Cyber and cyber-physical system security and privacy are increasingly acknowledged as significant in many sectors, and robotics will be no exception. From assembly-line robots to medical robots to assistive and entertainment robots in our homes, the safety, security, and privacy of robotic systems are paramount. Providing security and privacy assurances for robotic systems is difficult for a variety of reasons, including the fact that it necessitates a multidisciplinary effort combining roboticists, computer scientists, and security and privacy specialists.

This is an active and constantly developing research field in which many research questions are now being addressed in the interest of creating safer, more secure, and privacy-preserving robotic systems. The question of how we can discover potential security and privacy risks against a variety of robotic systems and how we can assess the effect of such threats in a systematic way need to be addressed. There is also a need to address how we go about preventing and minimizing assaults once they've been found and recognized.

This Special Issue invites articles that highlight current advances in robotics and autonomous systems, cyber-security research and development, as well as related technologies. We welcome state of the art research which include theoretical, experimental, procedural, or methodological contributions, as well as dataset assessments of systematic reviews. We welcome submissions of original research as well as review articles.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Symbolic assessment of robotic system security and privacy
• Tensions and cooperation in robotic environments between security, privacy, and other essential criteria
• Robotic systems from a technological and legal standpoint
• Cybersecurity in software development frameworks and architectures
• Security and privacy challenges with autonomous systems
• Frameworks for security and privacy in additional robotic application domains
• Theoretical research on robotic system safety, security, and privacy
• Research on cybersecurity in robotics, both empirical and experimental
• Security and privacy concerns with tele-operated robotic systems
• Concerns with robots used in assistive and cooperative settings