Today, AUBO (Beijing) Intelligent Science and Technology Co. Ltd has announced that it has signed a contract with F1000, Taylor & Francis Group’s open research publishing arm, to develop the first open research publishing platform dedicated to the science and technology of collaborative robots.

Collaborative robots, or “cobots” are robots intended to work side-by-side and in collaboration with human beings. These machines focus on repetitive tasks, such as inspection and picking, to help workers focus more on tasks that require problem-solving skills. Once cobots are installed, industries have better efficiency, flexibility and production capability.

The platform, known as ‘Cobot’, will enable all research outputs to be published open access, as well as combining the benefits of pre-printing (providing rapid publication with no editorial bias) with mechanisms to assure quality and transparency (invited and open peer review, archiving and indexing). It will also offer researchers an open and transparent peer review process and have a mandatory FAIR data policy to provide full and easy access to the source data underlying the results.

The publishing platform which is due to launch in July 2021, aims to provide a communication outlet of innovative technologies for technicians, researchers, scholars and experts, who are engaged in the interdisciplinary research field of collaborative robots. The scope of Cobot includes, but is not limited to, scientific and technical research topics in intelligent robots, artificial intelligence, human-machine collaboration, human-machine integration, machine vision, intelligent sensing, smart materials, and more. This also includes the design, development and testing of collaborative robots and relevant software, as well as case studies focused on their wide-ranging use and applications.

As well as research articles and case studies, Cobot will feature a variety of article types including method articles, study protocols, software tools, systematic reviews, data notes, brief reports, and opinion articles.

Hongxing Wei, Professor at Beihang University and President of AUBO (Beijing) Intelligent Science and Technology Co. Ltd said: “It’s our pleasure to cooperate with the world leading publisher Taylor & Francis Group and its partner F1000, to set up Cobot, the first academic and technological communication platform in the field of collaborative robots. Cobots are a kind of new versatile robots widely applied in industrial production and social services. The birth of Cobot will surely promote the scientific research and technic developments in the related fields.”

Rebecca Lawrence, Managing Director, F1000 said: “We are absolutely delighted to partner with AUBO (Beijing) Intelligent Science and Technology Co. Ltd to create the world’s first open research publishing platform dedicated to cobots. The vision behind F1000 has always been to develop approaches to scholarly publishing that better support the needs of today in communicating new findings, regardless of output format.  This partnership will demonstrate the significant benefits that open research publishing can have in accelerating the reach of cobot knowledge and put it into the hands of those that will shape the future.”

This publishing model is also used on the customised platforms that F1000 provides to major global funders such as the European Commission, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and many others.