Locomotion controller for a crab-like robot

Abstract

A rough terrain locomotion controller for an eight-legged demining robot built by K/sup 2/T, Inc. is presented. The method takes inspiration from the behavior of biological organisms to create a robust yet computationally simple controller. Included is a brief description of mechanism based gait control and insect-inspired reflexes for rough terrain locomotion which were previously used to control a hexapod robot with great success. This method is then applied to develop a locomotion controller for the K/sup 2/T crab-like demining robot. In simulation, the resulting controller causes the robot to display successful rough terrain navigation ability including walking over irregular terrain, traversing obstacles on the order of half the tibia length, traversing sparse terrain, and crossing ditches, all without complex sensing or terrain mapping.