Design And Development of a Four-Legged Walking Robot

Abstract

The robot with wheeled locomotion has found its applications at many places but still limited due to the requirement of continuous path contact. Due to this limitation, many difficult terrains cannot be travelled using wheel locomotion system. To overcome this limitation, legged locomotion for robots can be thought of from biological inspiration through multi-legged animals. Legs have advantage of isolated foothold that overcome the limitation of wheels i.e. requirement of continuous path. Having saturated research and limited use of wheel locomotion, the research in the field of legged locomotion has immersed in the recent decade. In addition, the development in the field of aerospace science, need of legged locomotion arises as the terrain in the space elements is unknown and difficult. Looking to the need of era, an attempt is made in this project to develop a four-legged walking robot. Various literatures are studied to identify the walking patterns of the four-legged animals. Through biological inspiration, a four legged robot has been developed that follows various gait cycle. A 3D CAD model is prepared using solid modeling software. The simulation of the CAD model has been carried out in the simulation software. The mathematical model of the robot leg has also been developed. Kinematics and dynamic study of the robot leg has been carried out through mathematical model and the results are compared with that of simulation. A four-legged walking robot has been fabricated and demonstrated successfully to walk on the flat and inclined surface.