Terrain Adaptive Motion and Free Gait of a Six-Legged Walking Machine

Abstract

A six-legged hydraulic walking machine, called MECANT I, is introduced. It has been developed for research purposes in outdoor environment. the paper describes the motion planning method used. It is based on a “top down” approach where the vehicle body velocity control is executed by the body path planning which in turn is divided into two parts called profile tracking and terrain adaptation. The estimated support plane is used as a model of the local terrain. The kinematic constraints are included into the body path planning by applying a “plan-and-check” approach. The free gait planner based on a “state machine” approach is introduced. The gait planner uses a role based method when determining the time instant for support pattem change and the new supporting leg configuration