Climbing and Walking Robots

Climbing and Walking Robots provides robotic solutions for new challenging fields. Important research and technical development effort must be undertaken so that actual capabilities and performances of robots can be enlarged and improved. One of the major issues to achieve this goal is mobility. Wheeled and tracked platforms have limitations when it comes to moving in unstructured environments, and something more adaptable is required. In these situatios a climbing or a walking robot is somehow being recognized as an advanced and promising solution. The interest in climbing and walking robots has increased over recent years and there is a growing need to widen the applications base for this area of technology. Current applications for such machines include hazardous cnvironments such as nuclear, outer space, underwater, and humanitarian demining, and also agriculture, construction, ship building and repairing, petrochemical, and others related industries. This third international conference on Climbing and Walking Robots (Clawar) brings together papers from leading international academic researchers and working in this area of robotics. All aspects of Clawar machines are dealt with, ranging across the whole spectrum of technologies needed to produce good robotic designs. Topics covered include: - Best practice in climbing and walking robots; - Design methodologies; - Locomotion; - System modelling and simulation; - Control, stability, and motion planning; - Novel actuators and sensors; - Perception, navigation, and tele-opcration; - Applications; What is Clawar? Clawer is an Ec thematic network on climbing and walking robots including the support technologies for mobile robotic vehicles. The network has been cstablished to bring together core rescarch groups, industrial users, and robot manufacturers who are engaged in work on climbing and walking robots and associated technologies.