Call for papers: Soft Robotics - a new journal dedicated to soft machines

Dear colleagues and friends, 

On behalf of the editorial board, I would like to introduce our new Journal, Soft Robotics (SoRo) to the mechanics community. SoRo is an innovative peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the science and engineering of soft materials in mobile machines. The Journal breaks new ground as the first to answer the urgent need for research on robotic technology that can safely interact with living systems and function in complex natural or human-built environments.

Multidisciplinary in scope, SoRo combines advances in biomedical engineering, biomechanics, mathematical modeling, biopolymer chemistry, computer science, and tissue engineering to provide comprehensive coverage of new approaches to constructing devices that can undergo dramatic changes in shape and size in order to adapt to various environments. This new technology delivers vital applications for a variety of purposes, including surgery, assistive healthcare devices, search and rescue in emergency situations, space instrument repair, mine detection, and more.

Soft Robotics (SoRo) coverage includes:

Soft material creation, characterization, and modeling

Flexible and transient electronics

Soft actuators and sensors

Control and simulation of highly deformable structures

Biomechanics and control of soft animals and tissues

Biohybrid devices and living machines

Design and fabrication of conformable machines

SoRo is under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Barry A. Trimmer, PhD, Henry Bromfield Pearson Professor of Natural Sciences and Director of the Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Laboratory at Tufts University. The five associate editors are:

Josh Bongard, PhD

Department of Computer Science

University of Vermont

Burlington, VT

Fumiya Iida, PhD 

Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems 

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology 

Zürich, Switzerland

John H. Long, Jr, PhD

Department of Biology 

Interdisciplinary Robotics Research Laboratory 

Vassar College 

Poughkeepsie, NY

Nanshu Lu, PhD

Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics

University of Texas  

Austin, Texas

Qibing Pei, PhD

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

University of California, Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA

The official launch of the journal was carried out at the Living Machines Conference (sponsored by the Convergent Science Network of Biomimetic and Bio-hybrid systems) in London in August, 2013. The preview issue includes an editorial article from the editor-in-chief, a perspective and five state-of-the-field reviews, and a round table discussion attended by all the authors. There is ever growing interest in soft active materials and soft machines in the mechanics community and please consider submitting your manuscripts  to SoRo whenever there is a chance. Your support and contribution will make SoRo a truly interdisciplinary and international journal!

Thank you for your interest.

Nanshu