Special Issue on the Ninth International Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR)

• Robotics is undergoing major transformations. Originally focused on industrial manufacturing, it is now rapidly expanding into new domains, such as medical surgery, care of the elderly, ocean and space exploration, transportation, entertainment, homes and offices, and search-and-rescue. In these new domains tasks are less repetitive, environments less structured, and events less predictable. It is impossible to consider explicitly all contingencies in the robot programs. Algorithms that adapt to uncertainties and changes are increasingly needed to achieve greater autonomy over long periods of time. • Robot algorithms are finding applications beyond robotics, for example, in designing mechanical assemblies, modeling molecular motion, animating digital characters for video games and computer-generated movies, simulating architectural designs, and studying product ergonomy. These non-traditional applications of robot algorithms pose new challenges: dealing with hundreds or thousands of degrees of freedom, handling large populations of individually modeled characters, reasoning under complex physical constraints, and generating natural-looking motions. Solving these challenges will in turn benefit future robotics.