Nashville, Tennessee Approved by:

I am indebted to my parents, who have always encouraged me to follow my own interests in my own way. I am very grateful of their supports. My brothers and sisters who make me think of them since I left home for a long time. I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my advisor Professor Michael Goldfarb for all his thoughtful guidance and invaluable assistance throughout my graduate research at Vanderbilt University. I also thank Professors N. Sarkar, Ken Frampton, A.M. Strauss and G.E. Cook for joining my dissertation committee. Past and present fellow students in Microrobotics lab gave me a pleasant time around the lab. The valuable inputs and helpful discussions from Kevin Fite were very appreciated. I also thanked him for reading and grammatical correcting my dissertation. I also thank to the fellow Thai students at Vanderbilt University who made our life here more enjoyable than it should be. Thanks to Narun and Watchara for their help settles up my living at Vandy