INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE INTERNATIONAL-JOURNAL-OF-SYSTEMS-SCIENCE ON THE AMADEUS DEXTEROUS UNDERWATER GRASPING SYSTEM

This issue of the journal presents a collection of papers which descri be a working example of a complex engineering system. The AMADEUS dext rous underwater manipulator is being developed by a consortium of Euro pean partners to improve the sampling and manipulation ability availab le to marine scientists and other users operating remotely in the ocea n. It has involved the novel design and integration of actuators, sens ors and software systems with a high degree of automation. This introd uction overviews the state of the art background to the project, its o bjectives and achievements, and the papers contributed by members of t he team.