Editorial

Abstract

Modelling of dynamical systems and their application in control are interesting and current directions of research. This special issue collects extended versions of prominent papers presented at the 14th International Conference on Dynamical Systems – Theory and Applications (DSTA 2017) that took place from 11 to 14 December 2017 in qódź, Poland. DSTA has over 25-year-long history. It is organized by the Department of Automation, Biomechanics and Mechatronics of the Lodz University of Technology under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences and every 2 years it enables researchers from all over the world share their recent results in a broad spectrum of topics related to dynamical systems. The latest edition of the conference (DSTA 2017) gathered 246 participants representing 29 countries. The content of this special issue was carefully selected by the Guest Editors out of about 250 papers presented at the conference, based on the recommendations of the DSTA 2017 Scientific Committee. The authors were asked to submit extended versions of their papers, which underwent the rigorous peer review managed by the Editor-in-Chief of JSCE in collaboration with the Guest Editors. Eventually, after taking into account the recommendations of recognized experts, eight papers were selected for publication. The authors presented their original results in areas such as investigation of sensitivity of an automated lane change manoeuvre (Gidlewski et al.), central pattern generator–based control of an octopod walking robot (Grzelczyk et al.), fractional order proportional integral and proportional derivative controllers (Muresan et al.), the impact of a damaged shock absorber on the vehicle steering characteristics (Parczewski, Wnęk), dynamics of the Villari effect in a non-homogeneous magnetic field (Rysak), dynamics of two pendulums driven by a magnetic field (Polczyński et al.), numerical and experimental investigations of a 1-degree-of-freedom (DoF) impacting oscillator (Witkowski et al.) and active control strategy for a high-speed pantograph (Zdziebko et al.). We want to acknowledge all the authors for their efforts put in updating their manuscripts and submitting high-quality research papers. Also, we greatly appreciate the constructive comments and recommendations of all reviewers that were involved in the evaluation process. Last but not least, our gratitude goes to the Editor-in-Chief of the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part I: Journal of Systems and Control Engineering, Professor M Necip Sahinkaya, for supporting the publication of this special issue, as well as for the editorial staff for the handling of the publication process. We deeply believe that the readers of the JSCE will find the content of the presented papers interesting and inspiring for their own research.