Special issue on service robot technology – selected papers from WRS 2020(Part II)

The World Robot Summit (WRS) aims in achieving a society where humans and robots cooperate and coexist; and is hosted by theMinistry of Economic, Trade and Industry (METI), and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in Japan. The World Robot Challenge (WRC), a part of the WRS, is a robot competition in which teams from all over the world compete in four categories where the use of robots is highly expected. TheWRC is composed of three categories: the industrial robotics category, the service robotics category and the disaster robotics categories. WRS 2020 was originally planned for 2020, however, it was postponed for one year due to COVID-19. The main competition was held from 9th to 12th September 2021 in Aichi, Japan. This special issue focuses on the service robotics category, which is composed of two challenges: partner robot challenge and future convenience store challenge. The papers are written by the organizers and participants of the challenges. Six papers are collected from the viewpoints of new challenging idea and outstanding system integration for the challenge. The first paper written by Tezuka et al. proposed an automatic restroom cleaning system for convenience stores. The second paper by Mizutani et al. treats automatic opening and closing shelf for collaborative robots. The third paper by Seki et al. treats XYZ stagetype display robot system for convenience stores. The fourth paper by Tomikawa et al. treats display and disposal work system by dual-arm robot. The fifth paper by Nishio and Niitsuma treats a method for moving objects extraction for building environmental maps describing indoor human activities. The sixth paper by Saito et al. proposed a method for service robot development based on a design structure matrix. Wewould like to thank all authorswho submitted their original papers. We would like to thank every reviewer who gave valuable and insightful comments all the way to improve the quality of each paper. Finally, we would like to show our appreciation to Ms. NorikoWatanabe of Advanced Robotics for her great assistance.