New locomotion gaits

Abstract

This paper investigates new modes of robot land locomotion, in particular statically stable non-wheeled, non-tracked locomotion. These locomotion gaits are accomplished by a reconfigurable modular robot called Polypod using a control scheme combining a small number of primitive control modes for each module. The design of Polypod is first reviewed, then two and three-dimensional locomotion gaits are described along with two "exotic" gaits. These gaits have been implemented on Polypod or simulated on a graphic workstation.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>