Domestic Service Robots in the Real World

The use of robots in domestic environments has increased largely in the recent years. There are already several millions robots used for basic household chores (e.g. vacuum cleaning) or for entertainment. It is expected that domestic service robots become more and more useful, autonomous, multipurpose and reliable, and that they will be able to interact with humans and objects in the real world in a natural way. This challenge poses a large number of unsolved problems across many scientific disciplines. The aim of this special issue is to present recent advances in domestic service robotics, showing robots that are able to operate in real home