The Probe: Design and Development of a Large Hexapod Robot

Abstract

A hexapod robot has six legs; as such it can always walk in a statically stable way. In addition, people do not often see large-legged robots in real life. For these reasons, we design and develop a large hexapod robot to impress people at retail stores. The developed hexapod robot, named Probe, has a height of 2.1m, width of 3.3m, and mass of 480kg. The actuator is customized with a frameless BLDC motor, a harmonic drive gear, an electromagnetic brake, a multi-turn absolute magnetic encoder, heat sinks, etc. To firmly secure the frameless motor, we use a clamping ring and suggest the design of a tapered shaft hub and insert. We design an interface circuit board to acquire sensor data and a brake switch board to engage and release brake via an Elmo driver’s signal. Additionally, an analytic solution to the kinematic equations of Probe’s legs is described. After development of the Probe, Two Probes are deployed at two different stores in South Korea and they conduct scenario motions during business hours. In future, the design of the foot tip will be modified because the urethane cover beneath foot tip wears while the Probe is walking.