Abstract
Minimizing the energy and flow consumption is significant to realize the locomotion of a hydraulically actuated hexapod robot for mobile field applications. This paper proposes a low energy cost foot trajectory planning method to realize a constant velocity of the body and optimize the power and flow consumption of a hexapod robot. A dephased gait generating method is also proposed to decrease the flow demand. A simulation platform for hexapod robots was developed using C++ and based on the vortex physics engine. Power and flow consumption models were derived to verify the proposed methods. The simulation platform was used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods at optimizing the power and flow consumption.
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Zongquan Deng is a professor and a vice president at the Harbin Institute of Technology, China. He received his M.S. at the Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 1984. His research interests include special robot systems and aerospace mechanisms and control.
Yiqun Liu is a Ph.D. candidate at the State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, Harbin Institute of Technology, China. He received his M.S. at the Harbin Institute of Technology at Weihai, China, in 2011. His research interests include mobile robotics and special vehicles.
Liang Ding is a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, Harbin Institute of Technology, China. He received his Ph.D. at the Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 2009. His research interests include field and aerospace robotics and control.
Haibo Gao is a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, Harbin Institute of Technology, China. He received his Ph.D. at the Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 2004. His research interests include specialized and aerospace robotics and mechanisms.
Haitao Yu received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2007, 2009 and 2014, respectively. He is currently a visiting scholar at system and control lab in Ryerson University, Canada. His research interests include legged locomotion, bio-inspired robotics and nonlinear systems.
Zhen Liu was born in 1983, and is currently a lecturer at the State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, Harbin Institute of Technology, China. He received his Ph.D. degree at the Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 2013. His research interests include aerospace robotics.
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Deng, Z., Liu, Y., Ding, L. et al. Motion planning and simulation verification of a hydraulic hexapod robot based on reducing energy/flow consumption. J Mech Sci Technol 29, 4427–4436 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-015-0941-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-015-0941-0