Adaptive and Nonlinear Control of Robotics

This Reprint of a Special Issue on "Adaptive and Nonlinear Control of Robotics" brings together nine original research contributions exploring state-of-the-art control strategies for robotic systems operating under nonlinear dynamics, uncertain parameters, reconfiguration, or complex physical constraints. The platforms considered in this work-including cable-driven parallel robots, underactuated manipulators, soft continuum arms, industrial manipulators, teleoperation systems, and bio-inspired swimmers-reflect the diversity of modern robotics and the need for robust, adaptive, and energy-efficient control beyond classical linear paradigms. Collectively, these contributions highlight the maturation of nonlinear and adaptive control from theoretical research into practical, application-ready methodologies. They illustrate how modern control design-through parameter estimation, optimization, sliding-mode control, Lyapunov methods, and metaheuristic tuning-can address real-world challenges in reconfigurable robots, underactuated systems, soft manipulators, energy-efficient motion, human-robot interaction, teleoperation under delays, and dynamic task execution. At the same time, they underscore ongoing challenges: achieving rapid adaptation without compromising stability, balancing precision with transient response, ensuring safe human-robot interaction, reducing computational load for real-time control, and integrating control with higher-level planning and perception.