Climbing and Walking Robots

Nowadays robotics is one of the most dynamic fields of scientific researches. The shift

of robotics researches from manufacturing to services applications is clear. During the

last decades interest in studying climbing and walking robots has been increased. This

increasing interest has been in many areas that most important ones of them are: mechanics,

electronics, medical engineering, cybernetics, controls, and computers.

Today¿s climbing and walking robots are a combination of manipulative, perceptive, communicative, and

cognitive abilities and they are capable of performing many tasks in industrial and non-

industrial environments. Surveillance, planetary exploration, emergence rescue operations,

reconnaissance, petrochemical applications, construction, entertainment, personal services,

intervention in severe environments, transportation, medical and etc are some applications

from a very diverse application fields of climbing and walking robots. By great progress in

this area of robotics it is anticipated that next generation climbing and walking robots will

enhance lives and will change the way the human works, thinks and makes decisions.

This book presents the state of the art achievments, recent developments, applications and

future challenges of climbing and walking robots. These are presented in 24 chapters by authors throughtot the world The book serves as a reference especially for the researchers

who are interested in mobile robots. It also is useful for industrial engineers and graduate

students in advanced study.