The fault tolerant gait of legged robots in static walking is a gait which maintains its stability against a fault event preventing a leg from having the support state. In this paper, a fault tolerant quadruped gait is proposed for a hexapod traversing uneven terrain with forbidden regions, which do not offer viable footholds but can be stepped over. By comparing performance of straight-line mo...

The generation of gaits for hexapod locomotion controllers can be divided into two main parts: the cyclic action of a single leg (leg cycles) and the coordination of all legs to combine individual leg cycles to produce forward movement. In this paper, we use a genetic algorithm (GA) to evolve the structure of an artificial neural network (NN) that produces leg cycles in a hexapod robot. The mov...

Hexapod locomotive Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) microrobot with Pulse-type Hardware Neural Networks (P-HNN) locomotion controlling system is presented in this chapter. MEMS microrobot is less than 5 mm width, length, and height in size. MEMS microrobot is made from a silicon wafer fabricated by micro fabrication technology to realize the small size mechanical components. The mechanic...

Hexapod characteristic analyzed in this paper is the effect of small errors within its elements (strut lengths, joint placement) which can be caused by manufacturing tolerances or setting up errors or other even unknown sources to end effector. If all error values are known or can be calculated then they can be included in a model which will eliminate their defective effect. In practice there a...

We describe the design features that underlie the operation of iSprawl, a small (0.3 kg) autonomous, bio-inspired hexapod that runs at 15 body-lengths/second (2.3 m/s). These features include a tuned set of leg compliances for efficient running and a light and flexible power transmission system. This transmission system permits high speed rotary power to be converted to periodic thrusting and d...

In this paper we describe the mechanical design, gait and control for a modular hexapod robot which makes it compliant to terrain while climbing slopes up and down. The robot uses a unique electronically actuated 2DOF universal spine similar to the spine of the Snake and the four legged animals like leopard, tiger etc.By controlling the amount of stiffness of the spine we were able to make the ...

Statically stable walking locomotion research has focused mainly on robot design and gait generation. However, there is a need to expand robots’ capabilities so that walking machines can accomplish the kinds of real tasks for which they are eminently suited. Many such tasks demand trajectory tracking, but researchers have traditionally ignored this subject. This article focuses on the tracking ...

In the near future of space observation systems, several technical challenges come into light like multi-pupil systems conceived as free flyers or extremely high resolution (EHR) systems with large dimensions and high agility requirements. To be able to face these challenges, the Alcatel Space Research Department is studying innovative structural concepts for future observation instruments. One...