Gait Kinematic Modeling of a Hexapod Robot

Abstract

The hexapod robot is one of the most important types of robots dedicated to complex tasks. The importance given to this kind of robots is due to its high stability and precision, particularly, in irregular and dangerous areas. In this article, a hexapod robot with rectangular architecture body and six legs symmetrically distributed along two sides is considered. In order to obtain greater mobility, legs with three degrees of freedom structure are adopted. The aim of this work is to plan several gaits for the hexapod robot, by elaborating a general kinematic modeling approach. It concerns the lifting and the propelling phases of any gait adopted by the robot. In order to obtain clear representation and efficient generation of the system equations, appropriate coordinate frames are attached to the body and the legs. Simulation results confirm the kinematic model solution and show main steps of the generated gaits: (i) wave gait,(ii) ripple gait, and (iii) tripod gait.