Design and Analysis of a Multi-Legged Robot with Pitch Adjustive Units

The paper proposes a novel multi-legged robot with pitch adjustive units aiming at obstacle surmounting.With only 6 degrees of freedom,the robot with 16 mechanical legs walks steadily and surmounts the obstacles on the complex terrain.The leg unit with adjustive pitch provides a large workspace and empowers the legs to climb up obstacles in large sizes,which enhances the obstacle surmounting capability.The pitch adjustment in leg unit requires as few independent adjusting actuators as possible.Based on the kinematic analysis of the mechanical leg,the biped and quadruped leg units with adjustive pitch are analyzed and compared.The configuration of the robot is designed to obtain a compact structure and pragmatic performance.The uncertainty of the obstacle size and position in the surmounting process is taken into consideration and the parameters of the adjustments and the feasible strategies for obstacle surmounting are presented.Then the 3D virtual model and the robot prototype are built and the multi-body dynamic simulations and prototype experiments are carried out.The results from the simulations and the experiments show that the robot possesses good obstacle surmounting capabilities.

Motion Error Compensation of Multi-legged Walking Robots

Existing errors in the structure and kinematic parameters of multi-legged walking robots,the motion trajectory of robot will diverge from the ideal sports requirements in movement.Since the existing error compensation is usually used for control compensation of manipulator arm,the error compensation of multi-legged robots has seldom been explored.In order to reduce the kinematic error of robots,a motion error compensation method based on the feedforward for multi-legged mobile robots is proposed to improve motion precision of a mobile robot.The locus error of a robot body is measured,when robot moves along a given track.Error of driven joint variables is obtained by error calculation model in terms of the locus error of robot body.Error value is used to compensate driven joint variables and modify control model of robot,which can drive the robots following control model modified.The model of the relation between robot＇s locus errors and kinematic variables errors is set up to achieve the kinematic error compensation.On the basis of the inverse kinematics of a multi-legged walking robot,the relation between error of the motion trajectory and driven joint variables of robots is discussed.Moreover,the equation set is obtained,which expresses relation among error of driven joint variables,structure parameters and error of robot＇s locus.Take MiniQuad as an example,when the robot MiniQuad moves following beeline tread,motion error compensation is studied.The actual locus errors of the robot body are measured before and after compensation in the test.According to the test,variations of the actual coordinate value of the robot centroid in x-direction and z-direction are reduced more than one time.The kinematic errors of robot body are reduced effectively by the use of the motion error compensation method based on the feedforward.

Free gait generation method for omnidirectional locomotion on abrupt terrain with multi-legged biomimetic robot

In order to achieve omnidirectional locomotion on rough terrain with multi-legged biomimetic robot,a free gait generation approach is proposed based on local rules.The phase coordinates of each operation leg was established according to the motion task and a universal depiction of leg-end locomotion was implemented;the mathematical relation of gait pattern and walking velocity of multi-legged robot was put forward;combined polynomial curve was adopted to generate the leg-end trajectory,which was capable of accomplishing walking missions and accommodating to landform conditions;a distributed network of local rules for gait control was constructed based on a set of local rules operating between adjacent legs.In the simulation experiments,adaptive regulation of inter-leg phase sequence,omnidirectional locomotion and ground accommodation were realized.Moreover,statically stable free gait was obtained simultaneously,which provided multi-legged robot with the capability of walking on irregular terrain reliably and expeditiously.

Solving position-posture deviation problem of multi-legged walking robots with semi-round rigid feet by closed-loop control

The semi-round rigid feet would cause position-posture deviation problem because the actual foothold position is hardly known due to the rolling effect of the semi-round rigid feet during the robot walking. The position-posture deviation problem may harm to the stability and the harmony of the robot, or even makes the robot tip over and fail to walk forward. Focused on the position-posture deviation problem of multi-legged walking robots with semi-round rigid feet, a new method of position-posture closed-loop control is proposed to solve the position-posture deviation problem caused by semi-round rigid feet, based on the inverse velocity kinematics of the multi-legged walking robots. The position-posture closed-loop control is divided into two parts: the position closed-loop control and the posture closed-loop control. Thus, the position-posture control for the robot which is a tight coupling and nonlinear system is decoupled. Co-simulations of position-posture open-loop control and position-posture closed-loop control by MATLAB and ADAMS are implemented, respectively. The co-simulation results verify that the position-posture closed-loop control performs well in solving the position-posture deviation problem caused by semi-round rigid feet.

