The field of telerobotics [From the Guest Editors]

Abstract

Telerobotics is perhaps one of the oldest fields in robotics. Since its humble beginning in the 1940s when the first teleoperator was designed, the focus had been primarily on the nuclear, space, and underwater applications until the 1980s. The recent advances in computing power and in communications have led to the emergence of new applications such as telesurgery, semiautonomous telerobotics, live power line maintenance, and others. On the other hand, progress in bilateral control has been the key point for the development of new master-slave architectures, which are important in precise telemanipulation tasks. This pervasive interest has spawned the continuous development of the new telerobotic systems.