Special Issue on Navigation and Control Technologies for Autonomous Mobility

Autonomous mobility, as exemplified by self-driving cars, autonomous mobile robots, drones, etc., is essential to the acceleration and practical application of transportation services and the automation of delivery, guidance, security, and inspection. Therefore, in recent years, expectations have been building for autonomous mobility to grow as a technology that not only improves the convenience and comfort of transportation and the efficiency of logistics but also leads to solutions to various social problems. Various technological elements are required to ensure the safety and quality of autonomous mobility. For example, technology is needed to create environmental maps and automatically determine obstacles based on data acquired by cameras and sensors such as LiDAR. Technologies for planning appropriate routes and controlling robots safely and comfortably are also essential. This special issue highlights 24 exciting papers, including 20 research papers, three letters, and one development report. They are related to “recognition,” “decision and planning,” and “control” technologies for autonomous mobile robots, such as self-driving cars and drones. The papers’ keywords are as follows: • Collision avoidance, path planning, path tracking control • Motion control, attitude control • Measurement, position and posture estimation, modeling • Point cloud processing We would like to express our gratitude to all authors and reviewers, and we hope that this special issue contributes to future research and development in autonomous mobility.