Introduction to the special issue of the international journal of systems science on the AMADEUS dextrous underwater grasping system

This issue of the journal presents a collection of papers which describe a working example of a complex engineering system. The AMADEUS dextrous underwater manipulator is being developed by a consortium of European partners to improve the sampling and manipulation ability available to marine scientists and other users operating remotely in the ocean. It has involved the novel design and integration of actuators, sensors and software systems with a high degree of automation. This introduction overviews the state of the art background to the project, its objectives and achievements, and the papers contributed by members of the team.