Guest editorial cognitive agents and robots for human-centered systems

A current challenge for artificial cognitive systems is to acquire the capability to freely interact with humans in such a way that the burden of learning and adaptation lies with the machine and not with the human. This special issue presents a variety of recent developments in artificial cognitive agents, embedded in human-centric environments, with a particular focus on robotic applications. It aims to capture potential multidisciplinary research directions in order to further expand artificial system capabilities in an open-ended process while socially interacting in real environments for the humans’ benefit.