The goal of this research is to enable a multi-limbed robot to climb vertical rock using techniques similar to those developed by human climbers. The robot consists of a small number of articulated limbs. Only the limb end-points can make contact with the environment—a vertical surface with small, arbitrarily distributed features called holds. A path through this environment is a sequence of on...

This paper presents the design of a novel robot capable of climbing on vertical and rough surfaces, such as stucco walls. Termed CLIBO (claw inspired robot), the robot can remain in position for a long period of time. Such a capability offers important civilian and military advantages such as surveillance, observation, search and rescue and even for entertainment and games. The robot's kinemati...

In this work we investigate the effect of terrain modelling on the performance of planetary rovers, for the evaluation of design concepts under typical rover operation tasks. These tasks include: (1) straight line motion on a flat terrain or climbing a given slope; (2) climbing over a rock with one wheel-set while the other wheels move on flat or inclined terrain. The primary characterization a...

The movements of our bodies are spatial as well as motor. They have structure and shape and they carry e€ectors to locations in space. In planning and rehearsing movements we can choose to plan the con®guration over a limb or over the body as a whole, or we can plan to move a limb to a speci®c target. So, it is possible to perform (or imagine performing) an arabesque, or to kick a stationary fo...

The main purpose of this study was to examine the effect of chalk on the friction coefficient between climber's fingers and two different rock types (sandstone and limestone). The secondary purpose was to investigate the effects of humidity and temperature on the friction coefficient and on the influence of chalk. Eleven experienced climbers took part in this study and 42 test sessions were per...

In recent decades, raptors have become gradually more protected in almost all European countries, but their decline often persists, due to pollution, habitat alteration and fragmentation, or to human direct/indirect disturbance (Tucker & Heath, 1994). Peregrine Falco peregrinus populations suffered a dramatic decline during the 1950s and 1960s in the boreal hemisphere, following the adoption of...

The purpose of the present study was to search for common patterns and for differences in climbing strategies in a group of recreational climbers. Twelve participants were involved in the study. Each participant climbed a simple indoor route consisting of a 3m horizontal shift followed by a 3m ascent for five times. Climbers could choose their own style, their preferred speed and holds. Their m...

This study investigates the hypothesis that shallow edge lifting force in high-level rock climbers is more strongly related to fingertip soft tissue anatomy than to absolute strength or strength to body mass ratio. Fifteen experienced climbers performed repeated maximal single hand lifting exercises on rectangular sandstone edges of depth 2.8, 4.3, 5.8, 7.3, and 12.5 mm while standing on a forc...

In this paper, we propose a new method based on Hidden Markov Models to interpret temporal sequences of sensor data from mobile robots to automatically detect features. Hidden Markov Models have been used for a long time in pattern recognition, especially in speech recognition. Their main advantages over other methods (such as neural networks) are their ability to model noisy temporal signals o...