The development of autonomous robotic systems face severe challenges due to the heterogeneous nature of the technological issues involved. The process of bringing intelligence to a robot requires the tight integration of sensing, processing, and acting capabilities. Software plays a key role as it is the medium to embody intelligence in the machine.
As robotics systems are becoming more complex, distributed, and integrated, there is the need to promote the construction of new systems as composition of reusable building blocks. System modularity and interoperability are key factors that enable the development of reusable software. If a system is modular, its functionality can be customized by replacing individual components. When two or more systems are interoperable, they can be (re)used as components of more complex systems.
This special issue seeks papers that present the challenges and demonstrate the effectiveness of software development and integration techniques in building robotic systems, such as software architectures, application frameworks, design patterns, middleware, and software processes.
Authors are invited to submit papers that describe their experience with the development and integration of robotic software systems and capture the lessons learned in moving toward modular and reusable software developments in robotics. The editors are particularly interested in papers that identify recurring themes and challenges in the development and integration of software components and systems from various robotic domains
Topics of interest
The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
* Crafting modular software control systems for robotic applications
* Integration of robotic software systems
* Reuse of robotic software systems and applications
* Description of work in progress, innovative ideas, field-based studies, related to the adoption of software development techniques in building robotic systems
* Scalability of various approaches to software modularity and reuse
* Challenges and research directions
Submissions
Authors are encouraged to clearly present the novelty of their work, its impact on the development of software systems in the robotics domain, to place their work appropriately in the intellectual context of the development of the field, and to ensure that their presentation is clear and concise. Submissions will be peer reviewed. The papers should not be published or submitted somewhere else.
Papers should not exceed 6 pages. Instructions to prepare the manuscripts can be found at the journal web site following the link to "Publishing of Manuscripts". .Submissions should be sent both in doc and pdf format via email to with the subject "ARS special issue".
Authors wishing to discuss potential submissions are encouraged to contact the editor Davide Brugali.
Guest Editors:
Davide Brugali (point of contact)
Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Italy
E-mail:
Issa A. D. Nesnas
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA
E-mail:
Important dates
Deadline for submissions: July 15, 2005
Author's notification: October 15, 2005
Final paper submission: December 1, 2005
Special issue's publication: March 2006
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