Research On The Gait Planning Of A Hexapod Robot

Amphibious robot can propel on land, water and the transitional environment with a strong adaptation, and can act as a carrier of reconnaissance, exploration, communication, rescue and other tasks in amphibious environment, replacing the role of humans to perform agricultural pest control, disaster relief, ocean resource exploration, amphibious battlefield demining tasks, thus the application prospects are very wide. Currently, the research focused on the design of composite propulsive mechanism of amphibious robot and propulsion theory in a single environment, but less concentration on achieving complex amphibious movement for propulsion and movement research in the transition environment movement. Therefore, the research on composed propulsion mechanism and exploration of motion ability in transitional environment has great significance.This paper presents a new amphibious robot with composite propulsion mechanism, based on kinematics analysis of robot motion on land, underwater and transitional environments. Gait planning and promotion of the robot in different environments properties are also studied. The main contents and results of this paper are as follows:(1) System design of amphibious robot AmphiHex. Through the study of the current amphibious robot propulsion, we design a propulsion mechanism of AmphiHex, with the curved legs on land, and paddle underwater. We also design the overall structure of the robot, hardware system and software system.(2) Kinematics and dynamics analysis of Curved legs. Kinematic model of curved legs is build, the relationship between speed of AmphiHex and curved legs movement is also calculated. We also explore the effects of different parameters of curved legs to robot posture, and a briefly dynamics analysis curved legs is also demonstrated.(3) Gait planning of amphibious robot AmphiHex. Through the study of gait parameters of AmphiHex, we design gaits of AmphiHex in different environments, such as tripod gait on land, tetrapod gait, hexapod gait, forward gait, backward gait, turning gait, and other underwater gait, etc. We also study the hybrid gait in the transition area, as well as gait transition technique of AmphiHex.(4) Experimental research of AmphiHex. The maximum forward speed of AmphiHex on level ground is0.48m/s, the maximum slope angle that AmphiHex can climb is35°, it also can cross the barrier with the height of180mm. AmphiHex also can climb the stairs with the single-stage below160mm. AmphiHex can achieve a variety of maneuver movements underwater, the largest advance speed in still water is0.25m/s. The Amphibious robot AmphiHex is able to transit from tripod gait to swimming gait, as well as landing and watering using hybrid gait.