Abstract：Guest editorialSocial robotsservices and applications Preface A socialcompanionrobotsuch as PepperBuddyMikoLynxMisty RoboticsMisty II and ASUSs Zenboare devices that comprise a physical humanoid robot component that connects through a network infrastructure to online services that enhance traditional robot functionalitiesTodays robots can easily capture a users physical activity stateegwalkingstandingand runningand store personalized informationegfacevoicelocation and activity patternthrough many devices like camerasmicrophones and sensorHumanoid robots often behave like natural partners that could engage in social interactions with human userswith features such as speechgestures and eye-gazereferring to userspersonal data and social contextThe user behavior of anthropomorphic robot users shows that they are more open to robotsSome prior research shows that it is much easier for a humanoid robot to gain user trustSocial robots can interact with humans by performing tasks that adhere to specific social cues and rulesThey offer features such as human facialvoiceand emotion recognitionincluding adding human-like personality to their artificial intelligenceAI-based capabilities to achieve better humanmachine interactionParticularly during the COVID-19 pandemicrobotic applications can save human resources and reduce direct contact to avoid virus transmissionYu et al2022Huang et al20212022One of the main themes of this special issue is humanrobot InteractionHRIHRI is a research area whose purpose is to understanddesign and evaluate robots for use by or with humansThe foundations of this special issue will set the baseline for understanding how HRI can influence and change business practices and peoples lifestylesThis special issue includes 13 articles related to HRI described belowThe first group of four papers focused on user service improvement and enjoyment with robotic applicationsEdwards et al2022discussed the relationship between self-reported levels of acute stressperceived social support and interactions with robot animals in an academic libraryFuentes-Moraleda et al2022presented an exploratory study of a multidimensional instrument for measuring willingness to accept social robots in museum contextsTung and Campos2022introduced a social robot app called the Music Buddy that can play situational music based on userselectroencephalogram dataFinallyHsiao and Chen2022studied service qualitytrust and satisfaction to predict userscontinuance intention to use a food-ordering chatbot through an online questionnaireReaders may also be interested in reading Guth and Vander Meer2017on telepresence robotics in an academic library and Araujo et als2021review of social robots on depressive symptoms in older adultsThe second group of two papers focused on educational applicationsWeng et al2022presented the quantitative and qualitative data based on a project on computational thinking in problem-solving skills and programming learning attitudes by LEGO robotics kitsHsia et al2022discussed the issues of robot programming sustainability and the ability to solve problems integrated into curriculum instruction in clubsPlease watch out for our upcoming special issue onContemporary learning on mobile devices and social mediaand also our call for paper on the journal website for part 2 of this special issue due to overwhelming responsesThe third group of four papers focused on AI applicationsAsemi et al2022apresented a fully automated usability evaluation method for interactive social robots by a fuzzy inference system based on ISO 9241-2102019Asemi et al2022bstudied the thematic and conceptual relationship in published papers on deep learning and smart manufacturing and its possible implicationsNextAgarwal et al2022reviewed the literature on chatbots and virtual assistantswhich showed that this area has been increasing in the last few yearsFinallyreaders may be interested in reading Harisanty et al2022exploring leaderspractitioners and scientistsawareness of AI in libraries and another review of AI in librariesCox et al2019Please also watch out for our call for paper on the journal website forAI and Blockchain for Information and Library SciencesChallenges and PossibilitiesThe fourth group of three papers focused on security enhancement applicationsZhang et al2022presented a real-time autonomous information communication mechanism to predict the traffic between different social robotsChen et al2022presented a fault-tolerant content list management unit for real-time streaming systems based on intelligent robot claw machinesBasudan2022presented an efficient attribute-based data sharing scheme to enforce security and access control over health sensing data on the Internet of Medical Robotic ThingsIoMRTAlamer2022discussed tracking mobile robot devices for a secure framework of the Internet of Robotic ThingsIoRTnetwork applications by a secureanonymous tracing methodReaders may also be interested in reading Yang and Liao2010on using robot meta-tags to allow or refuse software robots on websites and express webmastersonline copyright authorization policiesLibrary AutomationEdwards et al2022discussed the self-reporting pressure level and social support of interacting with robots and animals in academic librariesConsulting ServiceThese social robots may be used to provide consulting services or answer questions for readersRetrieval and IndexingHarisanty et al2022explored the understanding of the leaderspractitioners and scientistswhich may involve the process of literature retrieval and indexThis category is mainly about how social robots interact with humansThese robots have a variety of sensorssuch as camerasmicrophonesetcso that they can capture and store user informationIn additionthey also use human facevoice and emotional recognition functions to increase the humanized characteristics combined with AI to achieve better human-computer interaction