Special Section: Theory and Design of Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots

Abstract

Advanced robotic systems are expected to be smartly reconfigurable to adapt to new needs for versatile operations in rapidly changing unknown, uncertain environments. The evolution has led to worldwide research interest in developing reconfigurable mechanisms and robots as intelligentmechanical systems which have the ability to change their mobility, configurations, kinematics, and dynamics performance for various application scenarios in industrial automation, healthcare, space, field exploration, maintenance, domestic operations, human assistance, and augmentation. This Special Section features 14 papers that highlight the latest theories, designs, analyses, and deployments of reconfigurable mechanisms and robots with contributions from papers presented in the IEEE/IFToMM International Conference on Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots (ReMAR 2021) [1] as well as an Open Call for Papers.