Emerging Paradigms for Robotic Manipulation: From the Lab to the Productive World [From the Guest Editors]

The articles in this special section aim to stimulate and gather publications describing how new approaches in the field of robotic manipulation can be (or have already been) transferred from research labs to the productive world. Novel robotic developments are going hand in hand with the need for innovation in manufacturing and service applications. Large industries increasingly need fast-adapting production lines, whereas small and medium-sized enterprises are adopting collaborative manipulators to gain a competitive edge in global markets. Additionally, a growing number of companies are producing and using service robots for a variety of applications, from agriculture to surgery. In this emerging framework, robots should be able to grasp and manipulate different tools as well as operate in fast-changing or even unstructured surroundings, possibly interacting with human users or coworkers. These real-world scenarios require going beyond traditional parallel-jaw grippers and preprogrammed or teleoperated trajectories and require searching for innovative grasping and manipulation paradigms that can cope with the needs of uncertain environments.