Metaheuristics for the Planning, Design and Control of Mechatronic Systems with Energy Efficiency in Engineering Applications

Dear Colleagues, 

Current applications in engineering that are based on the use of mechatronic systems demand the fulfillment of various performance requirements. In order to meet these requirements, it is necessary to optimize one or several stages in the development of such systems, which may include task planning, design, and control. Regardless of the stage, the optimization is oriented towards increased precision, cost reduction, resource utilization, etc., which translates, directly or indirectly, into efficient energy consumption and management. Due to the nature of mechatronic systems, the optimization problems involved in their development are complex. For instance, those might involve topics from different mechatronic disciplines such as the energy conversion and management from the electrical engineering perspective; in the mechanical engineering branch with the reduction of the torque and forces produced by the mechanical structure; in the control area by tuning the controller gains of systems; in the computer science by making the shortest path planning, among others.

Despite their complexity, these problems can be handled by sophisticated computational techniques such as metaheuristics. Meta-heuristic algorithms are valuable tools that can be implemented to find innovative solutions in complicated search spaces based on phenomena and behaviors observed in nature and society. In addition, they can provide novelty and improved design solutions for different applications. 

This Topic invites contributions addressing recent research results on energy optimization both direct and indirect, in the planning, design, and control optimization of mechatronic systems using novel metaheuristic strategies. 

Topics include but are not limited to: 

• Optimized task and path planning for robots.
• Optimized controller tuning. 
• Optimized mechanical, electronic, control, or integrated design 
• Applications of optimized mechatronic systems in engineering, medicine, rehabilitation, etc.
• Applications for computational intelligence in system optimization. 
• Engineering optimization through metaheuristics. 
• Novel metaheuristics for mechatronic system optimization. 
• Multidisciplinary optimization for mechatronic systems
• Optimized energy power systems for mechatronic systems
• Optimized planning and management of energy for mechatronic systems

Once papers are accepted according to the publication times outlined at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies, they will be published on a rolling basis. We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Prof. Dr. Miguel Gabriel Villarreal-Cervantes
Dr. Alejandro Rodríguez-Molina
Dr. Efrén Mezura-Montes
Topic Editors