Turning gaits and optimal undulatory gaits for a modular centipede-inspired millirobot

Turning gaits and optimal undulatory straight-line gaits for a walking myriapod millirobot are presented. Simulation and experiments show that body undulations similar to those found in natural centipedes enhance straight-line locomotion via increased speeds and reduced cost of transport for myriapod millirobots with passively flexible bodies composed of a variety of segments. A simple turning strategy that uses an offset duty-cycle for the stance of contralateral legs was developed. Turning experiments for millirobots with 5-8 segments show that this can successfully be applied to millirobots with different numbers of legs. This millirobot, which is composed of 220 mg, two-legged segments, can be used to understand how to effectively implement characteristics of actual centipedes, such as body flexibility and many legs, into millirobots.