Biomimetic Experimental Research on Hexapod Robot's Locomotion Planning

To provide hexapod robots with strategies of locomotion planning, observation experiments were operated on a kind of ant with the use of high speed digital photography and computer assistant analysis. Through digitalization of original analog video, locomotion characters of ants were obtained, the biomimetic foundation was laid for polynomial trajectory planning of multi-legged robots, which was deduced with mathematics method. In addition, five rules were concluded, which apply to hexapod robots marching locomotion planning. The first one is the fundamental strategy of multi-legged robots’ leg trajectory planning. The second one helps to enhance the static and dynamic stability of multi-legged robots. The third one can improve the validity and feasibility of legs’ falling points. The last two give criterions of multi-legged robots’ toe trajectory figures and practical recommendatory constraints. These five rules give a good method for marching locomotion planning of multi-legged robots, and can be expended to turning planning and any other special locomotion.