There has been growing interest in green manufacturing worldwide, which has attracted substantial efforts from researchers in both academic and engineering communities. Green manufacturing deserves efficient production of green technology products, and energy efficient and environmentally friendly manufacturing process and system. To achieve this, automation is an essential component. In recent years, significant advancements in technology, the fast growing economy and rapidly changing market have generated numerous opportunities for innovation. At the same time, many new challenges have emerged in order to apply and implement these innovations. Such opportunities and challenges have substantially expanded the scope of automation. The goal of automation is to provide efficient scientific and engineering solutions for green manufacturing. The central theme of this Special Issue is emerging opportunities and future directions in automation for green manufacturing, where information technology based modeling, analysis, control and optimization are the focus areas. The purpose is to show the state-of-the-art research and applications in the general area of automation in green manufacturing, by bringing together researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry, to address the significant advancement, expose the unsolved challenges, present the needs for integration with new technologies, and provide visions for future research and development. This special issue aims to publish original, significant and visionary automation papers describing scientific methods and technologies with both solid theoretical development and practical importance. Submissions of scientific results from experts in academia and industry worldwide are strongly encouraged.
