Selected Papers from MEDER 2024: Advances of Mechanism Design for Robotic Machines

This Special Issue aims to promote and circulate the recent developments and achievements of the international community in the field of Robot Design within Mechanism and Machine Science, ranging from theoretical contributions to experimental and practical applications. It contains selected contributions that were accepted for presentation at the Sixth International Symposium on Mechanism Design for Robotics (MEDER 2024), held in Timisoara, Romania, on 27–29 June 2024 [1]. This MEDER 2024 conference is the sixth event of a series that was established in 2010 in Mexico City, Mexico, and continued in Beijing, China in 2012, in Aalborg, Denmark in 2015, in Cassino, Italy in 2018, and in Poitiers, France in 2021. The MEDER conference events were established to bring together researchers, industry professionals, and students from a broad range of disciplines related to mechanisms and robotics to share the latest developments and discuss future directions for mechanism and robotics research.

This Special Issue includes papers belonging to a broad range of disciplines covering several aspects of the wide field of Mechanism Design for Robotics, with challenging problems and innovative solutions from theoretical studies to practical applications including new robot designs and prototypes.

These contributions have been selected from the 45 papers from 18 countries across the globe that were presented at MEDER conference [1]. The authors have been invited to contribute extended revised versions of the works presented here, and these contributions have mostly been selected from those receiving award recognition in one of the three IFToMM categories of research, applications, and students. These papers were evaluated again via a blind peer-review process to confirm the high quality of the works. In particular, paper [2] presents design improvements to a L-CADEL v.3 Elbow-Assisting Device based on test results and design experiences. Manuscript [3] is 3-Degree-of-Freedom kinematic–biologically matched hip joint for a lower limb exoskeleton integrating IMU data for motor dynamic compensation to ultimately facilitate a more natural gait. In [4], the design of a rotational variable stiffness mechanism is offered together with its validation through simulations and hardware experiments. Paper [5] proposes a design methodology for a polycentric transfemoral knee prosthesis, whose validation is discussed through kinematic synthesis, numerical simulations, and visual analyses. Paper [6] presents the design and experimental characterization of two prototypes of a human knee joint exoskeleton, whose capabilities are discussed in terms of the motion trajectories of selected tibia/femur points and the calculated knee joint’s flexion/extension angle.

We would like to thank the following members of the Scientific Committees for their solid support in the success of MEDER 2024:

Marco Ceccarelli (Univ. of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy, Chair);

Ding Xilun (Beihang Univ., China);

Mario Acevedo (Panamerican Univ., Mexico);

Shaoping Bai (Aalborg Univ., Denmark);

Yukio Takeda (Tokyo Inst. of Tech., Japan);

Alba Perez (Tech. Univ. Barcelona, Spain);

Yan Jin (Belfast Univ., UK);

Erwin-Chr. Lovasz (Poli. Univ. Timisoara, Romania);

Said Zeghloul (Poitiers Univ., France)

Victor Petuya (Univ. of Basque Country, Spain);

Kenji Hashimoto (Waseda Univ., Japan);

Gao Huang (Beijing Tech. Univ., China);

Matteo Russo (Univ. of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy);

Rogério Sales Gonçalves (Uberlândia Univ., Brazil);

Alexey Fomin (Mech. Eng. Research Inst. IMASH-RAN, Russia).

The guest editors of this Special Issue thank the authors and reviewers for the effort and time spent on the valuable scientific contributions and useful feedback that have confirmed the high scientific quality of the MEDER 2024 papers. We also take this opportunity to welcome contributions for the next MEDER 2026 event that is scheduled to be held in Uberlândia at the Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil, on 17–20 June 2026.