The aim of this Research Topic is to address the new trends and emerging technologies in assistive robotics, to emphasize the common features that are applicable to a variety of assistive robotics.

Assistive robotics is most understood to be oriented toward healthcare and support for disabled people. In this Research Topic, the term “assistive robotics” is defined comprehensively as robots that coordinate their actions to provide their users with physical, cognitive and social assistance. Our aim is to consider a wide community of users, including users of all abilities and needs.

We welcome submissions surrounding the applications of emerging and advanced technologies in assistive robotics as well as the theory behind those applications. We encourage the submission of technically rigorous research papers, that present recent fundamental new technologies and methods across all areas of assistive robotics; in particular those that describe multidisciplinary studies that critically evaluate technologies in real-world settings. We welcome user-centric research resulting from collaboration between psychologists, neuroscientists, engineers, medical practitioners, computer scientists, roboticists and designers.

We are specifically interested in new trends in assistive robotics, especially in those systems that go beyond just robotics and consider the combination of other emerging technologies such as Augmented and Virtual Realities and Cyber-Physical systems with integrated social elements. Exploring the advances in these areas will allow us to better understand how emerging technologies can be used in assistive robotics to enhance rehabilitation, assistive living and personal care.

We also welcome contributions that tackle philosophical and ethical issues in the assistive robotics and related technologies, in particular on their effect on society and how they shape emerging complex human-robot relationships, as well as surveys and position papers that widen the boundaries of assistive robotics.

Submissions are encouraged, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Assistive Cyber-Physical Systems (ACPS)
- In healthcare
- Assisted living
- Mathematical methods for analysis and design of ACPS, e.g. Lattice Computing, Formal Concept Analysis
• Virtual, Augmented and Cross realities for assistive robotics
- Design for Assistive Environments
- The Internet of Robotic Things Architectures for support in daily life
• Advanced Assistive Robotics Systems for rehabilitation
- Social, pedagogical, psychosocial, cognitive and motor rehabilitation
- Robotic assistance devices (e.g. powered exoskeletons), Social Sensors, Assistive Interfaces, e.g.
EEG-Based Brain-Computer Interfaces, BCI-based Emotion Recognition, Speech and Haptic
Interfaces, Multimodal User Interfaces
• Advances in computational methods for Assistive Robotics, e.g. Machine Learning methods to enable
better Human-Robot Interactions
• Emerging technologies for social robots
• Social impact of assistive robotics
- Uncanny Valley Effect in Socially Assistive Robotics: How human-like features can affect human-
robot interactions?
- Trust in Social Assistive Robots

Submit your idea

Impact

Frontiers in Robotics and AI

Participating Journals

Impact