Abstract
The Interdisciplinary Nature of Robotics
Due to its nature of combining mechanical bodies, electrical components, and computer brains, robotics can be firmly regarded as an interdisciplinary field of study.1,2 The classical disciplines that most would consider the core disciplines involved in robotics include mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science.
Nevertheless, robotics has become increasingly interdisciplinary over the past few decades. For example, bio-inspired robotics, a branch of robotics that focuses on the elucidation of biological principles that inspire the design of novel engineered robotic systems, naturally requires interdisciplinary cooperation that may include biology, biomechanics, and fundamental understanding of animal locomotion.3,4 In the last decade, there has also been increased interest in the use of soft, deformable materials in robotic systems. This emerging field, commonly known as soft robotics, envisions robotic systems able to carry out various tasks in unstructured environments, just like their biological counterparts, due to their soft deformable bodies.5,6 Examples of these envisioned tasks include grasping of objects with a wide variety of shapes and sizes, safe interaction between humans and robots, as well as locomotion in irregular terrains. The emergence of soft robotics is also related to the emergence of a modern view of intelligence, known as embodied intelligence, that emphasizes the importance of the tight coupling between a machine's brain (controller), morphology (materials, shape, size) and the environment in which it operates.7,8 Owing to its characteristics, soft robotics is therefore closely related to several disciplines such as biology, material science, or even cognitive science.9,10
To discuss the interdisciplinary nature of robotics from educational point of view, Birk showed statistical analysis based on data taken from the Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science from 1989-2009. 1 Without claiming that the used methodology to collect the data is the same Birk, 1 Figures 1-3 show analyses based on recent statistics from the Web of Science to show the continuing interdisciplinary nature of robotics. Figure 1 shows the percentage of certain department names in all papers published in the top ten journals in the “Robotics” category of each year's Journal Citation Report. For each year, the full bibliographic records of all papers published in these journals were used to search by using the search terms “comp” (computer science), “mech” (mechanical), “elec” (electrical), “bio” (biology), and “cog” (cognitive) in the “Address” field. The results were tallied and then used to generate the corresponding percentages (number of results / total papers published that year). The results for “bio” and “cog” were combined when determining the percentages. Figures 2 and 3 were generated by using “bioinspired robot” and “soft robot” as the search keyword in Web of Science (using “All Fields”) and then filtered by each year. For each year, the full bibliographic records of all papers published during that year were downloaded prior to the same searches on the “Address” field as described for Figure 1. These results were again tallied and then the shown charts were created.
The percentage distribution of disciplines in authors' affiliations in all publications published in the top ten journals in the “Robotics” category of each year's Journal Citation Report from 2010-2021.
The percentage distribution of disciplines in authors' affiliations in all publications published in Web of Science generated by using “bioinspired robot” as the search keyword from 2010-2021.
The percentage distribution of disciplines in authors' affiliations in all publications published in Web of Science generated by using “soft robot” as the search keyword from 2010-2021.
Figure 1 confirms the highly interdisciplinary nature of robotics field in general by showing the significant percentage of each contributing discipline. Figure 2 shows a different trend compared to Figure 1 where biology/cognitive science starts to become the most dominant discipline in bio-inspired robotics. Furthermore, while Figure 3 may at first look like Figure 1, differences can also be observed. As shown in Figure 1, computer science is the second most dominant discipline in robotics after mechanical engineering, while biology/cognitive science is generally the least dominant one. However, Figure 3 shows that in the field of soft robotics, biology/cognitive science is the second most dominant after mechanical engineering, while computer science is the least dominant field in the past few years. Mechanical engineering also seems to be more dominant in the field of soft robotics, but it must also be noted that the used search methodology may include material science as part of mechanical engineering.
Challenges and Perspectives
Having confirmed the highly interdisciplinary nature of the robotics field through intelligible statistical analysis, one of the main questions, at least from an editor or publisher's point of view, is: “How do we guarantee high quality research publication in a field that continues to become more interdisciplinary, while maintaining turnaround times that are reasonable for all the involved disciplines?”
In order to answer this question, further analysis is required. Namely, the general times to first decision for the various disciplines contributing to robotics research need to be determined. To find these journals, first, the rankings for the various fields in the Journal Citation Report was pulled. Afterward, the websites of the top ten journals in each subject area were visited and the information summarized. It should be noted that not every journal provided this information, and it is also possible that some journals calculate their time to first decision differently from the others. In summary, the timeframes for each field were:
Computer Science: 6-8 weeks Mechanical Engineering: 10-12 weeks Electrical Engineering: 9-10 weeks Biology/Cognitive Science: 4-5 weeks
Since the data summarized was from the top ten journals in each subject area, it is reasonable to assume that a rigorous peer review process was applied in order to reach these decisions. Considering robotics as an interdisciplinary field, a robotics journal that both guarantees the quality of the publication and a reasonable timeframe must therefore pay thoughtful attention to the shown timeframes. A robotics journal that gives its first decision after six months, for example, may not be seen as a reasonable place for computer scientists to publish their scientific results as, if they focus on publishing in journals in their own field, the turnaround time can be as fast as six weeks. On the other hand, a robotics journal that purely emphasizes on making the first decision as quick as possible may naturally raise questions on the quality of the peer review process. If the submitted work is dominated by the mechanical engineering aspects, for example, the data suggests that ten two twelve weeks is still a reasonable timeframe to review the work thoroughly prior to making the first decision.
High quality publication should remain the aim of every scholarly journal and is the key for assuring high quality research output in a particular field, including robotics. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, a scientific article on robotics must be peer reviewed by the experts with various backgrounds within a reasonably rapid timeline. Moreover, the publication should also be accessible to audience as wide as possible that may learn from each other.
When I was approached with the idea of serving as Editor-in-Chief for this new journal by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., my initial thoughts were a mixture of interest and apprehension. Why launch a general robotics journal in what could be considered an already crowded field? Nevertheless, having seen the increasing trend of the interdisciplinary nature of the field, I am convinced that a journal that can embrace this trend in the most functional way possible will bring immense benefits to the community. This is exactly the purpose of Robotics Reports. Robotics is an interdisciplinary field by necessity. As an open access journal serving a broad field, Robotics Reports intends to go beyond just publishing sound science. Rather, it seeks to advance the field by publishing quality research that addresses the fundamental characteristics of robotics as a continuously interdisciplinary field.