Special Issue on Advanced Controls And Signal Processing in Active And Robotic Systems

For quite some time the idea about this special cross-disciplinary issue has been both puzzling as well as troubling me until finally I came to a positive conclusion. To my joy, Prof. Dr. Katica R. (Stevanovic) Hedrih, Madam Editor-in-Chief of Facta Universitaties Series on Mechanics, Automatics Control and Robotics, embraced this idea frankly and not only devoted her efforts and time but also her passionate co-operation in all respects. Furthermore, to even greater joy of mine, a number of distinguished colleagues as well as young researchers have embraced the idea too. They all co-operated with me on this special issue with patience, for which I remain indebted to them for life. Here it is now this special issue before the competent research communities for final evaluation. For indeed their words are the final ones. This special issue begins with the article "Nanorobots for Microfactories to Operations in the Human Body and Robots Propelled by Bacteria" by Professor Sylvain Martel form Ottawa, Canada. This article is focused on the exploitation of the properties at the nanoscale that enables novel nanorobotic-based instrumented platforms and techniques. Some unique interdisciplinary examples from his research laboratory are described thus providing certain insights about the possibilities and the huge potentials of nanorobotics with main application areas in medicine and bioengineering. These also include supporting the new robotic platforms for micro- and nanomanufacturing and high-throughput automatic operations at the nanoscale. For several applications where specifications cannot be met using modern technologies, especially at such small scales, a highly interdisciplinary approach integrating biological components in engineered systems becomes an essential part of the development process, which opens a new prospect to nanorobotics. This article is based on his plenary talk at the 2007 IFAC Workshop on Technology Transfer to Developing Countries (DECOM 2007) in Cesme, Turkey.