Special Issue on From Microrobotics to Nanorobotics

Micro/nanotechnologies are keys crucial to improving system performance. This is why it is so important to research theory and applications based on analysis and synthesis from the micro- to the nanotechnology engineering level. Micro/nanorobotics are extremely important to the future of robotics and automation. Micro/nanotechnologies will certainly be applied in fields such as material science, industry, medicine, bioengineering, and services. Research on micro/nanoscale manipulation has thus attracted special attention in the robotics and mechatronics communities in the last decade. This special issue features selected papers focusing on cutting-edge topics and innovative applications based on new approaches in the fields of micro/nanorobotics. These papers were chosen from the 2001 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2001) and important domestic conferences such as the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers(JSME) Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics (ROBOMEC). I would like, in closing this short introduction, to express my particular gratitude to the authors, who have updated their papers for this special issue, and to thank all of the contributors and reviewers who have made this vital publication possible. I also would like to thank Editor-in-Chief Prof. Makoto Kaneko of Hiroshima University, who provided the opportunity for editing this issue. I hope the papers contained herein will prove both interesting and useful to readers wanting to learn about the latest advances in micro/nanorobotics.