Robotic Technologies for Predictive Maintenance of Assets and Infrastructure: [From the Guest Editors]

The articles in this special section focus on robotic technologies for predictive maintenance of assets and infrastructure. Contemporary society depends significantly on the continuous, undisrupted functioning of the infrastructure system that provides us with energy, means of transport, and the extraction and delivery of raw materials as well as the provision of food and goods. Predictive maintenance is considered the most suitable approach to ensure the healthy functioning of infrastructure because it allows for preventative detection and avoidance of infrastructure breakdowns and their consequences for governments and societies. However, predictive maintenance often implies high costs in addition to safety-related issues because it requires regular inspection, generally deploying human operators in harsh and difficult-to-reach environments. To be both financially and functionally sustainable, infrastructure owners-as well as the industries operating and servicing them-are investigating new ways to automate inspection and maintenance procedures.