Design and Configuration of a Hexapod Walking Robot

This paper introduces the design and control system of a hexapod walking robot. The robot is developed based on a previous version which is focused on the straight-line walking. To enhance its ability to adapt to the terrain, each leg of it in this paper has three revolute joints driven by 18 RX-64 servomotors. Much more sensors are mounted on the robot as well as special foot point mechanical design applied so as to cope with the unstructured ground. The hierarchical control architecture is proposed to realize the complex kinematic calculation. The Human-Machine Interface allows a human operator to steer and monitor the robot in real time. The ultimate aim of this project is to develop a legged motion platform for the research of a fruit collection robot.