Walking in unstructured natural environments

Abstract

In this paper we present a complete behavior-based controller that allows a six legged robot to walk in unstructured environments. The task of walking on rough terrain is decomposed in two subtasks: terrain adaptation and movement generation. The first one maintains the stability of the robot while the second is in charge of the advance movement. We present solutions to each of these two tasks and show how they can be integrated into a single controller so that further improvements can be made on each of them without modifying the other. The results of a series of evaluation test performed on a real robot are presented. 1 Introduction One of the main objectives in the field of mobile robots is that of building systems able to operate in natural environments, which usually are dynamic, unstructured, and (too often) hazardous, making this objective really hard to achieve. Legged robots are a special case of mobile robots. Their control involves more aspects than that of wheeled robots....