Advanced Control Methods in Marine

Robotics Applications
About this Research Topic
The main objective of this article collection consists in gathering together the
Control engineering and science and Marine Robotics communities, allowing a
productive exchange among people with different backgrounds. This Research
Topic is based on outputs from the workshop 'Hand-Shaking Advanced Control in
Marine Robotics Applications' at IROS 2018. However, we would also welcome
spontaneous submissions not associated with this workshop, assuming they fit the
scope of the Research Topic. In particular, the aim is to let experts in advanced
automatic control techniques and theory, more specifically focused on theoretical
developments in the field, to present the recent advancements and new trends
within their community; at the same time, experts in marine robotics can present
their current work and achievements, highlighting the currently unsolved problems
and challenges in the advanced guidance navigation and control of the single
marine platforms, as well as the challenges concerning the control of teams of
heterogeneous robots.

The article collection aims to foster the exchange of different perspectives and the
birth of new ideas and research lines. We hope to facilitate the exchange of
different perspectives and the birth of new ideas and possible advancements in the
fields. We are convinced that, by putting in touch the Marine Robotics and the
Automatic Control communities, research in the two fields could strongly benefit
from productive discussion and joint work of the two communities and that experts
and students of both communities could learn a lot from each other. Collaboration
among different actors in the two communities (researchers, industrials, end-
users…) has also the aim to speed up the technological transfer from science and
research to industry, thus allowing effective and fast advancements of robotics in
civilian everyday life applications. Moreover, participation of students and young
researchers will help to understand the importance of the joined fields and to shape
the new generations of scientists.

Objectives stated above will be pursued by addressing various currently relevant

topics. Marine Robotics experts will deal with current challenges in their field and
requirements for advanced guidance navigation and control systems of marine
platforms. More specifically, faced topics will range from robots for deep ocean
exploration, persistent systems, biomimetics applied to marine applications, safety
and effectiveness of marine platforms for the interaction with humans (e.g. divers)
and from single to multi-vehicle systems, from fully to partially sensorized vehicles
and relative challenges for their control systems.

Automatic Control experts will face topics among which: control system problems in
the interaction with humans and environment, advanced control of systems with
uncertain dynamics working within uncertain environments, embodiment and
morphological computation, and the need of “orchestration control” for robots
exploiting their morphology and physical dynamics, classical control with prioritized
tasks for manipulation and intervention, as well as arm/vehicle motion coordination,
self-organization of behaviours in soft robots.

Topics:
• Advanced control methodologies
• Robot exploitation for (deep) ocean exploration
• Embodiment and morphological computation, and the need of “orchestration
control”
• Biomimetics in marine robotics applications
• Control system problems in the interaction with humans and environment
• Self-organization of behaviours in soft robots
• Persistent Autonomy through Learning and Adaptation
• Multi-robot system control
• Future trends in marine robotics

Keywords: Advanced Control, Control Theory, Control Engineering, Marine Robotics,

Underwater Robotics

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope
of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission
statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a
more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.