Design of a Crab-Like Octopod Robot

Abstract

A crab-like octopod robot is introduced in this paper. The body structure of the robot is simuliar with a real crab. Each leg has three jionts which are driven by servomotors. The control system is a distributed hierarchical system with a top layer as gait generator and a bottom layer as servomotor controller. The bottom layer has enght individual control units every of which can control three servomotors using PID control method. The sensor systerm is composed of force sensors mounted at the end of the leg and a inclinometer provides pitch and roll angles of the body.