IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2022 - 4

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
Reality Check
By Yi Guo
T
wo years into the pandemic,
many places in the world
experienced another wave of
spiking COVID cases. People
got used to remote shopping, working
from home, and Zoom meetings
more than ever. The world's predictable
unpredictability has become the
new normal, and we are trying to live
with a disease
that has not yet
settled into its
endemic state.
In the race
between virus
evolution and
the science development
to
tackle it, the artificial
intelligence
(AI)driven
software
developed for
protein folding
by DeepMind,
A l ph a F ol d ,
ogy, is now solvable by
AI-powered algorithms.
In the tech world, metaThe
world's
predictable
unpredictability has
become the new
normal, and we are
trying to live with a
disease that has not
yet settled into its
endemic state.
stands out as a breakthrough in
2021, and it is used to model the effect
of mutations in the omicron variant's
spike protein [1]. It is exciting to see that
the " protein-folding problem, " a
50-year-old grand challenge in biolDigital
Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2022.3143185
Date of current version: 22 March 2022
verse, a new world built in
virtual reality (VR), became
a buzzword as Facebook
changed its name to Meta in
2021. While the history of VR can be
dated back to the 1950s, the technology
has evolved significantly over the past
few years, benefitting from improvements
in hardware, software, AI, and
cloud technologies. In 2021, the biggest
semiconductor chip manufacturer,
Intel, announced its vision to make the
metaverse a reality through its plan for
next-generation immersive Internet
experienced via augmented reality (AR)
and VR.
To roboticists, VR, AR, and mixed
reality are not just buzzwords but useful
tools for telepresence and medical
robots as well as many other robotics
applications where enhanced human-
robot interaction is desired. Advances
in VR and AR will provide new tools
and opportunities for robotics. On the
other hand, robotics will offer challenging
problems and emerging applications
in the forefront of technology.
This March issue of IEEE Robotics
and Automation Magazine (RAM)
includes exemplar research development
on extended reality in robotics. I
am thankful to the guest editors, Mahdi
Tavakoli, Mark A. Minor, Jeffrey
Delmerico, Paul Chippendale,
and Giovanni Rossini
as well as the leading
RAM editor, Elena De
Momi, and assisting RAM
associate editor (AE), Antonio
Frisoli, for their great efforts promoting
and editing this special issue.
I would also like to express my gratitude
and appreciation to the retiring
RAM editorial board members Fabio
Bonsignorio, Perla Maiolino, and Xiang
Li for their dedicated service to the
magazine. We have selected a few new
AEs, Ming Cao, Houxiang Zhang, Carlos
A. Cifuentes, and Feifei Chen, to
join the editorial board starting in January
2022. They were selected based on
expertise, technical areas, and geographical
representation.
We hope to receive more nominations
from professionals from industry
and government as well as underrepresented
groups, including women. Nominations
(including self-nominations)
are accepted through the RAM website
during the submission window
between August 1 and September 1
each year. Enjoy the issue!
Reference
[1] R. F. Service, " Protein structures for all, "
Science, vol. 374, no. 6574, pp. 1426-1427, 2021.
doi: 10.1126/science.acz9822.
4 * IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE * MARCH 2022
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2022

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