Int. J. Mach. Tools Manufac!. Vol. 28. No.3. p.195. 1988.Printed in Great Britain

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GUEST EDITORIAL: ROBOTICS AND AI

THIS SPECIAL Issue focuses upon aspects of intelligent robots and their future industrialuse. The papers forming the issue cover topics generally identified with the fields ofAdvanced Robotics or Artificial Intelligence: sensing, reasoning, planning, manipu­lation, and mobility.

Four papers-half of the issue-are devoted to sensing, such a strong bias reflectingits important role in intelligent behaviour. The first two papers in this group, by Phamand Menendez, and Rangwala, Forouhar and Dornfeld describe new sensing techniquesbased on inertial and acoustic principles respectively. The other two papers by Nara­thong, Inigo, Doner and McVey and Rueb and Wong, deal with vision, undoubtedlythe most potent of all the senses.

Geometric reasoning and task planning are discussed in the paper by Ji and Roth inthe context of determining how to grasp an object.

The paper by Drunk presents a mobile robot in which sensing and planning areintegrated in the control structure.

The final two papers in the Issue, one by Redford and the other by Haynes andMorris, concentrate on some practical problems associated with robotic assembly, thenext industrial application area to be conquered by intelligent machines.

D. T. PHAMGuest EditorDepartment of Mechanical EngineeringUniversity of BirminghamPOB 363Birmingham B15 2IT

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