Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present new locomotion and steering modules conceived and designed for rescue serpentine robots with enhanced climbing ability. The locomotion modules apply sock locomotion technology that allows great motion efficiency in rubble and confined...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a navigation system designed for highly dynamic environments which is independent from a metrically exact global map. Design/methodology/approach – A navigation system is developed to cope with highly dynamic environments. Here, this refers...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a new closed‐loop radiative robotic paint curing process that could replace less efficient and bulky convection‐based paint curing processes in automotive manufacturing. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed robotic paint curing...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the advantages of two‐arm robots in the industrial environment. Design/methodology/approach – The innovative thinking behind Motoman's dual arm humanoid robot is presented. Then, its technical design and its industrial applications are...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review recent developments in exoskeletons and robotic prosthetics. Design/methodology/approach – This paper first describes a number of recently developed exoskeletons for military, civil and medical applications. It then discusses robotic...

Purpose – Autonomous mobile manipulation depends on a lot of effort at various levels. In general, the hardware design is as important as algorithm (or software) design. In particular, the absence of certain capabilities of hardware can seriously affect the feasibility and performance of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a project which seeks to develop a new generation of powered prostheses based on lightweight, uniquely tuned, energy‐storing elastic elements in series with optimal actuator systems that will significantly reduce the peak power requirement...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an adaptive numerical algorithm for forward kinematics analysis of general Stewart platform. Design/methodology/approach – Unlike the convention of developing a set of kinematic equations and then solving them, an alternative numerical...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a new wheel control scheme for wheeled vehicle with passive linkage mechanism which realizes high step‐overcoming performance. Design/methodology/approach – Developing wheeled vehicle realizes omni‐directional motion on flat floor using...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to clarify the underlying hazards of human‐mimic human‐collaborative industrial robots. Design/methodology/approach – Preliminary hazard analysis is applied to a new industrial upper‐body‐humanoid under development. The result of the analysis is...