In this paper, a wall climbing robot, called LAVAR, is developed, which is using an impeller for adhering. The adhesion mechanism of the robot consists of an impeller and two-layered suction seals which provide sufficient adhesion force for the robot body on the non smooth vertical wall and horizontal ceiling. The robot uses two driving-wheels and one ball-caster to maneuver the wall surface. A suspension mechanism is also used to overcome the obstacles on the wall surface. For its design, the whole adhering mechanism is analyzed and the control system is built up based on this analysis. The performances of the robot are experimentally verified on the vertical and horizontal flat surfaces.

In this research, a comprehensive study is performed upon the design of a quadruped walking robot. In advance, the walking posture and skeletal configuration of the vertebrate are analyzed to understand quadrupedal locomotion, and the roles of limbs during walking are investigated. From these, it is known that the forelimbs just play the role of supportingtheir body anbd help vault forward, while most of the propulsive force is generated by hind limbs. In addition, with the study of the stances on walking and energy efficiency, design criteria and control method for a quadruped walking robot are derived. The proposed controller, though it is simple, provides a useful framework for controlling a quadruped walking robot. In particular, introduction of a new rhythmic pattern generator relieves the heavy computational burden because it does not need any computation on kinematics. Finally, the proposed method is validated via dynamic simulations and implementing in a quadruped walking robot, called AiDIN(Artificial Digitigrade for Natural Environment)

Tactile sensation is one of the most important sensory functions for human perception of objects. Recently, there have been many technical challenges in the field of tactile display as well as tactile sensing. In this paper, we propose an innovative tactile display device based on soft actuator technology with ElectroActive Polymer(EAP). This device offers advantageous features over existing devices with respect to intrinsic flexibility, softness, ease of fabrication and miniaturization, high power density, and cost effectiveness. In particular, it can be adapted to various geometric configurations because it possesses structural flexibility, so it can be worn on any part of the human body such as finger, palm, and arm etc. It can be extensively applied as a wearable tactile display, a Braille device for the visually disabled, and a human interface in the future. A new design of the flexible actuator is proposed and its basic operational principles are discussed. In addition, a wearable tactile display device with 4x5 actuator array(20 actuator cells) is developed and its effectiveness is confirmed