Applications of Intelligent Control Methods in Mechatronic Systems Ⅱ

Dear Colleagues,

Following the great success of the “Applications of Intelligent Control Methods in Mechatronic Systems” Special Issue, which was published in December 2020, we have decided to launch a second edition, which will hopefully be as successful and provide as much insight as the first.

Mechatronics is an engineering discipline integrating the fields of mechanics, electronics, control, and computer science. Many modern systems and products, such as robots, manipulators, autonomous vehicles, electronic instruments, manufacturing equipment, and energy systems, are designed and constructed by using mechatronic systems. The main characteristic of these systems is the progressively tighter coupling of mechanisms and an increasing number of electrical or electronic components with software. The arrangements of these components and software ensure their functions, specifically in terms of their reliability, stability, and performance. From the point of view of dynamics, mechatronic systems can be characterized by model uncertainties, high nonlinearities, complicated couplings, and stringent performance requirements, among other things. To deal with the abovementioned facts, strong research activity is still ongoing that aims to design efficient controllers that can guarantee high performance control despite the presence of system uncertainties and external disturbances. Among the various control strategies, intelligent control (IC) methods with artificial intelligence have been widely studied and developed for mechatronic systems in terms of direct control, parameter optimization, system identification, uncertainty estimation, and compensation. With the help of IC methods, it is possible to achieve better accuracy, robustness, reliability, and implementation simplicity. In addition, the learning algorithms can adapt the control parameters to ensure stability and efficiency for mechatronic systems in diverse applications under adverse conditions.

Hence, the objective of this Special Issue of the Applied Sciences journal is to provide a forum for the presentation of new and recent developments in IC methods as applied to mechatronics systems. This Special Issue will consider high-quality research and review papers that deal with theoretical and application aspects of IC methods in mechatronic systems. Specific topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following or related topics:

• Mechanical and mechatronic systems;
• Robotics and automation systems;
• Industry and manufacturing applications;
• Transportation and energy systems;
• Intelligent systems design and control;
• Neural- and fuzzy-based control systems;
• Machine learning in control applications;
• Knowledge-based control systems;
• Information-based models for control;
• Data-driven control and applications;
• Artificial intelligence and soft computing;
• Evolutionary, echanism-based control;
• Biologically inspired algorithms in control;
• Hierarchical intelligent control systems;
• Hybrid learning and control techniques;
• Reinforcement learning for control;
• Adaptive signal processing and control;
• Observation and approximation techniques;
• Uncertainty estimation and compensation;
• Systems modelling and simulation;
• Intelligent surveillance, fault detection, and diagnosis;
• Real-time and hardware-in-the-loop simulation.

Prof. Dr. Syuan-Yi Chen
Guest Editor

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