Special Issue on Robot Vision - Vision for Action -

Robot vision is a key technology in robotics and mechatronics for realizing intelligent robot systems that work in the real world. The fact that robot vision algorithms required much time and effort to apply in real-world applications has delayed their dissemination until new forms made possible by recent rapid improvements in computer speed. Now the day is coming when robot vision may surpass human vision in many applications. This special issue presents 13 papers on the latest robot vision achievements and their applications. The first two propose ways of measuring and modeling 3D objects in everyday environments. Four more detail object detection and tracking, including visual servoing. Three propose advances in hand feature extraction and pose calculation, and one treats video coding for visual sensor networks. Two papers discuss robot vision applications based on human visual physiology, and the last clarifies an application in optical force sensors. We thank the authors for their invaluable contributions to this issue and the reviewers for their generous time and effort. Last, we thank the Editorial Board of JRM for making this issue possible.