Adaptive proportional integral differential control based on radial basis function neural network identification of a two-degree-of-freedom closed-chain robot

A closed-chain robot has several advantages over an open-chain robot, such as high mechanical rigidity, high payload, high precision. Accurate trajectory control of a robot is essential in practical-use. This paper presents an adaptive proportional integral differential （PID） control algorithm based on radial basis function （RBF） neural network for trajectory tracking of a two-degree-of-freedom （2-DOF） closed-chain robot. In this scheme, an RBF neural network is used to approximate the unknown nonlinear dynamics of the robot, at the same time, the PID parameters can be adjusted online and the high precision can be obtained. Simulation results show that the control algorithm accurately tracks a 2-DOF closed-chain robot trajectories. The results also indicate that the system robustness and tracking performance are superior to the classic PID method.

Typical Gait Analysis of a Six-legged Robot in the Context of Metamorphic Mechanism Theory

The equivalent mechanism of the system is often considered as one specific mechanism in most existing studies of multi-legged robots, however the equivalent mechanism is varying while the robot moves on the ground. Four typical tripod period gaits of a radial symmetrical six-legged robot are analyzed. Similar to the metamorphic mechanism, the locomotion of multi-legged robot is considered as a series of varying hybrid serial-parallel mechanisms by assuming the constraints of the feet on the ground with hinges. One gait cycle is divided into several periods, and in different walking period there is a specific equivalent mechanism corresponding to it, and the walking process of multi-legged robot is composed by these series of equivalent mechanisms. Walking performance can be got by analyzing these series of equivalent mechanisms. Kinematics model of the equivalent mechanism is established, workspaces of equivalent mechanisms are illustrated by simulation and a concept of static stability workspace is proposed to evaluate the static stability of these four gaits. A new method to calculate the stride length of multi-legged robots is presented by analyzing the relationship between the workspace of two adjacent equivalent parallel mechanisms in one gait cycle. The stride lengths of four gaits are given by simulations. Comparison of stride length and static stability among these four typical tripod gaits are given. It has been proved that mixed gait and insect-wave gait II have better static stability than mammal kick-off gait and insect-wave gait I. Insect-wave gait II displays its advantage on stride length while the height of robot body lower than 87 mm, mammal kick-off gait has superiority on stride length while the height of robot body higher than 115 mm, and insect-wave gait I shows its shortcoming in stride length. The proposed method based on metamorphic theory and combining the footholds and body height of robot provides a new method to comprehensive analyze the performance of multi-legged robot.

Analysis and control for a bioinspired multi-legged soft robot

Untethered soft miniature robots are considered to have a wide range of applications in biomedical field.However,researchers today still have not reached a consensus on its configuration design and actuation method.Here,inspired by the tentacles of a certain kind of echinodermata,we propose a soft multi-legged robot with a total weight of 0.26 g capable of multiple locomotion modes.Based on the magnetic field distribution of a square permanent magnet,we qualitatively analyze the motion mechanism of the robot.Finally,we carried out relevant experimental research.The research shows that the robot can move forward,backward,steering and cross obstacles under the control of the magnetic field,and can combine these abilities to navigate the maze.

Undulatory gait planning method of multi-legged robot with passive-spine

In this paper,we propose a new gait planning method for a multi-legged robot which has only 1 degree-of-freedom in each leg and has a passive body joint between two body segments.We firstly introduce the Finite State Machine(FSM)to the undulatory gait planning method of the 2n-legged robot.Then,the undulatory gait sequence for straight line motion is achieved by undulations motion.The idea that legged locomotion is achievable by less actuation of 2n-legged robot as well as the gait planning methods are verified finally by simulations and experiments.

Effects of Pendular Waist on Gecko＇s Climbing： Dynamic Gait, Analytical Model and Bio-inspired Robot

Most quadruped reptiles, such as lizards, salamanders and crocodiles, swing their waists while climbing on horizontal or vertical surfaces. Accompanied by body movement, the centroid trajectory also becomes more of a zigzag path rather than a straight line. Inspired by gecko＇s gait and posture on a vertical surface, a gecko inspired model with one pendular waist and four active axil legs, which is called GPL model, is proposed. Relationship between the waist position, dynamic gait, and driving forces on supporting feet is analyzed. As for waist trajectory planning, a singular line between the supporting feet is found and its effects on driving forces are discussed. Based on the GPL model, it is found that a sinusoidal waist trajectory, rather than a straight line, makes the driving forces on the supporting legs smaller. Also, a waist close to the pygal can reduce the driving forces compared to the one near middle vertebration, which is in accord with gecko＇s body bending in the process of climbing. The principles of configuration design and gait planning are proposed based on theoretical analyses. Finally, a bio-inspired robot DracoBot is developed and both of the driving force measurements and climbing experiments reinforce theoretical analysis and the rationality of gecko＇s dynamic gait.