Editorial: Autonomy and intelligence in neurorehabilitation robotic and prosthetic technologies

Neurorehabilitation robotic technologies and powered assistive prosthetic devices have shown great potential for accelerating motor recovery or compensating for the lost motor functions of disabled users. The functioning of these technologies relies on a highly-interactive bidirectional flow of information and physical energy between a human user and a robotic system. Thus, key factors are integrity, intelligence and quality of the interaction loops. As a result, research in this field has focused on (a) enhancing the quality and safety of the physical interaction between disabled users and robotic systems while providing a high level of intelligence and adaptability for generating assistive and therapeutic force fields; (b) detecting the user's motor intention with high spatiotemporal resolution to provide bidirectional human-machine interfacing; (c) promoting mental engagement through designing multimodal interactive interfaces and various sensory manipulation strategies. This Special Issue has collected papers that contribute to these three research areas, highlighting the importance of different aspects in human-robot interaction loops for augmenting the performance of neurorehabilitation robotic systems and prosthetic devices.