Special Issue on Selected Papers from ICAM'04

This special issue on the International Conference on Advanced Mechatronics (ICAM'04) held at Asahikawa, Hokkaido, October 3 to 5, 2004, sponsored by the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, covers three major areas focused on by the Conference: mechatronics, robotics, and information technology (IT). Among the 110-plus excellent papers accepted for the conference, guest editors chose roughly 40%, recommending that authors submit papers for this journal. This special issue features 13 papers that passed final tough reviews, making the acceptance ratio 60%. We believe you will find this issue both interesting and informative in providing the latest information on mechatronics. We thank all who submitted articles to this special issue and the anonymous reviewers who took so much time from their busy schedules to review manuscripts and respond with constructive suggestions and comments. The high-quality reviews and timely completion of revised manuscripts have certainly helped make this special issue successful. We are sure the news in this issue will be of great help to researchers in the mechatronics community.