Special Issue on Selected Papers from ROBOMEC'03 (Part 2)

This special issue commemorates the designation of the Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics as the International Journal of the Robotics and Mechatronics Division of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers from 1999. The 2003 JSME Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics (ROBOMEC'03) was held in Hakodate May 23-25, 2003, sponsored by the Robotics and Mechatronics Division of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. The general chair was Prof. Mikami and the program chair was Prof. Furukawa. The purpose of the conference was to aid in the establishment of new industries using advanced robotics and mechatronics technologies. Technical sessions featured 70 organized sessions and 770 papers enjoyed by some 1,000 participants. This special issue presents a wide range of ROBOMEC'03 papers to disseminate informative and innovative results. The program committee selected 95 outstanding papers, or about 10%. Of the 36 submitted and reviewed by the Journal's referees, 28 were selected for publication. Special Issue Part 2 on Selected Papers from ROBOMEC'03 (Vol.16, No.3) presents 14, with others having already been presented in Part 1 (Vol.16, No.2). We thank the authors featured in this special issue for their time and effort. We also thank Editor-in-Chief Prof. Makoto Kaneko of Hiroshima University for his invaluable effort in organizing this special issue and the editors for selecting the papers.