A-1: Hand Design.- On a New Torque Sensor for Compliant Grasp by Robot Fingers with a Tendon Actuation System.- A Learning Mechanism of Control Parameters for The Variable Structure Fuzzy Logic Controller.- B-1: Manipulator Kinematics (I).- On the Inverse Kinematics of Redundant Manipulators: Characterization of the Self-Motion Manifolds.- Symbolic Equation Generation for Manipulators.- An Approach to Manipulator Kinematic Modeling.- A-2: Mobile Robots.- Fundamental Studies of Collision Avoidance Problems Between a Robot and a Moving Obstacle. Part 1 Heuristic Collision Avoidance Techniques and Fundamental Experiments with a Real Robot.- Model and Sensor Based Precise Navigation by an Autonomous Mobile Robot.- Reactive Processes for Mobile Robot Control.- Powered Wheelchair Equipped with Voice Control and Automatic Locomotion.- B-2: Flexible Arm Control.- Nonlinear Decoupling Control/Control of Flexible Robots.- Application and Comparison of On-Line Identification Methods for Flexible Manipulator Control.- Trajectory Shaping for Flexible Manipulators: A Comparative Study.- A-3: Manipulator Dynamics.- An Algorithm for Efficient Computation of Dynamics of Robotic Manipulators.- Calculation of the Minimum Inertial Parameters of Tree Structure Robots.- Parallel Algorithms and Architectures for Manipulator Inverse Dynamics.- B-3: Actuators and Sensors.- Shape Memory Alloy Actuators for Robotic End-Effectors.- An Artificial Muscle Actuator for Robots.- High Precision Mark Position Sensing Device R-HPSD Suitable for 3-D Position Determination in Robotics.- The Ultrasonic Inspection Robot System.- A-4: Multiple-Limb Co-ordination and Legged Locomotion.- An Approach to Simultaneous Control of Trajectory and Interaction forces in Dual Arm Configurations.- Realization of Dynamic Biped Walking Walking Stabilized With Trunk Motion Under Known External Force.- Power System of a Multi-Legged Walking Vehicle.- On the Stability Properties of 2N-Legged Wave Gaits.- B-4: Vision.- Depth Perception for Robots: Structural Stereo from Extended Laplacian-of-Gaussian Features.- Location of the Mobile Robot CENTAURE in a Modelled Environment with PYRAMIDE.- An Auto-Calibration System for Vision-Servoed Robots.- Visual Servoing of a Robot Assembly Task.- A-5: Path Planning and Collision Avoidance.- Computing Moveability Areas of a Robot Among Obstacles Using Octrees.- Determination of the Space Occupied by Moving Links of Manipulators and Linkages.- Collision-Free Path Planning for a Reconfigurable Robot.- Characterizing Repetition in Workcell Applications and the Implications for Sequence Optimization.- B-5: Hybrid Control (I).- Analysis and Design of a Six Axis Truss Type of Force Sensor.- The Interaction of Robots with Passive Environments: Application to Force Feedback Control.- A-6: Manipulator Kinematics (II).- The Dynamic Model of a Three Degree of Freedom Parallel Robotic Shoulder Module.- Kinematics of Redundantly Actuated Closed Kinematic Chains.- Identifying the Kinematics of Non-Redundant Serial Chain Manipulators by a Closed-loop Approach.- General Dynamic Formulation of the Force Distribution Equations.- B-6: Cooperative Manipulation.- An Overview of KALI: a System to Program and Control Cooperative Manipulators.- A-7: Hybrid Control (II).- A Local Solution with Global Characteristics for the Joint Torque Optimization of a Redundant Manipulator.- Joint Compliance Control of the Anthropomorphic Manipulator.- Independent Joint Controllability of Manipulator System.- A Generalized Approach for the Control of Constrained Robots.- B-7: Legged Locomotion and Adaptive Vehicles.- A Study on Walking Robots Controlled with Attitude Sensors.- Development on Walking Robot for Underwater Inspection.- Locomotion of a Machine of a Static Crawler Type: Gait Modelling.- Terrain Adaptive Tracked Vehicle HELIOS-I.

The Fourth International Conference on Advanced Robotics was held in Columbus, Ohio, U. S. A. on June 13th to 15th, 1989. The first two conferences in this series were held in Tokyo. The third was held in Versailles, France in October 1987. The International Conference on Advanced Robotics is affiliated with the International Federation of Robotics. This conference was sponsored by The Ohio State University. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers was a cooperating co-sponsor. The objective of the International Conference on Advanced Robotics is to provide an international exchange of information on the topic of advanced robotics. This was adopted as one of the themes for international research cooperation at a meeting of representatives of seven industrialized countries held in Williamsburg, U. S. A. in May 1983. The present conference is truly international in character with contributions from authors of twelve countries. (Bulgaria, Canada, France, Great Britain, India, Italy, Japan, Peoples Republic of China, Poland, Republic of China, Spain, United States of America.) The subject matter of the papers is equally diverse, covering most technical areas of robotics. The authors are distinguished. They are leaders in the field in their respective countries. The International Conference on Advanced Robotics has always particularly encouraged papers oriented to the design of robotic systems, or to research directed at advanced applications in service robotics, construction, nuclear power, agriculture, mining, underwater systems, and space systems.