Editorial : biomechatronics : harmonizing mechatronic systems with human beings

Abstract

There has been a growing body of research in the recent years on human-robot interactions, human-machine interfaces and intelligent devices that are centered around human application, however, these works by and large lacked in focus on how to harmonize the interactions between mechatronic systems and users in the loop. This is one of the key areas for evaluating the success of any mechatronic system implementation on human. The collection of papers in this volume is touching upon the frontiers of this research area as to how the efficacy of such biomechatronic systems could be evaluated and improved. There are a total of 19 papers looking into various aspects of human-machine interfaces (HMIs) using electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography (EEG), tactile feedback, external devices such as exoskeletons and prosthetic devices for assistance and rehabilitation, novel techniques like machine learning and intelligent computation, and experimental evaluation or validation. The following paragraphs aim to give a glimpse of the contents presented in this eBook. Specifically, these are categorized under three distinct headings: (A) Novel exoskeletons for assistance and training, (B) Advanced human-machine interfaces in biomechatronics, and (C) Experimental outcomes and validation.