The Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ) is a unique society that exclusively
focuses on robotics, and it is now celebrating its 20th anniversary this
year. First of all, I wish to express my deepest appreciation to you all,
the readers of this International Journal - Advanced Robotics, for your
continuing support of this journal and of our society. Thanks to the support
from our friends in the worldwide robotics community, the RSJ has consolidated
its position as one of the world’s leading scientific and technological
societies over the past 20 years.
A few years after the establishment
of the RSJ, we started to publish this journal, and its 16th volume is now
being issued. Owing to the contributors to date as well as the efforts of the
past and present editors, the journal is now recognized as one of the most
distinguished publications in the robotics field, gaining higher popularity
and greater impact with an increasing number of citations. The main mission of
the journal is, of course, the timely publication of high-quality original
papers submitted from all over the world. For this, we are targeting the date
of final decision to be within 20 weeks after the paper is received.
We also understand that one additional
role of the journal is to keep other parts of the world up to date on the
cutting-edge of on-going robotics research in Japan. Another role is to
select important papers from those presented at RSJ-sponsoring conferences
and to widely circulate them in more detail. In the future, we are intending
to expand our scope to various new application fields of robotics, ranging
from factory automation to office automation and social automation. Advanced
Robotics will thus be more beneficial to you by satisfying your ever-changing
interests, needs, and expectations.
Publication of the RSJ Journal in
Japanese is another activity of our society. This journal gives our members
the opportunity to renew their knowledge on the most recent robotics
technologies as well as the opportunity to publish their works at the
relevant time. By commemorating our 20th anniversary, the editorial board of
the RSJ Journal made a considerable effort to collect historically
outstanding papers published by RSJ members, and has published them as a
DVD-ROM. More than 100 papers were selected from our own journals and from
other sources. Together with these PDF-based original papers, related
photographs and videos were also collected for inclusion. As a result, the
DVD-ROM became a sort of historical museum of robotics research and
development, and it was distributed to RSJ members as a memento of the 20th
anniversary. Unfortunately, it is not on sale because of its limited
publication; however, its introductory article can be found elsewhere in this
issue.
Holding various technical conferences
and meetings to exchange new ideas between our members is also an important
activity of our society. One typical conference is the annual RSJ Conference
held every autumn, where more than 600 papers are usually presented and more
than 1000 members gather. Awards of the year are given at its plenary session
to authors for their excellent papers, to young researchers for their
excellent presentations, and to enterprises for their outstanding developments
of robotics-related products and systems. This year, we started a new
fellowship program, under which some selected members, who made extraordinary
contributions to our society and to our technological field, were rewarded at
this conference.
Besides this annual event, we
co-sponsor more than 100 conferences and meetings each year by collaborating
with other organizations. One typical example is the international
conference, IROS, in which the RSJ actively takes part together with IEEE and
SICE. The RSJ is also trying to encourage future young scientists and
engineers, for example, by giving RSJ President Awards to championship
winners at several national and international robot competitions.
The RSJ is thus providing a wide range of services and opportunities, and is
always trying to make them more lively and interesting for better serving our
members and our friends in the worldwide robotics community.
Thank you very much again for your
contributions to date, and we appreciate your continuing support and
cooperation for further improvements of Advanced Robotics and of our society
over the next 20 years.
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