The Fourth International Conference on Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology, Communication and Control, Environment, and Management (HNICEM) was held in Traders-Shangrila Hotel, Manila, Philippines from March 12 to 15, 2009. The theme of this conference was Convergence of Cutting Edge Technologies for Global Enterprise. As has been done from the previous HNICEM conferences, cutting edge papers presented in this conference were reviewed and selected for JACIII special issue publication. In this special issue, 8 articles were selected that will provide valuable references for researchers and practitioners.

The first article presents a commanding and visualization software suite for Mars rovers and other planetary robots. This paper focuses on the support for the Phoenix Mars Lander, Mars Science Lander and other lunar and planetary missions conducted by NASA. The second article discusses an auction-based consensus mechanism for cooperative targets tracking using minimum numbers of mobile sensors in order to reduce energy consumption due to sensor mobilization. The third article is on concept of neighborhood degree and its application to switching plural optimization methods in scheduling. The fourth article covers human behavior classification using thinning algorithm and support vector machine.

The fifth article is about fuzzy relevant feedback in image retrieval for color feature using query vector modification method. An experimental identification of manipulator dynamics through the minimization of its natural oscillations is presented in the sixth article. This work utilizes the actual force of gravity for the manipulator link to achieve natural oscillation. The oscillatory motion allows the system to be converted into an optimization problem through the minimization of the frequency of oscillation. On the other hand, the seventh article is an integrated eco-design tool for Malaysian automobile industry. The eighth and final article presents Omni-directional Vision for Navigation of a Mobile Robot.

We extend our warmest thanks and deepest gratitude to the distinguished authors who have contributed to this special issue for their outstanding contributions and to the reviewers for their assistance and cooperation. We are also grateful to Prof. Toshio Fukuda and Prof. Kaoru Hirota, Editors-in-Chief of JACIII, and to the HNICEM International Advisory Board for their continued support to all HNICEM International Conferences.

Come March 2011, the 5th HNICEM International Conference will be held in Manila, Philippines. We express our deepest gratitude to the IEEE Philippines Section for its continuing sponsorship. To JACIII, thank you for the support. Outstanding papers presented in this conference will be selected for publication in a special issue of JACIII.

We invite you to submit your research papers and to participate in HNICEM 2011. For further information, please visit

http://www.dlsu.edu.ph/conferences/hnicem/.