Abstract
Insects exhibit surprisingly adaptive locomotion under unstructured environments despite their limited computational resources. Such locomotor patterns are generated via coordination between leg movements. Thus far, numerous studies have been devoted to elucidate this mechanism from biological as well as robotic viewpoint; however, it has not yet clearly understood. To tackle this problem, we employ a unique approach: we reconsider interlimb coordination mechanism of hexapod locomotion from quadruped locomotion. In our previous study, we proposed an unconventional CPG model of quadruped locomotion that fully exploits physical communication between legs via load sensing. Our quadruped robots with this CPG model well reproduce various gait patterns observed in actual quadruped animals. Based on this result, we intend to apply the CPG to the interlimb coordination of hexapod locomotion.
