Guest Editorial [special section on humatronics]

The 12 papers in this special section are devoted to humatronics, which describes the electronics used to balance the asymmetry of the relationship between human and systems. Some of the topics covered include: the physical interaction between human and system/environment; the modalities used by a robot to recognize/understand humans; a method for sharing multiple persons' behaviors for intelligent support; vehicle control; and the interaction between human and computer from the viewpoint of chance discovery.