As future astronomic missions will require more and more stringent resolution requirements, the high demand for an environment clean of vibrations and disturbance appears. This also leads to the need for high precision steering devices for fine pointing of sensitive optics with the highest possible accuracy. Several methods exist to reduce vibration levels: the first consists in isolating the s...

INTRODUCTION When the Ilizarov external fixator is used for fracture reduction and deformity correction, the planning for correction of 3-D multiple deformities is difficult due to the lack of information on required joint rotations and translations in order to correct the deformities [1]. In addition, if the rotational axis is not placed exactly with respect to axis of the deformity, the rotat...

The main purpose of this work was to design a prototype of an autonomous hexapod robot. This paper reports on an initial phase, where the basic geometry of the system was specified and improved through a kinematics and dynamic study, using a motion analysis software. This also allowed the design of all mechanical components and the definition of motion generation needs. In this paper the import...

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 ...

The neuromechanical control principles of animal locomotion provide good insights for the development of bio-inspired legged robots for walking on challenging surfaces. Based on such principles, we developed a neuromechanical controller consisting of a modular neural network (MNN) and of virtual agonist-antagonist muscle mechanisms (VAAMs). The controller allows for variable compliant leg motio...

We describe a model predicting the output torque of the battery-amplifier-actuator-gear combination used on the hexapod robot RHex, based on requested PWM (PulseWidth-Modulation) duty cycle to the amplifier, battery voltage, and motor speed. The model is broken into independent components, each experimentally validated: power source (battery), motor amplifier, motor, and (planetary) gear. The r...

Arthropods with their extraordinary locomotive capabilities have inspired roboticists, giving rise to major accomplishments in robotics research over the past decade. Most notably bio-inspired hexapod robots using only task level open-loop controllers [22, 9] exhibit stable dynamic locomotion over highly broken and unstable terrain. We present experimental data on the dynamics of SprawlHex — a ...

Recently, the development of intelligent robots has benefited from a deeper understanding of the biomechanics and neurology of biological systems. Researchers have proposed the concept of Central Pattern Generators (CPGs) as a mechanism for generating an efficient control strategy for legged robots based on biological locomotion principles. Although many studies ha...

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 th...