The development of a remote controlled, omnidirectional six legged walker with feedback

Most commercially available robots use either tracked or wheeled forms of locomotion, however there is a great need for the study and introduction of legged walkers. Legged walkers have the ability to navigate over rougher terrains and can be more robust in the case of leg failure. This paper presents the design of a six legged, 18 degree of freedom walking robot. This hexapod supports multiple gaits, records torque readings for later analysis and detects collisions between the feet and the ground. The design has been fully tested and can negotiate obstacles of 450mm in height and climb terrain up to a 40 degree slope. The platform has been designed in conjunction with a simulation package in order to analyse the effects of different gaits on the required motor torques. The combination of the simulation package and the on-board torque monitoring provides a unique system for the analysis of performance of different gaits over various terrains. It also allows analysis how how other parameters affect performance, such as number of legs and mass.