Mechanical Design of a Non-Overconstrained Walking Machine

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes the mechanical design of a walking machine that avoids overconstraint. All current walking machines that are also capable of standing on their own are overconstrained and must depend on force control algorithms to control joints. From observations of darkling beetles we have concluded that it is possible for them to perambulate while keeping their bodies constrained but not overconstrained. Our walking machine was built to test hypotheses of how these beetles walk. We discuss the aspects of beetle leg kinematics that are most important for non-overconstrained walking.