Toward Real-World Deployment: Trends in Autonomous Field Robotics
A special issue of Machines (ISSN 2075-1702). This special issue belongs to the section "Robotics, Mechatronics and Intelligent Machines".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 64
Special Issue Editors
Interests: field robotics; autonomous vehicles; learning-based control
Interests: machine vision; robotics; medical AI
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Autonomous field robots are transforming operations across a wide range of domains—including agriculture, mining, construction, marine and aerial exploration, infrastructure inspection, and environmental monitoring. These systems must navigate and act in unstructured, dynamic, and often harsh environments—posing significant challenges in perception, control, localization, planning, and robustness. While laboratory-scale demonstrations continue to advance rapidly, the real-world deployment of autonomous robots remains a critical frontier.
This Special Issue aims to bring together recent advances and emerging trends that enable the successful deployment of autonomous field robotics systems in practical applications. We welcome original research and review articles that explore system-level integration, real-time decision-making, resilient autonomy, long-term field testing, and cross-disciplinary innovations that push the boundaries of robotics in the wild.
Contributions involving real-world deployment and experimental validation are particularly encouraged. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Field robotics and autonomous systems;
- Perception and control in unstructured environments;
- Robustness, resilience, and long-term autonomy;
- Real-world deployment and validation;
- Sensor fusion and environmental perception;
- Task and motion planning in dynamic environments;
- Systems integration for field-ready platforms.
Dr. Jay Wang
Dr. Ziyang Wang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- autonomous field robotics
- real-world deployment
- robust perception and control
- long-term autonomy
- sensor fusion in unstructured environments
- system integration and validation
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