Journal of Field Robotics

Journal of Field Robotics
Title	Journal of Field Robotics
Discipline	Robotics
Abbreviation	J. Field Robot.
Publisher	Wiley
Country	United States
History	2004–present
Frequency	Bimonthly
Issn	1556-4959

Journal of Field Robotics is a peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on the design, deployment, and evaluation of robotic systems operating in outdoor, unstructured, and real-world environments. It covers experimental platforms, algorithms, sensing, autonomy, human-robot interaction, and system integration with emphasis on field trials and long-term operation. The journal serves researchers from institutions and organizations conducting applied robotics research, including academic laboratories, industrial research centers, government laboratories, and international consortia.

History

The journal was established in 2004 amid growing interest in autonomous systems demonstrated by projects at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, and California Institute of Technology. Early editorial leadership included scholars affiliated with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, European Space Agency, Sandia National Laboratories, and Georgia Institute of Technology. The launch coincided with field deployments from programs such as the DARPA Grand Challenge, the DARPA Urban Challenge, the Mars Exploration Rover missions, and the RoboCup initiative, which influenced the journal’s initial scope. Over subsequent decades the journal reflected advances from collaborations involving National Aeronautics and Space Administration, European Research Council, National Science Foundation, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and multinational teams at ETH Zurich, Imperial College London, and Tsinghua University.

Scope and Topics

The journal emphasizes empirical studies and system-level demonstrations produced by groups at University of Michigan, University of Oxford, Technical University of Munich, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, University of Sydney, and industry labs such as Google DeepMind, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA Research, Microsoft Research, and Toyota Research Institute. Topics include perception using sensors developed by Bosch, Qualcomm, Velodyne, and FLIR Systems; navigation and mapping inspired by work at Oxford Robotics Institute, SRI International, Honda Research Institute, and AIST; field-tested control systems from projects at Lockheed Martin and Raytheon; agricultural robotics trials at John Deere; marine robotics deployments from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and planetary robotics informed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory and European Space Agency missions. Interdisciplinary links span collaborations with laboratories at Harvard University, Princeton University, Columbia University, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Editorial Board and Peer Review

Editorial leadership has historically included editors and associate editors drawn from institutions such as University of California, Berkeley, Cornell University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, Duke University, McGill University, and University of Toronto. The peer-review process follows standards practiced by publishers like Wiley-Blackwell and editorial boards that have included members from IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, ACM SIGGRAPH, SPIE, Royal Society, and national academies including the National Academy of Engineering. Reviewers commonly hail from research groups affiliated with MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Fraunhofer Society, Riken, and CSIRO.

Abstracting and Indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in major bibliographic services used by researchers at Web of Science, Scopus, INSPEC, Google Scholar, and library aggregators servicing institutions such as Library of Congress, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and national consortia at Danish National Research Foundation-supported centers. Citations appear in databases maintained by organizations like Clarivate, Elsevier, and indexing services used by universities including Yale University, Oxford University, University of Cambridge, and Peking University.

Impact and Reception

The journal’s influence is reflected in citation metrics tracked by Journal Citation Reports and usage by projects funded through National Science Foundation, European Commission programs such as Horizon 2020, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency solicitations, and industry roadmaps from IEEE. Reviews in venues like Nature Robotics, Science Robotics, and coverage in outlets including MIT Technology Review and New Scientist have highlighted the journal’s field-focused contributions. Leading research groups at ETH Zurich, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, and University of Oxford frequently cite work published in the journal.

Notable Papers and Contributions

Notable contributions include field trials and datasets produced by collaborations with DARPA challenges, long-term autonomy studies inspired by Mars Exploration Rover operations, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) benchmarks from teams at University of Oxford and ETH Zurich, multi-robot coordination experiments from MIT CSAIL and Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, agricultural automation case studies linked to John Deere and CNH Industrial, marine autonomy reports from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and subterranean robotics results connected to DARPA Subterranean Challenge. Work reported has informed standards developed by ISO, IEEE Standards Association, and contributed datasets used by research groups at Google Research and Facebook AI Research.

Access and Publication Model

Published by Wiley, the journal offers a hybrid publication model combining subscription-based access with open-access options aligned with funder mandates from organizations such as Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, European Research Council, and national research agencies. Authors affiliated with institutions including University of California, Max Planck Society, CNRS, and CERN have utilized open access pathways. The journal’s publishing workflow interoperates with submission and editorial systems used across publishers including ScholarOne and integrates ethical policies in line with guidelines from Committee on Publication Ethics and funding disclosure expectations from U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Category:Robotics journals