Special Issue on Mechatronics Technologies from Asia to the World

Mechatronics - an ever-growing field enblacing actuators and sensors, electronics and mechanics, controls, system design and integration was founded in Japan at the end of the 1960s. It now supports industrial development, the global economy and inventions that enable people to live comfortably around the world.Asia is one of the most active areas in mechatronics research. Asian experts meet and mix in meetings and conferences such as the Japan-China symposium on Mechatronics started in 1988, Asia International Symposium on Mechatronics (AISM) organized by the Japanese Society of Precision Engineering and Chinese committees since 2004 to bring together researchers and engineers in this multidisciplinary field to stimulate new ideas, to share knowledge on practical problems and solutions, as well as to facilitate cooperation for the future.This special issue on “Mechatronics Technologies from Asia to the World” includes many of the fine papers presented at AISM2008 in August 2008, and encourages scientists in related fields to submit their research to encourage interested researchers in developing systems and technologies to become more skilled, smarter and tougher in the real world.We thank the authors for their interesting contributions and the reviewers for their devoted time and effort.