Attitude control in walking hexapod robots: an analogic spatio‐temporal approach

摘要

Abstract In this paper, the control system of a biologically inspired walking robot is presented. An analog distributed system acts as Central Pattern Generator for the locomotion control, while the attitude control is performed by using a proportional integrative controller for each leg. The inclusion of a saturation block in the attitude control scheme allows to take into account the joint limits, leading to the formulation of a cellular non‐linear network (CNN) based attitude controller. Thus, the whole control system can be structured as an analog control system realized by CNNs generating the locomotion pattern as a function of the sensorial stimuli from the environment. Both the network design and circuit realization are presented in this paper. Some experimental results obtained with the 18 degrees‐of‐freedom walking robot prototype are also reported. Moreover, some interesting experiments showing the robot capabilities to escape from unforeseen situations, in which overloading causes the saturation of a joint motor, are emphasized as an emerging result due to the action on both the locomotion control and the attitude control. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.