Call for Papers: ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems Part B: Mechanical Engineering

ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems Part B: Mechanical Engineering is looking for submissions for a Special Issue on Risk, Resilience and Reliability for Autonomous Vehicle Technologies: Trends, Techniques and Challenges (SI Number: SI049B).

Description and Topics

Mechanical engineering continues to dominate the design, development and advancement of autonomous vehicle technologies, and throughout this process is likely to evolve
through several risks and uncertainties. Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drone robotics have gained traction beyond military use, for example, in the development of swarm
of drones together carrying larger objects and in agriculture for monitoring crop growth, irrigation, and health assessment. Self-driving cars are making strides in technical
advancement and are manoeuvring barriers through testing regulations and societal integration. Intelligent underwater systems undertake autonomous missions while
coordinating with above surface marine robots. User acceptance is put to test in the adoption of fully autonomous public transit systems. Autonomous systems in general must
harmoniously integrate hardware, software and humans while conforming to principles of safety, security and reliability. The challenges range from identification of failure
modes, determination of imprecise probabilities, development of use case scenarios to integration analysis and interpretation of observations, to name a few.
This special issue is aimed at gathering contributions that discuss new theoretical developments and advanced applications of risk, reliability and uncertainty assessment towards
management of autonomous vehicle technologies. More specifically, papers discussing traditional deterministic, probabilistic, machine learning, and hybrid approaches to risk
assessment are solicited across all lifecycle events of autonomous technologies. Interpretation of and insights gained from implementation of risk-informed frameworks are also
encouraged at various levels of maturity and discussion from a philosophical and ethical standpoint. An account of data needs and uncertainties around the collection of such data

required for successful assessments along with novel solutions to encounter such challenges is welcome. Predictive analytics towards prognostic health management, techno-
economic analysis, and loss prevention of autonomously engineered systems are also of interest. Review papers are greatly welcome on the state of the art on the topics.

Indicative Topics:
• Risks associated with fields such as, but not limited to mechanical engineering in the advancement of self-driving cars and buses, drone robotics, marine systems and
nanotechnology swarms.
• Reliability and resilience of complex engineered systems associated with intelligent control system.
• Comprehensive review of risk, reliability and resilience of engineered autonomous systems and resulting technologies leading up to the contemporary state of the art and their
incremental emergence.
• Analysis and interpretation of uncertainties present in the understanding of autonomous vehicle risks.
• Risk management and loss prevention across all lifecycles of the engineering process in the context of autonomous mechanical systems and technologies.
• The role of enabling techniques and technologies such as artificial intelligence, deep learning, predictive analytics, IoT, and 5G in prognostic health, operations and
maintenance management of engineered autonomous vehicle systems.
• Challenges in regulating design and operation of autonomous vehicles; this includes technology and regulatory initiatives, autonomous vehicle traffic safety and trajectory
planning, authorities and industry collaboration challenges to close safety and security gaps, and challenges in development and dissemination of standards.

Guest Editors

• Mohammad Pourgol-Mohamad, University of Maryland, Maryland, MD, mpourgol@umd.edu
• Arun Veeramany, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, arun.veeramany@pnnl.gov
• Bilal Ayyub, University of Maryland, Maryland, MD, ba@umd.edu

Important Dates

• 01 November 2020 Manuscript Submission Opens
• 01 March 2021 Deadline for Submission
• 01 September 2021 Reviews Completed
• April 2022 Special Issue Finalized

Manuscript Submission

Authors should prepare their manuscript following the guidelines in the ASME Author Guide

Manuscript submission link

Upon submitting, please select the special issue: SI049B. Early submission before the deadline is strongly encouraged to promote early review and publication of this Special Issue.

Quality Assurance Standards

The special issue will include only high quality, original contributions that advance the state-of-the art. The standard review procedure of the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems will guarantee the quality of the accepted manuscripts. From 2016-onward, all articles in the journal are included in Web of Science and in Scopus.

Published September 1, 2020