Type Synthesis of Walking Robot Legs

Abstract

Walking robots use leg structures to overcome obstacles or move on complicated terrains. Most robots of current researches are equipped with legs of simple structure. The specific design method of walking robot legs is seldom studied. Based on the generalized-function (GF) set theory, a systematic type synthesis process of designing robot legs is introduced. The specific mobility of robot legs is analyzed to obtain two main leg types as the goal of design. Number synthesis problem is decomposed into two stages, actuation and constraint synthesis by name, corresponding to the combinatorics results of linear Diophantine equations. Additional restrictions are discussed to narrow the search range to propose practical limb expressions and kinematic-pair designs. Finally, all the fifty-one leg structures of four subtypes are carried out, some of which are chosen to make up robot prototypes, demonstrating the validity of the method. This paper proposed a novel type synthesis methodology, which could be used to systematically design various practical robot legs and the derived robots.