Robotics is an exciting field in engineering and natural sciences. Robotics has already made a significant contribution to many industries with the widespread use of industrial robots for tasks such as assembly, welding, painting, and handling materials. In parallel, we have witnessed the emergence of special robots which can undertake assistive jobs, such as search and rescue, de-mining, surveillance, exploration, and security functions. Indeed, the interest in mobile machines, such as climbing and walking robots, has broadened the scope of investigation in robotics. This volume covers broad topics related to mobile machines in general, and climbing and walking robots in particular. Papers from the following keynote speakers are included: Heinz Worn (University of Karlsruhe, Germany), Atsuo Takanishi (University of Waseda, Japan), John Billingsley (University of Southern Queensland, Australia), Bryan Bridge (London South Bank University, UK) and Neville Hogan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA).

Contents:

• Advances in Climbing Robots:
• Design and Construction of a Rope Climbing Robot (J P M Esponda)
• Development of a Sealing System for a Climbing Robot with Negative Pressure Adhesion (C Hillenbrand et al.)
• Gait Parameter Adaptation to Environmental Perturbations in Quadrupedal Robots (E Garcia et al.)
• Robot for Motion in Tube (J Sergey et al.)
• Advances in Walking Robots:
• Design and Problems of a New Leg-Wheel Walking Robot (C Tavolieri et al.)
• Foot Planning Motion of Humanoid Robot RH-1 Using Lag Algorithm (M Arbulu et al.)
• Observer-Based Control of a Walking Biped Robot: Stability Analysis (V Lebastard et al.)
• Optimization of Humanoid Robot Motion During Elevation of an Object (H A Naeini & M Rostami)
• Walker System with Assistance Device for Standing-Up (D Chugo et al.)
• Advances in Humanoid Soccer Robots:
• Design of a Humanoid Soccer Robot: Wukong (Q Tang et al.)
• Locomotion Control Scheme for Fast Walking Humanoid Soccer Robot (W Sawasdee et al.)
• Supporting Technologies:
• A Concurrent Planning Algorithm for Dual-Arm Systems (J-H Chuang et al.)
• Contact Processing in the Simulation of Clawar (T Juhasz et al.)
• In Search of Principles of Odour Source Localisation (E E Kadar et al.)
• New Standards for New Robots (G S Virk)
• and other papers