Editorial for Special Issue on “Electronic Systems and Energy Harvesting Methods for Automation, Mechatronics and Automotive”

Electronic apparatus have become essential components of civil and industrial systems, including the automotive, home and building automation, Industrial IoT (Internet of Things) and control applications, and playing an essential role in improving security, efficiency, manageability, and rapid feedback [1–3]. Indeed, the increasing demands of electronic systems have led to innovations and findings in electronic networks for automotive and automation plants, replacing efficiently and securely mechanical and hydraulic sections [4]. Also, the researchers have focused their attention on meeting the increasing power demand of vehicles equipment, developing 42-V automotive systems. Moreover, smart buildings and homes represent a very actual research topic in the scientific community, aimed to improve energy conservation and the liveability of everyday life environments, thanks to IoT solutions [5]. In fact, smart homes and buildings comprise innovative solutions enabling communication between users and the infrastructure, as well as performing advanced monitoring tasks, like surveillance, light and water management, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system management, smart energy monitoring and elderly care. IoT technology employs sensors to detect the environmental temperature for the HVAC system, water and energy consumption, and health monitoring and decision-making systems to assist elderly people and detect fires [6,7]. The scientific community is concentrating their efforts to design innovative infrastructures, management models as well as operating scenarios to make production activities simpler and more efficient [8]. In this field, IoT is one of the key elements triggering this revolution, enabling communications between machines (M2M), thus creating a manufacturing environment human-free. The combination of M2M, IoT and CPS (cyber physical systems) makes the manufacturing systems more robust, reliable and efficient. Besides, cloud computing constitutes a powerful tool, promising to solve several difficult issues with previous productive architectures. For instance, in [9], a novel architecture integrating cloud computing, IoT, and smart devices, was presented. The model uses modern manufacturing technologies, allowing highly configurable, flexible manufacturing processes involving human and robotic participants. This Special Issue aimed to cover a wide range of disciplines and application fields, collecting innovative studies on advanced sensing and energy harvesting technologies and applications in automotive, automation and mechatronics fields. The introduced innovations could mitigate the impact of human activities on the environment and revolutionize the production process by employing eco-sustainable production models, preventing climate change and natural resources waste. A total of 5 papers have been published in this special issue; the paper covers a wide range of topics but is deemed relevant to the topics covered by the special issues. The authors are from geographically distributed countries such as Italy, Mexico, Spain, and China. This reflects the great impact of the proposed topic and the effective organization of the guest editorial team of this special issue.