Robug III: a tele-operated climbing and walking robot

The paper describes the design and construction of a tele-operated eight-legged walking/climbing robotic vehicle aimed at meeting the specifications provided by the nuclear industry. The overall design philosophy is based upon biological systems and their behaviours are such that the resulting vehicle can perform the required duties in an efficient manner. A hybrid control architecture is employed in the system which combines the advantages of both hierarchical and reactive methodologies. Preliminary on-site trials have shown that the designed and constructed vehicle is capable of fulfilling the user requirements.