This paper describes the major objectives of the LHD divertor experiment which is proposed to produce currentless-steady-state plasmas with high performance and without any current disruption. Since further improvement in confinement is a common and general requirement for fusion research including the LHD project, it is also necessary to develop the edge plasma control techniques and to understand the physical behaviour in the LHD divertor, i.e. the newly developed continuous helical divertor and a local island divertor (LID) concepts. In order to achieve these objectives, there were several key issues in physics and technology, which had to be resolved through careful investigation before the LHD experiment could start. In this paper, we summarize the recent progress of the physics understanding of divertor functions, divertor plasma operation scenarios, and properties of the LHD magnetic field structure in addition to the experimental planning. We also describe the recent result of an LID experiment in the CHS device, which demonstrated the possibility of edge particle and heat control by the LID.