Robotics/Types of Robots/Walkers

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Contents
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1 Legged Robots

1.1 Legs v. Wheels

1.2 Dynamic v. Static

1.3 More Than Four

1.4 Four Legs

1.5 Three Legs

1.6 Two Legs

1.7 One Leg

2 References

Legged Robots

[edit]

In the early days of air travel, detractors used to argue that, if God had meant us to fly, he would have given us
wings. Had he meant us to roll, he might also have given us wheels but instead we, along with the great
preponderance of land animals great and small, have wound up traveling on legs.[1]
[edit]Legs

v. Wheels

Most man-made vehicles today travel on wheels and for good reason: wheels are much easier to construct and
control. In todays economy, they also tend to be much cheaper than their legged counterparts. However legs
have distinct advantages over wheels. The biggest advantage is in transversability and efficiency. Legged
robots have a unique ability to:

Isolate their body from terrain irregularities

Avoid undesirable footholds

Regulate their stability

Achieve energy efficiency[2]

These advantages are very desirable in modern robotics, and therefore a lot of research is being put into
creating robots that can walk. The most challenging task in designing a legged robot is to create a system that
can generate the proper gait. [3]
[edit]Dynamic

v. Static

Locomotion techniques can be divided into two main categories: static and dynamic.
Robots that use static movement are always balanced; that is, their center of gravity is always within their
ground contact base. While this technique has been successfully used to create many robots (included
wheeled ones), it is more akin to wheeled movement than true dynamic walking and as such retains fewer of
the advantages. While more adept at transversing uneven terrain than most wheeled robots, robots that use
static walking are very inefficient as power is put into every movement. However, robots that use static walking
are much easier to control than their dynamic counterparts and thus often more viable.
Dynamic walking is characterized in that the robot is not always in balance. Many robots that use dynamic
walking are continually falling and thus much more energy efficient. Dynamic walking requires much more
complex control systems in order to not fall. Robots utilizing dynamic walking cannot use the same motions at
different speeds to attain different speeds of movement, but must use entirely different motions at different
speeds. However, dynamic walking can achieve many more advantages over wheeled locomotion. Dynamic
walking is found very abundantly in nature.
A subset of dynamic walking is called passive dynamic movement. Most dynamic walking systems use active
control to move the legs to the correct orientations for walking (hence active dynamic walking). Passive
dynamic walking is characterized by a system where gravity and inertia alone generate the locomotion
pattern. [4] Passive dynamic movement can be achieved with maximum efficiency, as the vehicle uses its own
forward momentum to propagate its next movement. Very little energy is lost from the system. Most of the
concepts of passive dynamic walking and research conducted in the field was done by aeronautical engineer
Tad McGeer between 1988 and 1992.HistToys
[edit]More

Than Four

Many different walking robots have been developed that use six or more legs. This is due to the fact that a
robot using this many legs can be controlled with static walking techniques rather than dynamic walking. Most
of the walking techniques can be demonstrated sufficiently using the six legged model:
Wave Gait

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

1. Six legged robot in neutral position

2. Front pair of legs move forward
3. Second pair of legs move forward
4. Third pair of legs move forward
5. Body follows legs forward
Tripod Gait

(1)

(2)

(3)

1. Six legged robot in neutral position

2. Alternating legs move forward on either side
3. All other legs move forward
4. Body follows legs forward
Most robots using six or more legs use a variation of one of these two gait models.

(4)