Step-out control for hexapod robot using leg-tip distance sensor and posture sensor

Abstract

Leg’s stepping off from a step leads a legged robot to falling down. This paper proposes a kind of reflex control against such the situation for a hexapod robot. The robot has a leg which has a distance sensor on the leg-tip and has a posture sensor on the body to detect leg’s stepping-off. When the robot detects stepping-off, it steps out the slipping leg forward. The amount of the stepping-out is determined based on a condition of kinematic and potential energy. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified via experiments in which a stationary standing robot steps off a step.