Adaptive Body Motion for Blind Hexapod Robot in a Rough Environment

In this paper, we address the problem of traversing rough terrains with a hexapod robot. In contrast with other known approaches, we utilise the built-in sensors of the used smart servo drives, which leads to a cheap solution without a need of additional or external sensors. The proposed approach is based on a tactile detection of the ground and proposes a body leveling method that adapts to the terrain being traversed and enables to keep the robot in a suitable configuration with respect to the terrain. By combining the tactile sensing and the body leveling method, we get a smooth and adaptive behavior for our technically blind hexapod walking robot, despite the fact it is. The proposed approach has been experimentally verified in a series of scenarios where a regular motion gait does not allow the robot to traverse the terrain while the proposed method enables a successful gait execution in rough terrains of various difficulty.