CLAWAR highlights research progress on climbing and walking robots

Purpose – Aims to review the Clawar 2005 conference on climbing and walking robots. Design/methodology/approach – Selects key papers from the conference and presents a brief outline of the research undertaken and the conclusions reached. Findings – Speakers told of the latest developments in humanoid robots; space applications; personal assistance robots; and NDT, security and surveillance. Sessions also covered innovations in sensing and sensor fusion; climbing, navigation and path planning, gait generation, manipulation; hopping and legged robots; flexible manipulators; and control. Originality/value – Outlines trends in the development of climbing and walking robots.