Overview of the Long Term Objectives of the Journal Actuators

It is a great opportunity to provide leadership and focus for the creation of a badly needed journal for intelligent actuators. Certainly, the field is just emerging from a nominal state of science, performance, cost, and universality. Attached, I offer five sections to assist those who may wish to contribute to this journal: The following sections suggest a full range of new directions for intelligent actuators with emphasis on the electro-mechanical technologies. We are clearly on the verge of a new wave of technology based on the actuator as the enabling component of these systems that respond to human needs and reduce human drudgery. This requires expanded human choices, which means systems which make many alternate physical functions available to the human. The only means to do so is to increase the configuration choices with more intelligent actuators responding to human command. In 1950, the electronic valve was a dominant part of all radios, televisions, medical equipment, measurement systems, etc. These were expensive, inefficient, high maintenance, specialized by each supplier, of nominal standards, etc. By 1970, a new vision of miniaturized computer chips occurred, whose performance/cost ratio has continued to go up as forecasted (self-fulfilling) by Moore's law. Cost went down, size went down, maintenance went down, etc., but the population went up under increasingly rigid interface standards. Hence, choices expanded beyond imagination, which impacts every human being.