Intelligent Tribology

With the rapid development of advanced machinery, aerospace systems, intelligent manufacturing, and extreme-environment engineering, tribological interfaces are increasingly required to operate under complex and dynamic conditions. Conventional tribological approaches based primarily on passive materials and experience-driven design are becoming insufficient to meet the growing demands for high reliability, long service life, and autonomous operation. Intelligent Tribology, integrating smart materials, adaptive interfaces, advanced sensing, physics-based modeling, and artificial intelligence, is emerging as an important frontier of modern tribology.This Special Issue aims to provide a forum for recent advances in intelligent, adaptive, and predictive tribological systems. Particular attention is given to tribological materials and interfaces capable of sensing changes in operating conditions, responding to external stimuli, autonomously regulating lubrication and friction, and recovering from damage. Meanwhile, the integration of self-powered sensing, machine learning, physics-informed modeling, and data-driven approaches is expected to enable real-time condition monitoring, performance prediction, predictive maintenance, and autonomous optimization of tribological systems. The scope of this Special Issue encompasses the tribology of both stiff and soft matter, with particular interest in how intelligent concepts can be applied across different classes of materials and interfaces.Through this Special Issue, we hope to promote the convergence of tribology, materials science, sensing technology, mechanics, and artificial intelligence, and to facilitate the transition of tribology from conventional experience-based approaches toward a precise, predictive, adaptive, and intelligent engineering science.We invite researchers worldwide to contribute original research articles, reviews, and perspectives covering, but not limited to, the following topics: 1. Intelligent and adaptive lubrication; 2. Stimuli-responsive and self-regulating lubricating materials; 3. Self-lubricating and self-healing tribological materials; 4. Solid–liquid coupled lubrication and adaptive lubricating films; 5. Smart and biomimetic tribological surfaces and interfaces; 6. Control and regulation of friction through engineered surface topography; 7. Electric-field-driven friction and wear control; 8. Self-powered tribological sensing and real-time condition monitoring; 9. Machine learning and artificial intelligence for tribology; 10. Physics-informed and data-driven tribological modeling;11. Intelligent fault diagnosis and predictive maintenance; 12. Autonomous regulation and optimization of friction, wear, and lubrication; 13. Intelligent tribology for extreme environments and advanced engineering applications.ent and adaptive lubrication. We warmly welcome contributions from researchers working across tribology and related interdisciplinary fields and look forward to presenting the latest fundamental discoveries, enabling technologies, and engineering applications that will shape the future of Intelligent Tribology. Topic editors: Guoxin Xie, Leonardo Israel Farfan Cabrera Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86019/intelligent-tribology