Cyber-physical interaction (CPI) is a field that encompasses various computational and engineering disciplines, such as complex networks and communications, adaptive control, and computer science, as well as their applications. The increasing number of complex system applications, together with more requirements and demands for system flexibility, adaptability, robustness, and resilience, are revealing new theoretical and technological challenges for advanced cyber-physical interaction.

A major challenge is the need for innovative frameworks and algorithms to deal with complex cyber-physical systems. Increasing complexity can be due to complex components, for example, some applications of advanced robot manipulators, sensor networks, and complex environments. In particular, as unstructured environments in manufacturing with multi-spatial and temporal scales, or uncertain human-robot interaction in the complex healthcare system, are an urgent problem to be solved. These theoretical, methodological or practical focus complexities make high-precision and reliable real-time performance difficult to achieve and therefore require the design and development of novel methods for cyber-physical interaction. Advancements in cyber-physical interaction will provide engineering systems with new capabilities that far exceed today’s levels of autonomy, functionality, adaptability, robustness, and cybersecurity.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collate original research articles that present advances in complex cyber-physical interaction and provide a comprehensive overview of future solutions from both theoretical and engineering aspects. Authors are encouraged to submit papers that discuss new directions in the way of original research in the field of complex cyber-physical interaction. Review articles discussing the current state of the art are also welcomed.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Adaptability and robustness control for complex cyber-physical interaction
• Computational methods for internet-of-things-based cyber-physical systems
• Agent-based modelling and activity recognition in complex human-robot interaction
• Analytical methods for design, modelling, and evaluation of complex cyber-physical interaction
• Smart interactions in complex cyber-physical systems: humans, agents, robots, machines and sensors
• Complex networks of wired and wireless for human-machine systems
• Applications of data science for complex cyber-physical interaction
• Cyber transportation and human interaction with mobile robots
• Methods of machine learning in complex cyber-physical interaction