Abstract
Hexapod locomotion in unstructured environments relies on an efficient posture adjustment with the terrain topology. This paper presents a strategy to adapt the hexapod torso orientation through ground plane estimation. With an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and the robot kinematic model, the current supporting feet coordinates are calculated, and the relative inclination between the ground and the torso angular position can be obtained. This information is used to adjust the novel foothold positions, in order to ensure the hexapod posture remains stable. The torso height is also controlled to avoid collisions with the ground asperities and decrease its deviation during motion. The proposed method is evaluated in a complex terrain made of 0.1\(\times \)0.1 m blocks with variable height, causing different slopes across the field. Through result analysis, a significant behavior improvement is observed, due to the reduction of the torso posture oscillation and the increase of its locomotion efficiency.
The first author received funding through a doctoral scholarship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (Grant No. SFRH/BD/145818/2019), with funds from the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education and the European Social Fund through the Programa Operacional Regional Norte. This work has been supported by FCT within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020, UIDB/04436/2020 and UIDP/04436/2020.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bjelonic, M., Kottege, N., Beckerle, P.: Proprioceptive control of an over-actuated hexapod robot in unstructured terrain. In: 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 2042–2049 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2016.7759321
Buschmann, T., Trimmer, B.: Bio-inspired robot locomotion. In: Hooper, S.L., Büschges, A. (eds.) Neurobiology of Motor Control, pp. 443–472. Wiley, Hoboken (2017). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118873397. ISBN:9781118873397
Coelho, J., Ribeiro, F., Dias, B., Lopes, G., Flores, P.: Trends in the control of hexapod robots: a survey. Robotics 10(3) (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics10030100. ISSN:2218–6581
Collins, J., Chand, S., Vanderkop, A., Howard, D.: A review of physics simulators for robotic applications. IEEE Access 9, 51416–51431 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3068769
Faigl, J., ČíŽek, P.: Adaptive locomotion control of hexapod walking robot for traversing rough terrains with position feedback only. Robot. Autonom. Syst. 116, 136–147 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2019.03.008. ISSN:0921–8890
Irawan, A., Nonami, K.: Optimal impedance control based on body inertia for a hydraulically driven hexapod robot walking on uneven and extremely soft terrain. J. Field Robot. 28(5), 690–713 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1002/rob.20404
Ivaldi, S., Peters, J., Padois, V., Nori, F.: Tools for simulating humanoid robot dynamics: a survey based on user feedback. In: 2014 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, pp. 842–849 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1109/HUMANOIDS.2014.7041462
Liu, Y., Fan, X., Ding, L., Wang, J., Liu, T., Gao, H.: Fault-tolerant tripod gait planning and verification of a hexapod robot. Appl. Sci. 10(8) (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/app10082959. ISSN:2076–3417
Molnar, T., Steindl, R., Kottege, N., Talbot, F., Elfes, A.: Steep terrain ascension controller for hexapod robots. In: Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, ACRA, December 2017, pp. 1–7 (2017). ISBN:9781510860117
Rubio, F., Valero, F., Llopis-Albert, C.: A review of mobile robots: concepts, methods, theoretical framework, and applications. Int. J. Adv. Robot. Syst. 16(2), 1729881419839596 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1177/1729881419839596
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 CISM International Centre for Mechanical Sciences
About this paper
Cite this paper
Coelho, J., Dias, B., Lopes, G., Ribeiro, F., Flores, P. (2022). Hexapod Posture Control for Navigation Across Complex Environments. In: Kecskeméthy, A., Parenti-Castelli, V. (eds) ROMANSY 24 - Robot Design, Dynamics and Control. ROMANSY 2022. CISM International Centre for Mechanical Sciences, vol 606. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06409-8_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06409-8_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-06408-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-06409-8
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)