Editorial: Robotic Handling of Deformable Objects

The papers in this special section focus on robotic handling of deformable objects. Object handling and manipulation is a recurrent theme in robotics, moving progressively from simple rigid objects to articulated objects and then complex deformable objects. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the development of robotic systems that are able to handle deformable objects, due to many potential applications in the industrial and domestic field but also in robotics in remote hostile environments. Despite the promising prospects, considering object deformation in grasping and manipulation poses significant challenges affecting almost all aspects of robotics: perception, modeling, planning, control and grasping.