robots in these workplaces have created the need for ensuring human safety in these situations through a variety of design sensing and control approaches.

This special issue of the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics will focus primarily on solutions for achieving safe physical human-robot interaction (PHRI). The editor and guest editors of the issue are particularly interested in manuscripts that focus on unique solutions for ensuring PHRI safety.

Topics to be covered in the special journal issue will include safety-related devices and applications for healthcare, surgery and elder care; passive and active safety mechanisms for human-robot interaction, including minimal actuation mechanisms such as statically balanced devices, underactuated mechanisms, and toggle and break-away/bistable mechanisms for limiting interaction; compliant mechanisms, series-elastic actuation, continuum robots, soft robots, and wearable assistive technologies; active safety for human-robot interaction, including robots with direct sensing of contact/forces/joint effort, estimation of contact, and robots with intelligent control for enforcing safety during physical human-robot interaction; and safe multi-point physical interaction haptic interfaces.

The editor of the Special Issue on Mechanisms and Robots for Safe Human-Robot Physical Interaction is Venkat Krovi, Ph.D., Department of Mechanical Engineering and Automotive Engineering, Clemson University, USA, vkrovi@clemson.edu. The guest editors for the issue are Nabil Simaan, Ph.D., Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, and Otolaryngology, Vanderbilt University, USA, nabil.simaan@vanderbilt.edu; Carl A. Nelson, Ph.D., Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA, cnelson5@unl.edu; and Med Amine Laribi, Ph.D., PPRIME Institute, University of Poitiers, France, med.amine.laribi@univ-poitiers.fr.

Papers should be submitted to ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics by Feb. 28, 2019, through ASME Journals Connect. Authors who already have an account should log in as an author and select “Submit Paper” at the bottom of the page. Authors who don’t have an account should select “Submit Paper” and follow the step-by-step instructions. Authors should then choose ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics when they reach the “Paper Submittal” page and select “Mechanisms and Robots for Safe Human-Robot Physical Interaction” in the special issue dropdown menu.

Papers received after the deadline or papers not selected for inclusion in the special issue may be accepted for publication in a regular issue. Accepted papers will be published online as soon as the entire issue is ready and in the August 2019 print edition of the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics.

For more information on the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, visit http://mechanismsrobotics.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/journal.aspx?journalid=127. To learn more about the ASME Journal Program, visit https://www.asme.org/shop/journals/journals.